xvi RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



CHAPTER XII 



I'ACiE 



News of the Battle of Waterloo — Difficulty and delay in getting 

 news at the beginning of the centur)' — The old Winslow 

 coach — ' The Dairy Maid ' — Report of the great battle 

 brought to my father — Doubts of its authenticity — Ringing the 

 church bells — Indignation of the vicar — Ultimate triumph of 

 my father — Then and now contrasted — ' Our own corre- 

 spondent ' . . . . . . . . . . 1 20 



CHAPTER XIII 



A famous hunting mare — The purchase : her infirmity, her great 

 beauty, and her matchless performances — Her docility and 

 extraordinary pace— Jem Mason — Harborough Brown — The 

 Creslow Brook — The beauty of the Vale of Aylesbury as a 

 hunting country — Famous run after a bag fox with Lord 

 Lonsdale's hounds — Captain Barlow — Lord Coventry — The 

 great water jump over the Broughton line of countr>' with the 

 'Varsity men — Accident to the mare — Partial recovery— Put 

 to the stud — Sudden death — Death of her foal by Hungerford 

 at four years old, and an end of the great huntress . . 1 24 



CHAPTER XIV 



Curious instance of life insurance — X, a specially fortunate specu- 

 lator in freehold property — His remarkable purchase of life in- 

 terest of a younger son of a peer — Death of the earl, of the heir, 

 with other deaths — The younger son heir to the earldom and 

 50,000/. a year — Enormous windfall to X — Hisnoblegenerosity 

 to the impecunious peer — His attempt to insure his life — Un- 

 warrantable refusal to appear before the company's doctor — 

 Sudden withdrawal of proposal by X — The end of X's career 137 



CHAPTER XV 



The Date Coffee Company — Discovery of the value of the date as 

 an infusion equal to the best coffee — Successful flotation — 

 Establishment of the patent — Manufacture of date coffee at 

 Kurrachee in India — The Imaum of Muscat — Rapid increase 

 in the consumption — Handsome profits — The French patent 

 and its sale — Flotation of German company — Sudden collapse 



