eir capital towns, the names of the present
mayors, and the noble families he had supplied with cricket-bats, we
had passed far away among the noble scenery of the oak district; and
our friend launched into a description of oak plantations in
general--the value of oaks per acre--the sum paid to Lord George for
his estate, which was bought by government fourteen years ago, the
last time the duke was in power--

"What duke?"

An unlucky question, for it led into a disquisition o all dukes,
ancient and modern, and an encomium on the late Duke of Beaufort, as
the best soldier that England had ever produced. "He was a true
soldier's friend, and flogged every soul that came on parade-ground
with a dirty shirt. I don't think there was ever seen such a militia
regiment--there was a sight more flogging in it than the reg'lars--so
it was quite a comfort to some fellers that didn't like it, to go into
the line. I was in it myself; but I liked the duke, though he would
have flogged me as soon as look at me. And such dinners he gave us
when our time was over--it was dreadful--six of our corporals died of
drinking in one month. He was certainly the greatest officer ever _I_
see. I was threatened myself with a thing they call _delirium
tremens_, for he dined us in tents for a fortnight at a time. It's a
pity the French never landed; we would have licked them like sacks. I
hates a Frenchman, and hope to have a fling at 'em yet."

In the mean time we had glided further and further into the leafy
recesses of the river. Such banks are nowhere else to be seen--high
perpendicular cliffs, broken off in all manner of fantastic shapes;
sometimes a great rock standing up bare, smooth, and majestic, like a
vast tower of some gigantic cathedral; sometimes a solitary column,
higher and more massive than any of an architect's designing, with its
capital ornamented with self-sown shrubs, and its base washed by the
rippling water. Each of these called forth an anecdote from our guide,
philosopher, and friend--one was "the scene of the great fight between
Characterus and the Romans. The Romans licked 'em; for them Welsh was
never no great shakes. I could lick any three ancient Britons I ever
saw myself--and they knows it. And, as to Characterus, he could be no
great general, or he never would have fought on that side of the
water. He should have come across to the other side, and he would have
licked them Romans to a certainty."

We thought it wa