The Merry Past 



Honour the King ; Love your neighbour ; and pre- 

 serve your foxes ! " 



In conversation they were, to use a mild expression, 

 somewhat blunt, and did not scruple to call a spade a 

 spade. 



A certain squire who had just married, was, in 

 due time, blessed with a fine thumping boy. The 

 neighbours were all very kind in their enquiries after 

 the infant and its mother, to which the usual answer 

 of " As well as can be expected " was returned. This 

 did not satisfy two old maiden ladies, who wished to 

 know which the child resembled — ^papa or mamma ? 

 The squire politely informed them that, at that early 

 age, it was impossible to determine the point. In 

 a short time, however, they repeated the question, 

 when he sent them word that, for their satisfaction, 

 he had just been examining his child, and that " he 

 was very like his father before, and very like his 

 mother behind." This ended the correspondence. 



Perhaps the worst fault of these men of another 

 age was their heavy drinking, which sent not a few 

 of them to a comparatively early grave, though many 

 a one counteracted the evil effects of his Bacchanalian 

 habits by an open-air life, and lived to a green old 

 age. 



The general sign of the influence of their deep 

 potations upon these squires was their becoming 

 very noisy, hallooing, and tally-ho-ing, and when in 

 an advanced state of this kind it was most difficult 

 to move them or get them to bed. One of them being 

 once asked to withdraw from the table and join the 



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