This sort of coarseness was refinement in Elizabethan days. I may cite in proof thereof, that when the valiant Welsh commander, Sir Roger Williams, knelt to Queen Elizabeth, in his rough untanned leather boots, to present a petition she was determined not to grant, she only remarked, “Williams, how your boots stink!” “Tut, Madam!” answered the Welshman, “it is my suit, and not my boots, that stink!” So did she affect to annoy Cecil, by wearing his portrait for a day tied to her shoe. On another occasion she admitted to her presence a whole bevy of country-cousins named Brown. They were of the kindred of Anne Boleyn; but when Elizabeth saw them in their queer old-fashioned dresses, she fairly frightened them by her coarse remarks, from ever coming to court again. Perhaps hence is derived the popular saying, in which allusion is made to “_astonishing the Browns_.” It is an Elizabethan phrase! In the recess, Nash used to cross the country to Tunbridge. His equipage was a flaming carriage, drawn by six greys; with outriders all embroidery, and French horns all brass and bluster. He wore a white hat, of which he was the introducer; and he did so, he said, that, it being the only one of the sort, his hat might never be stolen. In his dress he combined the fashions of two centuries; and, thanks to his luck at play, he lived as grandly as half-a-dozen kings. But none knew better than he the folly of gambling. He once lost a considerable sum to an Oxford lad who had just come into a large fortune. “Boy,” said he, “take my advice. You are a young Crœsus; play no more.” Nash himself would not play with him, but the _millionnaire_ collegian found men less scrupulous; and the prodigal, ere he had attained his twenty-fifth year, could, like the gentleman in Shakspeare, “Thank Heaven that he was not worth a ducat.” Nash was the same sort of Mentor to the gambling Duke of Bedford; and the Duke entered with the Beau into a gambling compact, whereby he bound himself to put restraint upon his spirit of gambling. Nash gave him £100, to receive £1000 whenever the Duke lost the latter sum at one sitting. Nash came upon his Grace a month after, just as he had lost £8000, and was about to throw for £3000 more. Nash reminded him of the compact. The Duke paid the forfeit, threw his main, and lost. Perhaps the Beau expected some such profitable result of his little investment. He may not however have deserved this remark; for Nash could be most romantically generous. Thus, Lord Townsend lost to him a sum which he could not conveniently pay; the Beau forgave the debt, some £20,000, on condition that the Peer should give him £5000 whenever asked to do so. Nash never troubled Lord Townsend further; but, after the Lord’s decease, when the Beau had fallen into adversity, he applied to the Peer’s representatives, exhibited his vouchers, and was paid his claim. This is honourable to both parties.