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who acquiesced in the establishment of the good old pro- 

 verb. — "Fair play is a jewel." 



The intrepid Davies is yet in the land of the living, 

 but in a very precarious state of health, possessing how- 

 ever a lively recollection of events and occurrences of other 

 and more prosperous days, when he was noted as one of 

 the keenest and most successful sportsman in the field. 

 His ardor in riding produced many mischances, but no 

 serious accident ever befel him. Once his horse and him 

 self were nearly engulphed in a quick sand swamp, and 

 escaped miraculously with prompt assistance at hand. At 

 another time, he and a friend turned sommersetts with 

 their horses over a bank, into a deep hollow covered with 

 brush wood and leaves of the forest, which broke the fall 

 and probably saved their necks, at the less expense of 

 rent garments and some rent skin. 



One day in an unguarded moment of desperate riding, 

 through a thicket, a hanging branch of the wild grape 

 vine, crossing his neck unhorsed him backwards, and for a 

 moment suspended him per coUum nearly after the manner 

 of Absalom. Although he escaped death, he thereby was 

 absent at the fox's. The fox vine lucklessly caught him, 

 instead of his taking the fox, which he thought secured. 

 So much for overweening confidence. The moral strongly 

 applies, to the prospective calculations of many fortune 

 securing speculators in these adventurous days. 



A large party of about thirty gentlemen, chiefly 

 strangers, many years ago rendevouz'd at Mrs. Marshall's 



