xviii REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



the Coldstream Guards, it was six feet one and a quarter. 

 For seven -and -twenty years I have never varied in weight 

 more than eight or nine pounds; my average weight being 

 thii-teen stone : and, so to speak, even now, as age advances, 

 , I have not an ounce of superfluous flesh about me. Age 

 does advance, though: I see it in the "crow's-foot" on my 

 face; it is evident by the snows that are falling among my 

 hair; and, most of all, I feel it in not being able to quit 

 the ground as I used to do, when desirous of jumping over 

 an obstacle. Otherwise I am as much pleased with hunting 

 a mouse or rat, fishing for a gudgeon or perch, when no 

 other pastime is to be had, as I used to be when a boy ; 

 and this fondness for the most trivial sport I treasure, 

 for it would be melancholy to find that, one by one, the 

 humours of youth were departing. Enough, alas ! will 

 depart, whether we like it or not, that once rendered life 

 agreeable : I therefore bid the aging and aged, as the might 

 of their limbs leaves them, to cling, if they can, to the calm 

 contemplation of nature ; to the singing-bird, the flower, and 

 the fossil. To see an old beau, with a bald head bobbing 

 about like an apple on the sea, or a di-eadful wig, dancing, 

 anxious to leave the ball before daylight and the growth 

 of the white stubble on his chin contrasts with the deadly 

 hue of his stained and blue-tinted whiskers — that " ruling 

 passion, strong in death," — used to be to me, as a young 

 man, so disgusting, that, long before I had a white hair 

 in my head I resolved such a sin should never be laid at 

 my door. 



In concluding this preface, which has already c<arried 



