86 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



Telegraph Cable, presented to me by Sir Charles Bright, 

 with a selection of exploded cartridges, sea-shells, ninepins, 

 and keys. In the vivid imagination of childhood, notwith- 

 standing, they represented all the luxuries dearest to the 

 palate of youth ; and if the Colonel, who, by the by, was in 

 full uniform, made from the supplement of the Times news- 

 paper, and was dccore with the Order of the String and 

 Penwiper, had partaken of a tithe of the delicacies pressed 

 on him, and according to the order In which they were 

 served, there must have been inevitably speedy promotion 

 in his regiment. The entertainment commenced with 

 cheese, passed on to hasty-pudding and beer, which was 

 followed in rapid succession by peaches, beef, roley-poley, 

 hare, more hasty-pudding, honey, apricots, boiled rabbits, 

 &c. " And, now. Colonel, dear," were the last words I 

 heard, " you shall have some custard and pine-apple, and 

 then we'll smoke a cigar."* 



* I cannot resist an impulse to record another small incident which oc- 

 cm"red to "Colonel" soon after the publication of this book. Late one 

 winter's night, Joe, my footman, heard him growling angrily outside the 

 stable-yard, and found him standing over the prostrate form of a man, or 

 rather beast, so drunk that he was muttering responses to the dog, evidently 

 under the impression that he was being severely reprimanded by some indig- 

 nant person in authority. " Well, si)-''^ (Joe heard him plead), '^ if I did say 

 so, Fin sure I didn't mean it ! " 



