He had his wish. His son Richard was a very fine gentleman, no
doubt; but, unfortunately, the same circumstances that raised him to
that much coveted position, also made him a gambler and a profligate.
Oh! foolish papas, when will you learn that a Christian snob is worth
ten thousand irreligious gentlemen? When will you be content to bring up
your boys for heaven rather than for the brilliant world? Nash, senior,
sent his son first to school and then to Oxford, to be made a gentleman
of. Richard was entered at Jesus College, the haunt of the Welsh. In my
day, this quiet little place was celebrated for little more than the
humble poverty of its members, one-third of whom rejoiced in the
cognomen of Jones. They were not renowned for cleanliness, and it was a
standing joke with us silly boys, to ask at the door for 'that Mr. Jones
who had a tooth-brush.' If the college had the same character then, Nash
must have astonished its dons, and we are not surprised that in his
first year they thought it better to get rid of him.
His father could ill afford to keep him at Oxford, and fondly hoped he
would distinguish himself. 'My boy Dick' did so at the very outset, by
an offer of marriage to one of those charming sylphs of that academical
city, who are always on the look-out for credulous undergraduates.
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