'Long expected one and twenty, Ling'ring year, at length, is flown; Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty, Great Sir John, are now your own. 'Loosen'd from the minor's tether, Free to mortgage, or to sell; Wild as wind, and light as feather, Bid the sons of thrift farewell. 'Call the Betsies, Kates and Jennies, All the names that banish care; Lavish of your grandsire's guineas, Show the spirit of an heir. 'All that prey on vice and folly, Joy to see their quarry fly; There the gamester, light and jolly, There the lender, grave and sly. 'Wealth, my lad, was made to wander, Let it wander as it will; Call the jockey, call the pander, Bid them come and take their fill. 'When the bonny blade carouses, Pockets full--and spirits high-- What are acres? What are houses? Only dirt, or wet and dry. 'Should the guardian friend or mother Tell the woes of wilful waste; Scorn their counsels, scorn their pother, You can hang, or drown, at last.' He kept race-horses, and lost. He gambled and betted on anything. One of his bets is somewhat amusing. It is in the _Times_ of October 2, 1795: 'A curious circumstance occurred here (Brighton) yesterday. Sir JOHN LADE, for a trifling wager, undertook to carry Lord CHOLMONDELY, on _his back_, from opposite the Pavilion, twice round the Steine. Several ladies attended to be the spectators of this extraordinary feat of the dwarf carrying a giant. When his Lordship declared himself ready, Sir JOHN desired him to STRIP. "Strip!" exclaimed the other: "why, surely you promised to carry me in my clothes!" "By no means," exclaimed the Baronet. "I engaged to carry _you_, but not an inch of clothes. So, therefore, my Lord, make ready, and let us not _disappoint_ the ladies." After much laughable altercation, it was, at length, decided that Sir JOHN had won his wager, the Peer declining to exhibit _in puris naturalibus_.' When he got poor, I presume the Prince cut him, for he ended his days as groom and coachman to the Earl of Anglesey. The two following paragraphs from the _St. James's Chronicle_ for 1789 tell us something about the Prince's doings at Brighton: _August 13-15._--'The Prince of Wales's birthday, on Thursday, was very splendidly celebrated at Brighthelmstone.--_St. George_, the famous fencing master, exhibited several trials of his skill, with two French masters, before the Prince and a large company, in a pavilion and marquees pitched about a mile from the town: an ox was roasted whole, and given to the populace. The Duke of Clarence gave prizes to several sailing boats, which afforded much diversion--the company dined in the pavilion, and the evening concluded with a supper and ball at the Castle Inn, given by the Dukes of York and Clarence.--The illuminations were universal and elegant.'