Dining on one occasion at Carlton-house, it is said that, after the
bottle had for some time circulated, his good-humoured volubility
suddenly ceased, and he seemed for a time to be wholly lost in thought.
While he "chewed the cud" in this ruminating state, his illustrious host
remarked his very unusual quiescency, and interrupted it by inquiring
the subject of his meditation. "I have been reflecting, Sir," replied
the colonel, "on the lofty independence of my present situation. I have
compromised with my creditors, paid my washerwoman, and have three
shillings and sixpence left for the pleasures and necessities of life,"
exhibiting at the same time current coin of the realm, in silver and
copper, to that amount, upon the splendid board at which he sat.
Having occasion to express his gratitude to his friend and patron for
his nomination to a situation under government (which, had he been
prudent, might have sufficed for genteel support), it is said that the
royal personage condescended to observe, on the colonel's expatiating
on the advantages of his office, that "now he was rich, he would so
far impose upon his hospitality as to dine with him;" at the same time
insisting on the repast being any thing but extravagant. "I shall give
your royal highness a leg of mutton, and nothing more, by G----," warmly
replied the gratified colonel, in his plain and homely phrase. The day
was nominated, and the colonel had sufficient time to recur to his
budget and bring his ways and means into action. Where is the
sanguineless being whose hopes have never led him wrong? if such there
be, the colonel was not one of those. Long destitute of credit and
resources, he looked upon his appointment as the incontestable source of
instant wealth, and he hesitated not to determine upon the forestalment
of its profits to entertain the "first gentleman in England." But, alas!
agents and brokers have flinty hearts. There were doubts (not of his
word, for with creditors that he had never kept), but of the accidents
of life, either naturally, or by one of those casualties he had depicted
in the front of his book. In short, the day approached--nay, actually
arrived, and his pockets could boast little more than the once vaunted
half-crown and a shilling. Here was a state sufficient to drive one of
less strength of mind to despair. As a friend, a subject, a man of
honour, and one who prided himself upon a tenacious adherence to his
word (when the aforesaid creditors were not concerned), he felt keenly
all the horrors of his situation.
The day arrived, and etiquette demanded that the proper officer should
examine and report upon the nature of the expected entertainment, a duty
that had been deferred until a late hour of the day. Well was it that
the confiding prince had not wholly dispensed with that form; for verily
the said officer found the colonel, with a dirty scullion for his aide
du camp, in active and zealous preparation for his royal visiter; his
shirt sleeves tucked up, while he ardently basted the identical and
solitary "leg of mutton" as it revolved upon the spit: potatoes were to
be seen delicately insinuated into the pan beneath to catch the rich
exudation of the joint; while several tankards of foaming ale, and what
the French term "bread à discretion," announced that, in quantity, if
not in quality, he had not been careless in providing for the
entertainment of his illustrious guest. Although the colonel's culinary
skill leaves no doubt that the leg of mutton would have sustained
(according to Mr. Hunt's elegant phraseology) critical discussion on its
intrinsic merits, or on its concoction; and although the dinner might
have been endured by royalty (of whose homely appetite the ample
gridiron at Alderman Combe's brewery then gave ample proof), yet his
royal highness's poodles would assuredly have perspired through every
pore at the very mention of what a certain nobleman used to term a
"jig-hot;" so the feast was dispensed with, and due acknowledgment made
for the evident proofs of hospitality which had been displayed.
After various vicissitudes of life and fortune, in Hanger's advanced
age, a coronet became his, and it came opportunely; for he had at length
learned experience, and knowing the value of the competence he had
obtained, he resolved to enjoy it. He had had enough of fashion; and had
proved all its allurements. So he took a small house in a part of
earth's remoter regions, no great way from Somers' Town, near which
stood a public-house he was fond of visiting, and there, as the price of
his sanction, and in acknowledgment of his rank, a large chair by the
fire-side was exclusively appropriated to the peer.--_New Monthly
Magazine._
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