ut of his agent's hands, and said 'Look here; here are my
accounts balanced for the year--not a penny to spare; and here are all
you fellows coming. However, you are all welcome. Enjoy yourselves;
but for goodness sake don't bother me.' So I decamped. I returned to
Royston late in the evening but still no yeomanry." The yeomanry
arrived about ten o'clock at night, however, and the writer gives an
amusing account of the dispute over changing escorts, the yeomanry
officer insisting that the change should be made at the Inn where the
change of horses was made, and the writer states that he with all the
dignity of a cornet of twenty years of age, said he would do no such
thing, but that the change should be made on the confines of the county
some distance outside the town. The yeomanry officer remonstrated
saying that the Queen's carriage would then be travelling at a great
rate and it would be difficult to change escorts as his men had never
practised it. The young cornet said that that was his affair, and
insisting upon the letter of his instructions, the change of escort was
made at the county boundary, the leaders of the Queen's carriage were
thrown down in the process, and the only consolation that could be
offered to Prince Albert's inquiry for the cause was the instruction
from the Horse Guards, and that the spot was the confines of the county
of Cambridge, and the struggling mass of horsemen His Royal Highness
saw were the yeomanry who had presented themselves! The writer adds
"My orders being explicit there could be no answer to this. But query,
ought I to have been so particular as to the letter of the law?
Certainly the Lord Lieutenant of the County, Lord Hardwicke, thought
_not_, as he slapped me on the back and called me an impudent
young----(something)."

{191}

CHAPTER XVII.

THEN AND NOW.--CONCLUSION.

From our present stand-point there is just a touch of pathos in the
thought of many aspiring Englishmen of the Georgian era passing away on
the eve of momentous changes, privileged only to see indications of the
coming times and not to enter into possession. But there is one
element which qualifies this sentiment of regret in breaking with the
anticipations of the good time coming. It must be so for all
conditions of men. Have we not still to look forward, as we pass out
of the age of steam into the more subtle and wonderful age of
electricity, to a time when there may be greater wonders