1773 FIRST PERIOD: CONCLUDED 163 



year by year to bursting-point, has ever since been 

 presented to a public undeterred by their ridiculous 

 expensiveness. 



Upon the death of Mr. Cheney (who was mortal) 

 in 1750 or 1751, his shoes were promptly stepped into 

 by a certain Reginald Heber (not to be confounded 

 with the perhaps equally celebrated Bishop, whose 

 pretty turn for hymn-writing is well known and still 

 appreciated). He, as we gather from his instructive 

 advertisements, combined the sale of ' mild York 

 River tobacco,' of stationery, of sporting and other 

 (somewhat mysteriously indicated, as if to suggest a 

 possibility of impropriety) pictures, with the business 

 of compiling and selling his ' Historical List of 

 Horse-matches, &c.,' in professed succession to Mr. 

 Cheney, first at Fulwood's Rents, Holborn, and then 

 elsewhere in the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane 

 and Long Acre. 



But, 'nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortali- 

 bus ' ; and Mr. Heber's succession to Mr. Cheney was 

 not secured without a struggle. There was a deter- 

 mined opposition made with a ' Sporting Kalendar ' 

 by Mr. John Pond (with whom and his equestrian 

 daughter we have already made acquaintance). He, 

 however, was worsted evidently in the contest, and it 

 is to be feared that he fell upon evil days, for in the 

 1 Obituary ' of 1786 it is recorded that his wife ' died 

 in Covent Garden Workhouse.' Mr. Heber, the vic- 

 torious, continued his publication by annual volumes 



M 2 



