AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 9 



me off from Cheltenham ; the Honourable Juliana Thistleton 



would haunt me in Hastings ; the Dowager of and her 



protegee abide in the pleasant town of Brighton ; and my Lord 

 Leatherby has taken out a sort of roving commission, to infest 

 every retirement of fashionable repute ; and from his cunning 

 inquiries as to the particular point, seaside or suburban, to 

 which I purpose to remove, I perceive I am as deliberately 

 doomed to matrimony by this relentless nobleman, as ever a 

 country bonnet -maker was devoted to destruction by an immoral 

 captain of horse. 



And shall I fall without a struggle to avert my fate ? forbid 

 it honour ! Yes, my determination is fixed I will counteract 

 this conspiracy against my freedom, and call my Connaught 

 cousin " to the rescue." He is a determined duellist, and has 

 been regularly jilted consequently he abominates the sex (I 

 hope) and will protect me from the widow ; while his truculent 

 propensities for the pistol will keep the Peer at a distance. 

 Adieu ! I'll write anon thine always. 



CHAPTER II. 



Letters An Escape Connaught Topographical and Moral Description 

 Ballinasioe A Virtuous and Flourishing Town A Bible Meeting 

 and Radical Reform. 



1 APPRIZED you in my last letter, that in this my hour of need, 

 I would seek succour from my Irish kinsman. I wrote to him 

 accordingly, implored him to abandon his mountain den and 

 join me at Lai worth Park. To my invitation I received a 

 decisive, and I would almost say, insulting refusal ; " He hated 

 puppies, avoided flirts, was neither a fool or a fortune, and 

 therefore had no business with such society as I should expose 

 him to." The man appears to be a misanthrope ; I gave him in 

 return a tart rejoinder, and he seems disinclined to remain my 

 d btor. Hear what he says : 



" Francis, I pity thee ! Like the Moor, your 'occupation's 

 gone/ and your letter seals your condemnation. 



" You talk of exercise : pshaw ! what is it ? You knock 

 some party-coloured balls over the smooth surface of a green 



