138 THE EXETER ROAD 



That kind of person is quite extinct now. They 

 should have (Imt unfortunately they have not) a 

 stuffed specimen iii the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington ; because he is numbered with the 

 Dodo, the Plesiosaurus, and the Mastodon. The 

 Marquis of AVinchester who flourished at the same 

 period as my Lords Huntingtower and Waterford w^as 

 of the same stamp. He had the fiery Port Countenance 

 which was the sign of the three-bottle man, and his 

 life and the deeds that he did are still fondly re- 

 membered at Andover, for his country-house was at 

 Amport, in the immediate neighbourhood. He was 

 the Premier Marquis of England, and although up to 

 his neck in mortgages and writs, an extremely Great 

 Personage. Let us, therefore, take our hats off as 

 liuml)ly as we know how to do. 



When he was at his country-place he worshipped 

 at the little village church of Amport. Sometimes he 

 did not worship, but slept, lulled off to the Land of 

 Nod by the roaring fire he kept in his room-like pew. 

 On one occasion it chanced that he was wide awake, 

 and, like the illustrious Sir Roger de Coverley, leant 

 upon the door of that pew, and gazed around to satisfy 

 himself that all his tenantry were present. Then an 

 awful thing happened, the hinges of the door broke, 

 and it fell with a great clatter to the ground, and the 

 Marquis with it. He said ' Damn ! ' with great fervour 

 and unction, and everybody laughed. No one thought 

 it — as they should have done — shocking, which shows 

 the depravity of the age. 



There is no doubt whatever about that depravity, 

 which, like the worm in the bud, has wrought ruin 



