we rode along we passed two or three parties who were on foot, and who had
got the start of us; but we soon reached farmer Edward Vezey's, of Grove,
upon whose farm we intended to take our day's sport. As we had ridden a
distance of four or five miles the sun was now up, and as we heard several
shots fired we put up our horses and proceeded immediately to the field;
being too eager sportsmen to wait to take the breakfast which Mrs. Vezey
had prepared for us. The farmer informed us that the game was very
plentiful; and when we entered the first stubble field, we saw a nide of
fourteen pheasants run into the hedge row. This was a fine earnest of our
sport; and as I had never before been a shooting where they were so
plenty, I expressed great anxiety to begin the slaughter without delay.
The farmer, however, checked my ardour, and increased my surprise when he
told me that he had ten such nides upon his farm. The sport began; and,
having a double barrelled gun, I killed a brace, a cock and a hen; my
friend and the farmer both missed. The latter requested me not to kill
hens, as he would procure me plenty of shots at cocks. We had with us my
dogs, which were staunch and steady, and they were now pointing again. I
brought down a brace of cocks with another double shot. My friends both
missed again, and laughed heartily at each other; particularly when they
found that I was sure to kill enough for all the party. As we proceeded I
killed a leash more, so that I had three brace and a half out of the first
nide of fourteen. Several of the others had been marked down, and the
farmer said we were sure to find them all again; but I proposed to look
for fresh birds, instead of following those which had escaped. This was
agreed to; and, at the further end of the very next field which we
entered, we discovered another set running into the hedge row. When ten
o'clock arrived I proposed a cessation of hostilities, that we might
retire and take some breakfast; for I declared that I was ashamed to kill
any more. I had had twenty shots, and had bagged nine brace and a half of
cocks and one hen pheasant; having been lucky enough, as my dogs brought
all their game, to save every bird without a feather being scarcely
rumpled. My friends had thirty shots between them, and had killed one
bird; in fact, they were altogether as bad shots as I was a good
one.--Though, during the whole time, we had not been a quarter of a mile
from the house, yet, I believe that while I was out, I heard at least a
hundred shots fired--so thickly were we surrounded with the rotten borough
sportsmen and their friends. After this we returned to the farmer's house,
where Mrs. Vezey had provided an excellent breakfast, not only for us but
for my dogs, which were caressed as prodigies; and the game, consisting of
ten brace of cock pheasants and a hen, was spread in triumph on the floor.
Having enjoyed such a breakfast as keen sportsmen are accustomed to take,
in the course of which we talked over the feats of the morning, and
bestowed many well earned encomiums upon the staunchness and sagacity of
my dogs, my friends proposed to start again for the field, till dinner
time. I, however, positively refused to budge an inch, declaring that I
would not fire another shot that day. I was, I told them, more than
content with having killed ten brace of pheasants in one day, and
therefore I would remain at home with Mrs. Vezey, till they returned. They
tried hard to prevail upon me to accompany them, but I resisted their
entreaties: they then endeavoured to rally me out of my plan, but I had
made up my mind not to go out again, and consequently all their bantering
was of no avail. I was not to be moved even by the good humoured jokes of
the farmer, about my remaining alone with his wife; and, finding me to be
immoveable, they set out by themselves. At length they returned, bringing
with them one solitary pheasant, though they acknowledged that they had
had ten shots each; and they were afterwards candid enough to confess that
the dogs had actually caught that. Nothing daunted by their bad shooting,
after they had dined and taken a sufficient quantity of good old stingo,
and once more tried in vain to persuade me to bear them company, they
sallied forth again, for the evening's sport; the best time of the day for
pheasant shooting. About eight o'clock they came back, but they had only
killed another pheasant, notwithstanding they assured me that they had
actually seen above one hundred. Thus had these two sportsmen only killed
three pheasants in the whole day, having had between them upwards of
_fifty shots;_ while I had killed ten brace at twenty shots, in about
three hours. Of course I laughed at them heartily; in which I was joined
most sincerely by Mrs. Vezey. I am quite certain that if I had continued
in the field, and followed up the sport as my friends did, I should have
killed _fifty_ pheasants instead of _twenty;_ and that too without having
made them appear much thinned, so plentiful was the game in that country.
After spending a very pleasant evening, we returned to Marlborough, where
I slept with my friend Hancock, and shot my way home the next day; having,
previously to my setting out, _equally divided the game_ between the
_three_, which was always the case in those friendly parties where I made
one of the number.
This account has, I dare say, appeared to the reader to be a digression
upon a trivial subject, but I shall now show him that the seemingly
trifling circumstance which I have been narrating, led to a very important
event of my life. About four or five days after this, I received a letter
from Lord BRUCE, merely saying, "that my services were no longer required
in the Marlborough Troop of Yeomanry, and he, therefore, requested that I
would return my _sword and pistols_ by the bearer." I wrote a brief
answer, to say that I was astonished at his communication, but that I
should attend on the next field-day, for an explanation, and that I should
not fail to bring my arms with me. I own that I was at a loss to
conjecture the cause of this unceremonious and laconic epistle of his
lordship, and I conjured up a hundred imaginary reasons for this abrupt
dismissal of me from his Troop of Yeomanry. I had been in it for many
months; I had never been once _fined_, or received the slightest reprimand
from his lordship or either of the other officers; nor could I recollect
any one instance in which I had either failed to perform or neglected my
duty as a soldier. But, though I could not recollect this, I now
recollected the last sad foreboding words of my dying father--_"I only
wish I could have lived to see you well out of the Yeomanry Cavalry!"_
On the following day came a letter from my friend, Hancock, the banker,
which unriddled the mystery. He informed me that he also had received a
similar communication from our colonel, Lord Bruce; that he knew of the
dismissal which had been sent to me, and that it was a current report
amongst the tools of Lord Aylesbury, at Marlborough, that we were
dismissed from the troop, because we had shot so many pheasants on the
first of October, upon one of his lordship's manors: what I meant to do on
the subject, he was, he said, desirous to know, as he should like to go
hand in hand with me; at the same time vowing vengeance against our
colonel. I sent him a copy of the answer which I had written to his
lordship, and apprised him that I would be at his house early on the
morning of the next field-day, in my uniform, as usual, to accompany him
to the place of exercise.
The day arrived, and we rode together to the field where we used to
perform our evolutions. It was upon one of the plains in Savernake Forest,
about half a mile from his lordship's house, but within full view of it.
When we reached the ground the troop was assembling, and _we_ fell into
the ranks as formerly, to the utter astonishment of his lordship's
vassals, who composed a great portion of the troop, and who had heard of
our being discharged or dismissed, or, in plainer terms, turned out of the
troop by the colonel.
After we had remained a little time, one of his lordship's _toad-eaters_
came to reconnoitre; and, as soon as he discovered us in the ranks, he
retreated to carry the astounding intelligence to his patron. Messages now
passed backwards and forwards, from the troop to his lordship's house, for
nearly an hour before he made his appearance; a delay which had never
before occurred. The cause was not only anticipated by Hancock and myself,
but by all the members of the troop, and just as I was proposing to march
to his lordship, since he did not appear disposed to come to us, he at
last made his appearance, riding on his charger with slow and solemn pace.
I have since understood that, during this delay, several messages passed
between his lordship's house, Savernake Lodge, and Tottenham Park, the
seat of his father, the Earl of Aylesbury. Before I proceed, it may not,
perhaps, be amiss to make the reader acquainted with the origin of this
business. It turned out that Lord Bruce had been induced to write the
aforesaid letters to me and Mr. Hancock at the earnest suggestion of his
father, Lord Aylesbury, who had prevailed upon him, much against his own
inclination and better judgment, to turn us out of the troop; though he
had no other complaint to make against me but that I was too good a shot
at his father's pheasants, and consequently a very unfit person to oppose
the French in case of an invasion. His lordship saw and felt the
difficulty of his situation, and for a long time he held out against the
entreaties of his father; but the old earl was inexorable, and I am told
that his mandate was at length delivered in such a _tone_ and such a
manner, that his son did not feel it prudent to resist any longer. The
particulars I subsequently learned from one of the keepers, who was
present at the interview when the earl came down from London; which I
understand he did on purpose. Some envious and cringing tool of his
lordship's having heard of our successful day's sport at Grove, on the
first of October, wrote up to him an exaggerated account of it, stating
that I, in company with Mr. Hancock, had killed an immense number of
pheasants upon his lordship's manors; but at the same time this worthy
intelligencer took care not to state where, and upon what manor we had
been sporting. The old earl, who was the most tenacious, perhaps, about
his game of any man in England, no sooner got the letter than he came post
from town, in a great passion; and when he arrived at Tottenham, he
immediately summoned all his keepers, to demand an account of their
conduct for suffering his game to be destroyed in such a way. It was in
vain that they all declared that we had not been into or near any of his
preserves; that we had only been shooting upon a distant manor, where his
lordship did not even appoint a keeper; and which manor he had expressly
appropriated for the sport of the people of _his Borough_ of Marlborough,
and their friends. This was all to no purpose; he would hear no excuse;
and as soon as he found that we were in his son's troop of Yeomanry, he
dispatched a messenger for him. In the mean time he threw himself into the
most violent fits of passion with the keepers; so much so, that he was
frequently obliged to retire and recruit himself, by reclining upon a
sofa, and when he had recovered his strength a little, he returned to the
charge again with redoubled violence. The keeper, who was my informant,
assured me that several times they were fearful, or, more correctly
speaking, expected that he would break a blood vessel, by giving himself
up to such unbounded fury. It seems the family at Tottenham did not know
of the precaution that is used upon such occasions, by a testy old baronet
of this county, who does not live a hundred miles from Stoneaston, which I
am credibly informed is as follows--whenever the baronet has one of these
sudden and violent paroxysms of passion, which is not very unfrequently,
her ladyship prevails upon him to sit down while she pours copious
libations of cold water over his head, as the only means of cooling his
blood, and saving him from the rupture of a blood vessel upon the brain.
At length his lordship's son, Lord Bruce, arrived, and the same scene was
repeated; and it is said, that nothing but a promise from the gallant
Colonel of the Wiltshire Regiment of Yeomanry, that he would immediately
write to me and Mr. Hancock, and dismiss us from his troop, would pacify
the old earl. This promise was performed in the way which I have
described, by his lordship writing to each of us, to say "that he had no
further occasion for our services." But now to return to the troop, which
we left drawn up on the field of exercise: our colonel having at length
arrived in the front of the ranks, he continued to direct his eyes quite
to the opposite flank to that in which I was, and I could never catch his
eye directed even askance towards me. After a considerable delay, the
serjeant pulled out the roll-call, with which he proceeded till he came to
the number filled by my name; he passed it over, and began to utter the
name of the next man; but the name was scarcely half out of his lips, when
I put spurs to my charger, and brushed up so furiously to him, that he
reined back several paces ere he stopped; which he had scarcely done, with
my horse's head almost in his lap, before I sternly demanded by whose
authority he had passed over my name? In a tremulous voice he stammered
out, that "it was done by order of Lord Bruce." I wheeled my horse
suddenly round, and his head coming across the serjeant's breast nearly
unhorsed him. I then rode briskly up to Lord Bruce, who reined his charger
back also. I saluted him as my officer, and firmly demanded by what
authority, or for what cause, he had given orders to have my name struck
out of the muster-roll? Conscious of being about to persist in a
dishonourable and unworthy act, after hesitating a little, he said, "Pray,
Sir, did you not receive a letter from me?" I hastily answered, "Yes, and
I am here to demand in person an explanation, and to know what charge you
have to make against me, either as a soldier or a gentleman." He now
seemed still more confused, and he looked everywhere except in my face. He
then cast his eyes towards the troop, as much as to say, will you not
protect me? will you not assist to get me out of this dilemma? but all was
as silent as the grave, and every eye was fixed upon him. At length he
mustered courage to say, _"I make no charge against you; neither do I feel
myself called upon to give you any reason for my conduct. I--I, as
commanding officer of this regiment, have a right to receive any man into
it, or to dismiss any man from it, without assigning any reason for my so
doing."_
This was a critical moment of my life. It is in vain now to lament my want
of discretion. I was young--I was devoted to the service of my country--I
was a soldier--I was insulted without the shadow of a pretext to justify
the insult--I was wounded in the most tender part--my patriotic zeal! At
such a moment I could take no counsel of cold, calculating prudence. I
sternly replied, "then, my lord, you are no longer my officer--you have
offered me a deliberate insult, which it seems you are not prepared to
explain or apologise for; I therefore demand that satisfaction which is
due from one gentleman to another; and mark me well, unless you give me
that satisfaction I will post you as a coward:" upon which I took my
pistols from the holsters, and was taking my sword from the belt, in order
to cast them with defiance at his horse's feet, these arms being the only
thing that I possessed belonging to the government. Expecting, perhaps,
that I was going to make use of them in a different way, his lordship
wheeled suddenly round, and clapping spurs to his charger, he was, without
once looking behind him, soon out of sight; he having wheeled into the
gateway of Savernake Lodge, his lordship's residence.
While this was passing, I had hurled the sword and the brace of pistols
upon the ground, and my friend Hancock had moved out of the ranks and come
up to me. As long as our gallant commander was visible I kept my eyes
fixed upon him; and when, on his disappearance, I looked round, I found
the whole troop staring with astonishment, which, when they had recovered
from a little, was followed by a general laugh. My friend Hancock was
talking loud and in rather a coarse way, which I checked; and then riding
up to the centre, in the front of the troop, I addressed my comrades,
something in the following strain:--"Gentlemen, you have lost your
commander, You have seen and heard the cause. As, however, a troop without
a commander is like a ship without a sail or a rudder, I, for once, will
give the word. To the right wheel--dismiss--every man to his quarters."
Upon this, every man made the best of his way home, and I returned to
Marlborough to dine and spend the evening with my friend Hancock.
If I had paid more regard to prudence, and not acted with such
precipitation, I should have put this lord so much in the wrong, that he
would have had no small difficulty in satisfactorily accounting for his
unwarrantable conduct; for, without much vanity, I may say, that there was
not a better soldier in the regiment, a man more devoted to the service of
his country, and very few indeed, if any, who would have so "greatly
dared," in opposing its enemies with his fortune and his life. The affair,
as it was quite natural that it should, soon got wind throughout the
county, and particularly amongst the members of the various corps, the ten
troops of Yeomanry. His lordship, however, did not choose to meet me, but
rather preferred to settle the point in the courts of law.
In the following term a criminal information was filed against me, for
challenging the noble lord and gallant colonel to fight a duel. As I could
not deny the fact, I suffered judgment to go by default, rather than try
the question in the Court at Salisbury; my counsel, Mr. Garrow and Mr.
Burrough (the present Judges), having informed me, that it was useless to
defend it, as I could not plead the provocation, however great, with any
chance of obtaining a verdict. But they were of opinion that, when the
affidavits on both sides came to be read, the Court would never call me up
for judgment.
In this conclusion they were incorrect; but it is not wonderful that such
a conclusion should have been drawn by them; for the late Lord Kenyon
expressed a very great unwillingness to proceed, and, term after term, he
intimated to my counsel that he hoped I had seen my error, and that I
would make an apology to his lordship, which would save the Court the
trouble of taking any further steps in the affair. My counsel answered,
that they were not instructed to say whether I would do this or not. His
lordship then stated, that in case I did so before the next term, he
understood that the other party would not press for judgment; and Mr.
Erskine and Mr. Vicary Gibbs, who were employed against me, added, that so
far from wishing to degrade me, they did not even wish that I should make
any personal apology to his lordship. If my counsel would say for me, that
I admitted the offence against the law, and regretted the uneasiness that
I had given to his lordship, there should be an end to the business.
This offer Lord Kenyon strongly urged my counsel to accept. Mr. Burrough,
who was junior counsel, said, that he knew my feelings upon the subject so
well, that he would undertake, although in my absence, to say, that I was
perfectly sensible that I had been provoked to offend the laws of my
country, and that he was ready to make the most ample apology to those
offended laws; but that, as I considered Lord Bruce to be the aggressor,
he could not, on my part, undertake to make any apology to him, and he was
fearful that I should never be persuaded to do it, though he would
communicate the wish of his lordship and the court upon the subject.
This affair had now been before the Court four or five terms, and had been
as often put off by Lord Kenyon. In the mean time, the affair created a
considerable sensation amongst all the Yeomanry Corps in the kingdom, and
in none more than in the different troops of the Wiltshire Yeomanry; and
the conduct of their Colonel was canvassed very freely. Every gentleman in
the regiment, and, in fact, every member of the whole of the volunteer
force of the country, felt that it was a common cause, as he might be
placed in a similar situation, and, consequently, if I were punished, he
himself might be liable to arbitrary and unjust dismissal by a superior
officer. The Court felt and knew this. Many, very many, members of the
Wilts regiments, declared that they would immediately resign if I were
sentenced to any fine or imprisonment; and several of my particular
friends and acquaintances never failed to, _what they called_, keep up my
spirits, by volunteering this declaration as often as I met them. Mr. Wm.
Tinker, of Lavington, with whom I was particularly intimate, and my
friend, Mr. Wm. Butcher, of Erchfont, both unequivocally declared that
they would not remain in the regiment another moment after I had received
any sentence.
The next term came, and when my counsel were again called upon to know
whether they were instructed to make the necessary apology, the answer
was, that I was sorry for having violated the laws of my country, but that
the illegal and unjustifiable provocation given by Lord Bruce was such,
that I had declined to make any submission whatever to his lordship. Lord
Kenyon begged Mr. Garrow to do his duty by his client, and make it for me;
and Mr., now Lord, Erskine also begged his friend Garrow to do it,
declaring he would accept the slightest acknowledgment made in his, Mr.
Garrow's, own way; that he felt for me, and did by no means wish to
degrade me in the slightest degree.
Mr. Garrow rose, and in a spirited manner said, "that he thought I had
offered quite a sufficient apology to the offended laws of my country; and
that he, for one, did not feel that, under all the circumstances, Lord
Bruce was entitled to any apology whatever. If Mr. Hunt had felt disposed,
of his own accord, to suffer him to say that he was sorry for having
challenged his lordship, he would have done it with all his heart, without
believing that the slightest stigma would have been fixed upon that
gentleman's character, either as a soldier or a gentleman. But Mr. Hunt
had a right to have his own feelings upon the subject, and he could not
blame him; and so far from making any apology for Mr. Hunt, in his
absence, without his consent, he, as his counsel, with all the respect
which he entertained for the court, yet would not take upon himself to
advise him to do it against his inclination."
Mr. Erskine appeared to assent to this; but Mr. Vicary Gibbs jumped up,
and with great petulance said, "Well, then, my lord, we demand that he may
be brought up. We pray the judgment of the court." Lord Kenyon said, it
must be so, then; and he fixed a day in the following Michaelmas Term, for
me to attend to receive judgment.