Page:Angelo's Pic Nic.djvu/140

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TOO MUCH PHYSIC being introduced to a prince, the notice conferred on him; there it was, "all honours heaped"; all was pleasant then; not so the next place I took him to, " the sun does not always shine." Having a card of admission for myself and friend to fish at Lord George Cavendish's at Latimer's, in Hertfordshire, as he was to meet me there, and three more added, to make up the party cheerful, at the same time, spectators to see our fishing exploits, our place of rendezvous was six miles distant from where we were to fish, Rickmansworth. Previous to our meeting at dinner, I was the avant courier, to have every thing in readiness, and order the dinner to be on table at six o'clock. Leaving town at an early hour in the morning, and the waters at Rickmansworth being famous for trout, it was my intention, as a proof of my skill, to produce some of my catching for their dinner; but the sun being bright, and the weather intensely hot (July), there was no chance of sport. Being no fly fisher, I declined the chance of catching anything; when, stripping off my coat, I laid myself on the bed, a decanter of white wine, and a bottle of spring water being placed by me. Reposing myself, there I lay till they all arrived; surprised to find me on the bed, it was a subject for them to quiz me, when I told them it was my Asiatic repose, my otiam cum dignitate. They all acknowledged, exhausted as they were, travelling in the heat of the day in their gigs, that had they arrived sooner they would have done the same. However, dinner soon relieved our complaints of the heat, and the cool breezes of the evening entirely refreshed us till supper time; then followed the song and the punch, whose spirits added the more to our own, " merry men all," till a late hour. During the time, one of the party, my old friend Maynard, a Proctor in Doctors' Commons, who never missed taking a 54