CHAPTER III 



OXFORD 



King Charles — An Indiscreet Act — A New Country Proprietor — The 

 Cheltenham Coach — Scions of the Nobility — An Unexpected 

 Interview — The Eoebuck — Bishop Atterbury — Horse-dealing — 

 Fire and Water — Hydropathic Cure — Eeflections — Piccadilly — 

 The Black Dog at Bedfont — A Compromise — An Old Acquain- 

 tance — Henley-on-Thames — An Eclipse of the Sun — An Un- 

 natural Son — Full Stop. 



King Charles the First has been made to state that 

 in mundane affairs there is no such thing as fortune or 

 misfortune, but that all is either discretion or indiscretion. 

 No man had a greater right to say so than that unfortu- 

 nate monarch. I must have been the most indiscreet man 

 alive ; for all the exertions I ever made, all I ever under- 

 took or did, to extricate myself from the slough into 

 which untoward circumstances had driven me, only served 

 to plunge me further in the mire. 



The person who had succeeded my father in the large 

 establishment I have before spoken of, and who became a 

 very wealthy man — partly, if not chiefly, from my father's 

 ruin, which he had been the principal means of accom- 

 plishing — had promised to assist me in my endeavours to 

 regain my position ; and I Avas simple enough to believe 

 him, and put faith in his promises. This was a folly on 



