At any rate, if he can't write, he has mastered a number of other
accomplishments wonderful for one of his age and size. He is one of the
best shots and riders in England. He rode his horse Abracadabra, and won
the famous Guttlebury steeple-chase. He has horses entered at half the
races in the country (under other people's names; for the old lord is a
strict hand, and will not hear of betting or gambling). He has lost and
won such sums of money as my Lord George himself might be proud of.
He knows all the stables, and all the jockeys, and has all the
'information,' and is a match for the best Leg at Newmarket. Nobody was
ever known to be 'too much' for him at play or in the stable.
Although his grandfather makes him a moderate allowance, by the aid of
POST-OBITS and convenient friends he can live in a splendour becoming
his rank. He has not distinguished himself in the knocking down of
policemen much; he is not big enough for that. But, as a light-weight,
his skill is of the very highest order. At billiards he is said to
be first-rate. He drinks and smokes as much as any two of the biggest
officers in his regiment. With such high talents, who can say how far
he may not go? He may take to politics as a DELASSEMENT, and be Prime
Minister after Lord George Bentinck.
My young friend Wellesley Ponto is a gaunt and bony youth, with a pale
face profusely blotched. From his continually pulling something on
his chin, I am led to fancy that he believes he has what is called an
Imperial growing there. That is not the only tuft that is hunted in
the family, by the way. He can't, of course, indulge in those expensive
amusements which render his aristocratic comrade so respected: he bets
pretty freely when he is in cash, and rides when somebody mounts him
(for he can't afford more than his regulation chargers). At drinking
he is by no means inferior; and why do you think he brought his noble
friend, Lord Gules, to the Evergreens?--Why? because he intended to
ask his mother to order his father to pay his debts, which she couldn't
refuse before such an exalted presence. Young Ponto gave me all this
information with the most engaging frankness. We are old friends. I used
to tip him when he was at school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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