Thomas Godwin. 361 



sacred to the shade of Tom Sebright, in 1786, and 

 owed his education to the village school. Out of 

 doors he became a capital swimmer and skater ; and 

 his diving abilities were of such a high order, that 

 the " diving dog of Moscow " might have been jealous 

 of him. As it was, a Newfoundland entertained 

 some such feeling, and, seizing him as he rose to the 

 surface at about the 999th essay of throwing himself 

 into the water with the smallest possible impression, 

 very nearly shook the life out of him. When very 

 young, he entered the service of Earl Carysfort as 

 second postillion, and had such a nice seat and hand 

 that he was soon made second horseman, and dis- 

 tinguished himself early by leading throughout a run, 

 on Taffy, from Elton New Closes to Yaxley. His 

 lordship went as straight as a bird, but suffered heavily 

 from asthma ; and at times he would almost be hang- 

 ing on, gasping, by the bridle, till Godwin could dis- 

 mount and adminster the soothing dose which he 

 always carried with him. 



One of Godwin's first pieces of sleight-of-hand, and 

 one that he always loved to recount, was drilling a 

 horse, which would never approach the steps of the 

 front door to be mounted ; and he seldom failed to 

 cap it with how he swam his own and his lordship's 

 horse across some flooded meadows, while my lord 

 took to the foot-bridge. The late Earl Fitzwilliam more 

 than once asked him to take a whip's place, but he 

 liked his present berth better. He gradually rose to 

 be head groom at Lord Carysfort's, and made his 

 first acquaintance with Lancashire by his trips across 

 the Channel to his lordship's Irish estates. The sight 

 of the Mersey never failed to elicit a word to the 

 memory of Vandyke, one of his master's stud, which 

 jumped overboard about a mile from Liverpool. The 

 vessel's pace was not great at the time, and the horse 

 swam in its furrow like " the bold shark," and was only 

 beaten a few lengths to the pier-head. He was none 



