224 PATRON, 



But the chief benefit I derived from 

 it that is, what I most valued was 

 the introduction it gave me to one 

 whose noble and generous heart was 

 warmed by the blood that had flowed in 

 the veins of magnates of the land ever 

 since the Conquest. He himself was a 

 votary of the Muses, and exercised his 

 pen in composing a few lines in a laughable 

 strain, on so strange a display as Pegasus 

 in harness, or a coach and four, attempting 

 to climb Olympus. Those lines I have lost, 

 unfortunately, though they led to a corres- 

 pondence that terminated only with the 

 loss of sight of the fine old Field-Marshal,* 

 who, if he did not emulate the deeds of his 

 famous brother-in-arms in the field, did, by 

 his actions, conciliate the goodwill and esteem 

 of all with whom he came in contact, and 

 was soon after one of my principal patrons. 



The success that attended this my first 

 and accidental effort induced me to pursue 



* Field-Marshal Thomas Grosvenor. 



