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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 5 



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. 



IT is not many years since an Oxford under- 

 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 !" 

 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 



