To the kind care of the public I now consign the “Griffin,” particularly to that portion of it connected with India, a country where my best days have been spent, the scene of some of my happiest hours, as alas! of my severest trials and bereavements; hoping, on account of his “youth,” they will take him under their especial protection. To the critics I also commend him, trusting, if they have “any bowels,” that they will, for the same reason, deal with him tenderly. London—queen of cities!—on sympathetic grounds, I hope for your munificent patronage. Griffins[1] are your supporters, then why not support my “Griffin?” If encouraged by the smiles of a “discriminating public,” I may, at some future period, impart the late Brevet Captain Gernon’s post-griffinish experiences amongst Burmahs, Pindaries, and “Chimeras dire,” with his “impressions of home,” as contained in the remaining autobiography of that lamented gentleman, who sunk under a gradual decay of nature and a schirrous liver, some time during the last hot summer. It is proper I should state that these Memoirs, in a somewhat different form, first saw the light in the pages of the _Asiatic Journal_. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Mr. Cadet Gernon, anxious to discover a Royal Bengal Tiger, falls in with a Bear 60 General Capsicum on board the _Rottenbeam Castle_ 66 Griff, on Landing, besieged by Baboos 74 Returning from the Hog hunt 151 Ensign Rattleton receiving Morning Reports from the Fat Lord and the Red Lion 177 The Native Court-Martial 202 Griffin Mudlarking in the Jheels 246 Colonel Heliogabalus Bluff and Orderly taking Morning Stroll 253 Griffin Marching to Join in Patriarchal Style 336 The Last Night of his Griffinage—Marpeet Royal 372 MEMOIRS OF A GRIFFIN. CHAPTER I. Pleasant days of my Griffinhood!—green oasis of life’s desert waste!—thoughtless, joyous, happy season, when young Hope told “her flattering tale,” and novelty broke sweetly upon a heart unsated by the world, with what fond and regretful emotions do I now look back upon you through the long, dim, dreary vista of five-and-twenty years!