"SELECT VESTRY" 173 



member of a small circle, who jjar excellence styled 

 themselves the " Select Vestry." The first and only rule 

 of this little club was — for I never heard any other 

 discussed — to meet every Saturday afternoon at Uncle 

 Barefoot' s, as they termed the host of a small but 

 respectable hotel in the town — to partake of a dinner, 

 cooked in first-rate stvle, to which I was to contribute the 

 fish, as my portion of the expense, which I invariably 

 did, fresh from Billingsgate that morning. The wine was 

 of the best quality, which Uncle was always careful to 

 bring up in flannel from the cellar, with a Bacchanalian 

 smile upon his sporting old visage, and a joyfal twinkle 

 in his eye, knowing that he was about to partake of it. 



Though much their senior in age, I cannot say but that 

 I delighted very much in the society of these young men ; 

 for, while enlivened by mirth and wit, their conversation 

 and demeanour were always such as became gentlemen, 

 and I never witnessed any tendency to excess. One of 

 them in particular, I remember, the nephew of an Earl 

 well known for his great popularity and the high respect 

 universally entertained for him,^ possessed a vein of 

 drollerv in his conversation and manner that would 

 sometimes keep us in a roar of laughter. 



Dining once with this o-entleman in his rooms at 

 Christ's College, when others of his acquaintance had 

 assembled, I was much surprised at an exploit that I 

 never before saw equalled. The cloth being removed, the 

 dessert was brought in on a tray, by a respectable-looking, 

 elderly man, who, after depositing dish after dish with 

 great precision as to their relative positions, was about to 



1 The late Earl Pitzwilliam. 



