SS ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



know I havj got it in me, and, by God, some day it shall 

 come out." There is also the well-known story of 

 Lord Nelson, when commander of the Captain at the 

 Battle of St. Vincent, which was fou::^ht under Admiral 

 Jervis, Lord St. Vincent. One of Nelson's friends 

 condoled with him on his name being unfairly left out 

 of the despatch, when Nelson had done more than any 

 other commander to win that great battle. " Never 

 mind," was the reply, '' I'll have a Gazette of my own 

 some day." It recalls also the celebrated remark on 

 another occasion, " A peerage or Westminster Abbey." 

 Yet Sheridan and Nelson are not accused of conceit. 



I was once ver}^ intimate with a Mr. Venables, now 

 long passed away, who was a near relative of Alderman 

 Venables, of the City of London, the proprietor of large 

 paper-mills in the neighbourhood of High Wycombe. 

 He told me a most interesting anecdote of the early 

 life of Benjamin Disraeli. When they were boys 

 they often walked home together towards Bradenham, 

 where the elder Disraeli resided. One moonlight night, 

 Benjamin, wlio, like himself, was about fourteen years 

 of age, was unusually taciturn, walking moodily along, 

 when Venables asked him what he was thinking about. 

 "He answered, very slowly and deliberately, ' I am con- 

 sidering what I shall be. I mean to get myself talked 

 about.' 'How are you going to do that.'*' said L 

 ' Well, I shall write a book ; then I shall make some 

 speeches, and get into Parliament.' I laughed at him ; 

 and he then said, 'And I won't rest till I am made a 

 Privy Councillor.' " " I then told him," said Venables, 

 " not to talk such nonsense as that." 



