300 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



Nothing was heard of the matter for a while, but on 

 Valentine's Day I received a portentous document : 



liMctorfa 



By the Grace of God 



To WILLIAM GATE and EDWARD TARRY greeting 

 These are to command you, etc., etc. 



I had never seen a writ of the sort and at first took it 

 as somebody's practical joke ; but it soon transpired that 

 a Crown prosecution for libel on behalf of the Magistrates 

 had been instituted, and our printer and the cashier, who 

 was nominally publisher, weie the defendants. Poor old 

 Gate, who had long ceased to take any active part in his 

 printing business and lived happily down the Thames, 

 fishing, lost two stone in weight from anxiety before the 

 trial. The late Mr John Hollingshead, and others whom 

 I could name, called on me from time to time after this, 

 with strange stories about Middlesex Magistrates, but 

 always when asked if they would give evidence to that 

 effect they dried up ; and it became evident that we could 

 not fight the case, and must get out of it by apologies. 



I was not joined in the action, and in May that year I 

 sailed for New York on the old Etruria, then a new ship. 

 I had a very good time in America except when I spent a 

 fortnight at the Appalachian mine in North Carolina, 

 and even there the novelty was very interesting, though 

 there was nothing but unfiltered water to drink and very 

 little indeed to eat. To quote my own words written 

 at the time : 



Meat there is none. A lamb is killed for us as an experiment, 

 and the event is regarded as one of thrilling interest, but though 

 it is forthwith put down the mine to keep, it goes wrong the very 

 next day, and there is an end of it. No such thing as ice exists ; 

 the flies swarm in millions, and wood-ticks fasten on our legs and 

 bloat their bodies on our blood ; " jiggers " also abound and 

 find the bare feet of the niggers a happy hunting ground . Butter 

 is purely liquid and wholly abominable ; and o' nights, what time 

 we sit out of doors, clad but in two garments, and play whist, 

 consisting at last of double dummy, between me and the Colonel, 



