The Merry Past 



With the fair sex the buck was enterprising in the 

 extreme, but sometimes he met his match. 



A couple of dashing bucks having made violent love 

 to some girls who were inappreciative of their at- 

 tentions, the latter determined to rid themselves of 

 their importunities by a stratagem of a novel kind. 



They invited the young men to supper, and then 

 having procured and killed a tom-cat, the cook 

 flayed and washed it, dexterously cut it up, and with 

 proper seasoning put it into a pie. The beaux 

 were invited to supper, and had each partaken very 

 heartily of the pie, when the girl who did the honours 

 of the table, poked from the bottom of it the nether 

 extremity of poor Tom, curled up like a spitch-cocked 

 eel, and begged the two swains to pick a joint or two 

 of tail to finish with ! The latter beat a precipitate 

 retreat, and the story getting about, they were in 

 consequence so laughed and mewed at, that soon 

 both of them, to avoid the scoflings of the multitude, 

 were induced to quit the neighbourhood ! 



A more refined snub was that administered to the 

 youthful Marquis of Bath, who, when quite a stripling, 

 had behaved rather rudely to one of the chamber- 

 maids. The girl complained to his mother, who, 

 being extremely angry, the Marquis exclaimed, " Upon 

 my soul, mother, she had so neat an ankle, and so 

 pretty a foot, flesh and blood could not resist the 

 temptation." His mother, looking at him, said, " That 

 may be true — but skin and bones can have no such 

 excuse." Lord Bath was remarkably thin. 



According to a modern estimate a number of the 



171 



