202 NONSUIT 



were in any Avay connected with the " Rover," male or 

 female, were invited, that they might chuckle over their 

 assumed victory. But such is the uncertainty of the law, 

 that the jury, by the direction of the judge — who stated 

 that not being the aj)pointed coachman, the plaintiff" had 

 no rio[ht to drive — returned a verdict for the defendant in 

 the shape of a nonsuit. Thus was their famous rejoicing 

 turned into grief, as the plaintiff had to pay his friendly 

 adviser £140 for costs, while the defendant, calling no 

 witnesses, got off for fifteen, which sum was cheerfully 

 paid ; and the issue of the trial was celebrated by my 

 composing a song, in a rather homely but comic strain, 

 giving the whole affair in detail. 



This gave employment to the ballad singers of the town 

 for the remainder of the assize and a week or two after, 

 and the lyric was not forgotten on the road till the 

 " Rover " had ceased to run. 



It was about this time that I took up with or com- 

 menced another profession, that has outlived the last ; 

 and as the origin of so unexampled a conjunction may 

 not be uninteresting, I will give it a place here. Stopping 

 one morning in the early part of the month of October, at 

 the usual place to lunch, a young gentleman who had 

 been sitting behind, came and addressed me in a manner 

 more respectful than men in my position generally look 

 for ; and, calling me by name, said he had seen my son 

 yesterday. I understood him to mean my eldest son by 

 my second marriage, whom I had very early sent to an 

 excellent school in my o^vn native county. After this 

 introduction he told me that he had received his educa- 

 tion at the same academy — had been matriculated at 



