'IRtmro^' 177 



These scholastic attainments procured for Mr Thomas 

 Apperley, the post of tutor to the Sir Watkin Williams 

 Wynn of the period at a salary of ^500 a year, and with 

 his pupil he did the Grand Tour just before the outbreak 

 of the French Revolution. His two sons were sent to 

 Rugby, then under the head-mastership of Dr James. 

 In his autobiographical sketch, ' Life and Times of" Nim- 

 rod," ' which appeared in Fraser's Magazine, the author 

 gives a vivid description of Rugby School as it was in 

 his day. ' A loose place, and especially so as to drinking, 

 in which some boys indulged to great excess.' 



In that memorable 'Ninety-eight' which Irishmen 

 have just celebrated in characteristic fashion, young 

 Apperley played an active part. He had joined Sir 

 Watkin Wynn's regiment of yeomanry, which was de- 

 spatched to Ireland to assist in quelling the rebellion, and 

 acquitted itself so vigorously as to earn from the exas- 

 perated rebels the nickname of ' The Bloody Britons.' 

 The way in which on one occasion they charged through 

 a blazing village gained for the men the admiration and 

 congratulation of the commander-in-chief, who was a 

 witness of the daring feat. So severe were the losses of 

 the regiment, that in less than eighteen months, 

 ' Nimrod,' who joined as youngest cornet, had risen to be 

 senior lieutenant. But perhaps the less said the better 

 about the incidents of that ignoble and fratricidal strife. 



At the age of two and twenty ' Nimrod ' took to him- 

 self a wife, the daughter of Mr William Wynn of 

 Penarth, Merionethshire, a cousin of Sir Watkin. The 

 lady had a comfortable dowry, enough, her husband 

 thought, with his talents as a horsebreaker to enable 

 him to live in the style of a country gentleman. They 

 started housekeeping at Hinckley in Leicestershire, where 



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