302 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present, 



own impression on the matter ? ^' " That there will be 

 immediate war^ unless urgent measures are taken to 

 prevent it/' " Nonsense, young man, nonsense ; there 

 will be no war ; we have Jjord, Stratford de Redcliffe's most 

 certain assurance of peace ; and he has but just left us/' 

 So Sir Hughes despatch was quietly ignored, drowned in 

 rivers of blood, not a drop of which probably would 

 have been shed, had not its advice been totally disre- 

 garded. But are not all these things written in the Blue 

 Books of that date ? 



In return for all the fatigue he had endured — the 

 sleepless nights and intolerable weariness of the days — 

 Mr. Wake received the same recompense as is awarded 

 by my Lord Judge to a body of Jurymen on the com- 

 pletion of their duties : " Gentlemen, there is nothing 

 further for you to do ; you are discharged, and the 

 country is obliged to you for your services.^' Too proud 

 to solicit any more substantial reward for a service — 

 worthy at least of the offer of governmental employment — 

 Mr. Wake entered the Militia of his county, hoping there- 

 by to obtain a commission in the Army. After serving 

 with his regiment at Gibraltar and in Ireland^ the 

 ^' would if he could be " soldier was suddenly called upon 

 by his father to lay aside his sword, and to exercise his 

 brains and his legal knowledge in tripping up a recent 

 Act of Parliament which was threatening a portion of 

 the family-property which lay in and about Epping 

 Forest. Having performed this duty satisfactorily, there 

 was now nothing for it but to hoist the sign of the '' Wig 

 and Gown,'^ and to seek for litigants on the look out for 

 the best legal advice. Before, however, he had had time 

 to get fairly fixed in his legal saddle, or to get a share 



