William Cookson

“ This is a fine old house with thick walls, but as comfortable as money and modern ingenuity can make it. All the furniture is new, but old-fashioned, to suit the house, and covered with heraldry. These Roaring Lions belong to Fairfax, but from what I recollect he is a quiet, unassuming man, and being of a good old family, never talks about it. ”

“ The flyman who drove me here last night says that there are no houses to be let. I must live in Dabshott, as it is the head-quarters of the battalion; so some thing must be done, and that something quickly, for I cannot trespass at Pursopen for more than a week or ten days, and after that there will be nothing left for me but the Roaring Lion, where they charged me a shilling for a glass of brandy and water, when waiting for the fly last night. How tame the rooks are! ”

“ It quickens every time I see a big drum, or an Army List. There is that stupid fellow Holbeach—whom we used to call sometimes Dullbeach, not for his intelligence, and at other times Bullbitch, from the expression of his face—now commanding the regiment, a C.B., and a full colonel. ”