CHAPTER XXIX 



The Duke's cliair ruu into by a hackney-coach — Mrs. Billington and his 

 grace — ' How to live, after a ducal recipe ' — Notes thereon — The 

 'milk-bath' fable — Other references to his grace's regimen — Verses 

 on his supposed death, 1804. 



During March 1804, tlie Duke narrowly escaped 

 being upset and injured by a hackney-coach, which 

 was driven against his chair as he was returning from 

 the opera. This accident was humorously treated by 

 a writer of that time, who suggested highway robbery 

 as the motive for the attempt to upset his grace, who 

 was going home enriched with the ' notes ' of Mrs. 

 Billington. 



The friendship which existed between his grace 

 and Mrs. Billington was also a favourite theme of 

 many journalists of those times. A few days sub- 

 sequent to the event just narrated, one of these 

 remarks : ' The noble duke, who is learning his sol-fa 

 of Mrs. Billington, has not entered the musical school 

 at his advanced period of life with any view of reach- 

 ing the con amove style of execution; his grace, 



