ut full of genuine character;
nor can they, as I hope, be considered in any instance as violating our
established rule--of being true to nature, without offending the ear of
chastity, or exciting aught but

15 "A. word to the wise," &c. Get honest "Tom Whipcord" to
take you by his hand on Valentine's night to the "noctes"
muster of the _Sporting Annals_ gents. You will know me by a
brace of "bleeding hearts" in my plaited neckerchief, and a
blue bunch of ribbons in my sinister side, as big as the
Herald newspaper, the gifts of my lady-love.

~282~~the approving smile of the lovers of mirth, and the patrons of
life's merriments. We had intended to have drawn aside the curtain of
the theatre and the castle, and have shown forth to the gaze of the
public the unhallowed mysteries which are sometimes performed there; but
reflection whispered, that morality might find more cause to blush at
the recital than her attendants would benefit by the exposure; and is is
lamentably true, that some persons would cheerfully forfeit all claim
to respectability of character for the honour of appearing in print,
depicted in their true colours, as systematic and profligate seducers.
To disappoint this infamous ambition, more than from any fear of the
threatened consequences, we have left the sable colonel and his dark
satellites to grope on through the murky ways of waywardness and
intrigue, without staining our pages with a full relation of their
heartless conduct, since to have revived the now forgotten tales might
have given additional pain to some beauteous victims whose fair names
have dropped into Lethe's waters, like early spring flowers nipped by
the lingering hand of slow-paced winter; or, in other instances, have
disturbed the repose of an unsuspecting husband, or have stung the
aged heart of a doting parent--evils we could not have avoided, had
we determined upon rehearsing the love scenes and intrigues of certain
well-known Cheltenham amateurs.

Adieu, merry Chelts! we're for quitting our quarters;
Adieu to the chase, to thy walks and thy waters,
To thy hunt, ball, and theatre, and card tables too,
And to all thy gay fair ones, a long, long adieu!

Blackmantle and Transit, the Spy and his friend,
Through Gloucester and Bristol, to Bath onward bend.
To show how amused they have been in your streets,
They give you, at