d he reverted calmly to his old trade of stump
orator, which he pursued with equanimity from 1839 till 1851. During
this time he vainly endeavoured to secure the services of a sanguine
lawyer to take up his case on speculation, and it was not until the
latter year that he succeeded; but when the hopeful solicitor once
took the affair in hand, evidence flowed in profusely, and he was at
last enabled to lay his claims before her Majesty's judges at
Gloucester assizes. Such, at least, was his own story.

In cross-examination he stated that although Provis had two sons,
named John and Thomas, he only knew the younger, and had but little
intercourse with John, who was the elder. He described his youthful
life in the carpenter's house, and represented himself "as the
gentleman of the place," adding that he wore red morocco shoes, was
never allowed to be without his nurse, and "did some little mischief
in the town, according to his station in life, for which mischief
nobody was allowed to check him." After a lengthy cross-examination as
to his relationship with the Marchioness of Bath and his alleged
interview with Sir John Smyth, he admitted that as a lecturer he had
passed under the name of Dr. Smyth. He denied that he had ever used the
name of Thomas Provis, or stated that John Provis, the Warminster
carpenter, was his father, or visited the members of the Provis family
on a footing of relationship with them. As far as the picture, which
he said the carpenter pointed out to him in his parlour as the
portrait of his father, was concerned, and which, when produced, bore
the inscription, "Hugh Smyth, Esq., son of Thomas Smyth, Esq., of
Stapleton, county of Gloucester, 1796," he indignantly repudiated the
idea that it was a likeness of John Provis the younger, although he
reluctantly admitted that the old carpenter sometimes entertained the
delusion that the painting represented his son John, and that the
inscription had not been perceivable until he washed it with tartaric
acid, which, he declared, was excellent for restoring faded writings.
He was then asked about some seals which he had ordered to be engraved
by Mr. Moring, a seal engraver in Holborn, and admitted giving an order
for a card-plate and cards; but denied that at the same time he had
ordered a steel seal to be made according to a pattern which he
produced, which bore the crest, garter, and motto of the Smyths of
Long Ashton. However, he acknowledged giving a sub