They were not renowned for cleanliness, and it was a
standing joke with us silly boys, to ask at the door for 'that Mr. Jones
who had a tooth-brush.' If the college had the same character then, Nash
must have astonished its dons, and we are not surprised that in his
first year they thought it better to get rid of him.

His father could ill afford to keep him at Oxford, and fondly hoped he
would distinguish himself. 'My boy Dick' did so at the very outset, by
an offer of marriage to one of those charming sylphs of that academical
city, who are always on the look-out for credulous undergraduates. The
affair was discovered, and Master Richard, who was not seventeen, was
removed from the University.[19] Whether he ever, in after-life, made
another offer, I know not, but there is no doubt that he _ought_ to have
been married, and that the connections he formed in later years were far
more disreputable than his first love affairs.

The worthy glass manufacturer, having failed to make his son a gentleman
in one way, took the best step to make him a blackguard, and, in spite
of the wild inclinations he had already evinced, bought him a commission
in the army. In this new position the incipient Beau did everything but
his duty; dressed superbly, but would not be in time for parade, spent
more money than he had, but did not obey orders; and finally, though not
expelled from the army, he found it convenient to sell his commission,
and return home, after spending the proceeds.

Papa was now disgusted, and sent the young Hopeless to shift for
himself. What could a well-disposed, handsome youth do to keep body and,
not soul, but clothes together? He had but one talent, and that was for
dress. Alas, for our degenerate days! When we are pitched upon our own
bottoms, we must work; and that is a highly ungentlemanly thing to do.
But in the beginning of the last century, such a degrading resource was
quite unnecessary. There were always at hand plenty of establishments
where a youth could obtain the necessary funds to pay his tailor, if
fortune favoured him; and if not, he could follow the fashion of the
day, and take to what the Japanese call 'the happy Despatch.' Nash
probably suspected that he had no brains to blow out, and he determined
the more resolutely to make fortune his mistress. He went to the
gaming-table, and turned his one guinea into ten, and his ten into a
hundred, and was soon blazing about in gold lace, and a new sword