218 



Who could pronounce upon its quality with more nicety than W -, his 



taste as excellent in the choice of wines as his judgment with regard to 

 the great staples of the country? 



Not to omit in this limited enumeration another of our boon com- 

 panions, who in his day certainly "has done the Club some service, and 

 they know it," who does not remember kindly the Old Governor^ as he 

 was called for many years? "Who that knew him intimately did not 

 readily respond to the generous sentiment : 



" With all thy faults, I love thee still !" 



In a difBculty, what safer friend to apply to, either in coimsel or on the 

 5eld ? In respect to the laws of honor, he was a peripatetic professor, 

 and has bequeathed a valuable legacy to the young and inexperienced, 

 by leaving behind him a "Code of Honor" for the world. 



We can hardly avoid recalling others, but I will not further seek their 

 merits to disclose. We must be satisfied " to picture them in memory's 

 mellowing glass," identified with some parti(.'ular revelry during race 

 week, when every one seemed content to enjoy for the day, and to 

 take no thought for the morrow — when merriment ended not with part- 

 ing light, but continued through the wakeful night — the huge " Wassail 

 Boivl" oft replenished, smoking upon the table — a royal mixture, 

 worthy the royal — the lemons squeezed and the sugar stirred, and the 

 rightful quantity of the "sme qua non''^ determined by one of no less a 

 degree than a worthy descendant of the illustrious house of the Stuarts, 

 who, as soon as the compound was adjudged complete, satisfactory to 

 his taste, always threw his arms affectionately about the capacious bowl, 

 in a loving embrace, and brought it into the room, looking as if (the 

 concoction being his ow^n good oflspi'ing) he had a natural right, with 

 honest pride, not only to think much of it himself, but to expect others 

 to do so likewise. Every shake he gave it seemed given to it on pur- 

 pose only to make it waft its odors more and more, like incense to the 

 senses, and then the boon companions assembled on the occasion, " like 

 brethren delighting to dwell together in unity," how they would, with 

 one accord, honor the fragrant aroma as it passed in aromatic vapor 

 from nose to nose, making the very air ambrosial. Some would sip, 

 and sip again, and so#ne would smoke — one would sing and another 

 give a toast, and instantly a fresh joke would be started, the table ring- 

 ino" and roaring, not with a kind of heartless merriment, as if it was of 

 a substance so thin as to have been previously squeezed and strained, 



