CARDSELLERS, TOUTS, AND AUGURS. 173 



CHAPTER X. 



CARDSELLERS, TOUTS, AND AUGURS. 



" The bell is ringing for the start : 



There's ' Sim' in blue and white, 

 With Heseltine in red, and ' Job' 



In lilac, and Cartwright ; 

 There's Holmes in blue and scarlet sleeves, 



And now I can descry 

 The tartan vest and yellow cap 

 Of Mr. Thomas Lye." 



Yorkshire Ballad. 



|jT is not many months since an Oxford under- 

 Ill graduate went to chapel on a " surplice evening/' 

 fresh from the joys of a wine-party. The anthem 

 was " Oh, that I had wings like a dove ! " and the 

 first few bars had scarcely been got through by the 

 choristers, when their half-" mesmerized" auditor 

 roused himself, and, utterly reckless of rustication 

 and its consequences, suddenly stretched out his 

 surpliced arms, and flapping them with a mighty 

 rushing sound, sung out at the very top of his voice 

 "Oh, that I had wings like a jolly, jolly duck I" 

 We have been told that his adjectives were still more 

 forcible ; but, great as was the consternation of the 

 college dons at this untoward event, it was not one 

 whit greater than that felt three-and- forty years be- 

 fore, by a large coterie of the Newmarketers, when 

 it first transpired that their quiet, red-faced little 

 chum, Dan Dawson Dan Dawson, who was always 

 so sociable with them over his pipe and pot in an 



