THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



line in which he figured. This is Captain Askham, holding 

 his commission in one of our heavy dragoon regiments, whose 

 history is nearly this : — 



At the age of twenty-one, he succeeded to an estate, the 

 clear rental of which was £8000 a year, and a considerable 

 sum of ready money as well, he having been for several years 

 a minor. His passion was, tlie road ; he had never less than 

 three, often four, teams at work at the same time ; and at one 

 period, when quartered at the distance of nearly 100 miles 

 from London, had the ground absolutely ' covered,' as the 

 term is, among coach proprietors, with his own horses, and 

 amused himself and his friends by driving his coach between 

 London and the town in which he was quartered, whenever his 

 inclination prompted him. The pace, as may be imagined, 

 was an awful one ; I allude not to the rate at which the drag 

 travelled, but to that at which the cash found its exit out of 

 the Captain's pocket ; for champagne, at sixteen shillings a 

 bottle, was the ordinary ' allowance ' on the road, to say nothing 

 for the et ceterca^ in London. But, nil violentum est perpetuum, 

 there was soon a stop to those proceedings ; and here is the 

 best part of the story, which cannot fail to create a smile. The 

 Captain, like our hero, had a rich uncle, own brother to his 

 father ; and having made his fortune in trade, was the more 

 readily alarmed at the accounts he heard of his coaching 

 nephew's proceedings, especially so on finding that his bills 

 ,and bonds were in the market, with a rumour, now and then, 

 that even expectations from himself, at his decease, were 

 anticipated in his dealings with the money-lending crew. 



' Now something must be done,' said the uncle to himself, ' to 

 save this nephew of mine from perdition ; perhaps the best step 

 I can take will be to surprise him in his folly, and at once con- 

 vince him of its consequences.' Acting upon this suggestion, he 

 put himself into the mail ; and hearing, on his arrival in London, 

 where his nephew was then domiciled for the week, namely, 

 at a celebrated and most expensive inn, not fifty miles from 

 London, the following dclaircisseme^if took place on his entering 

 the stable-yard of the same : — 



' Whose coach is that ? ' said he to a man having the 

 appearance of a helper in a stable. ' Captain Askham's, 

 sir,' was the reply. ' And tJtat ? ' continued the uncle. 

 'Captain Askham's, sir,' answered the helper. 'And that 



118 



