ads!
Deeds, which in ev'ry country, clime, and age,
Have fill'd the poet's and historian's page;
Of ev'ry muse the theme, and ev'ry pen:
Ye I invoke! and ye, my countrymen,
If British blood yet flows within your veins,
If for your country aught of love remains,
O make your first, your chief, your only care,
That which first rais'd and made you what you were.'"

[Illustration: page222]

CHELTONIAN CHARACTERS.

A TRIP TO THE SPAS.

CHAPTER I.

~223~~

Bernard Blackmantle and Bob Transit pay a Visit to the
Chelts--Privileges of a Spy--Alarm at Chelten-him--The rival
Editors--The setting of a great Son--How to sink in
Popularity and Respect--A noble Title--An old Flame--
Poetical _jeu d'esprit_, by Vinegar Penn--Muriatic Acid--An
Attorney-General's Opinion on Family Propensities given
without a Fee!!--The Cheltenham Dandy, or the Man in the
Cloak, a Sketch from the Life-Noble Anecdote of the Fox-
hunting Parson--Bury-ing alive at Berkeley--Public
Theatricals in private--"A Michaelmas Preachment," by an
Honest Reviewer--A few Words for Ourselves--The Grand
Marshall--Interesting Story of a former M. C.

"Oh, I've been to countries rare;
Seen such sights, 'twould make you stare."

[Illustration: page223]

"That last chapter of yours, Blackmantle, on John Long and John
Long's customers, will long remain a memorial of your scrutinizing
qualifications, and, as I think, will prevent your taking your port,
punch, pines, or soda-water in Bond-street for some time to come, lest
'suspicion, which ever haunts the guilty mind,' should in the course of
conversation convict you; and then, my dear fellow, you would certainly
go off pop like the last-mentioned article in the above reference to
the luxuries of Long's hotel." ~224~~"Bravo, Bob Transit!" said I; "this
comes mighty well from you, sir, my _fidus achates_.--'_A bon chat bon
rat_'--the _fidus and audax_ satirists of the present times. And who,
sir, dares to doubt our joint authority? are we not the very spies o'
the age?

'Joint monarchs of all we survey;
Our right there is none to dispute.'

From the throne to, the thatched cottage, wherever there is character,
'there fly we,' and, on the wings of merry humour, draw with pen and
pencil a faithful portraiture of things as they ar