Cylchgronau Cymru

584 Old Prices Remains. take not, went the length of treating himself to a pair oi ten-boots on the strength of his supposed fenmanship. I had, however, one or two opportunities of testing his abili¬ ties in this branch of education; and in particular I shall never forget his treatment of myself and a Jack Snipe, which we had marked at the Back of the Colleges, and whose marvellous escape he seemed, pro virili, bent on facilita¬ ting, even as though he had been himself a Bill-sticker, and of like feather. So thoroughly did he expose him¬ self and his incompetency to cope with the wiles of the feathered tribes, that, though " him and me " were well matched in Classics, (each third in our respective years: a decent place, G. R. ?) I ventured to lay the following wager, without a shadow of hesitation :—He was to take the field with all possible caution and subtlety, accoutred after the most inconspicuous fashion: in green for the grass, or in his college surplice (like Marmaduke Lawson,) for the snow; he was also to crawl, creep, sprawl, and adopt any other approved or novel attitudes and modes of disguise, and so forth; I was to take the same ground the day after, walking bolt upright; and, as "TTJXavyris," in the gayest regimentals, with colours flying, firing off a pistol every ten minutes, and preceded by a brass band playing "See the conquering hero comes," and " Rule Britannia " by turns. With some odds in his favour, (I for¬ get the stakes, and we should now agree in disapproving the practice of betting at all,) I was to pay all expenses besides the wager, if he fairly bagged more " feawl" (= wild fowl) than myself. " Et adhuc sub judice lis est." We have never settled the weighty question to this day ! But, though I think it better to be no Better (if he can excuse a Johnian phrase,) I by no means decline the thing as a simple experiment, if he will pay the men for playing