The English Spy, page 539 by Bernard Blackmantle
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isitors, by its being known as the rendezvous of the bloods and blacks of Berkeley. The truth of this assertion may be gathered from the ~228~~following jeu d' esprit, only one among a hundred of such squibs that have been very freely circulated in Cheltenham and the neighbourhood within the last year.
'NEWS FROM CHELTENHAM.
'The season runs smartly in Cheltenham's town, The gossips are up, and the colonel is down; He has taken the place of the famous Old Gun {1} That exploded last year, and created some fun. Were no lives then lost? some say, Yes! and some, No! The report even shook the old walls of Glasgow.{2} And the Bushe was found out to be no safe retreat, For in love, as in war, you may chance to be beat; And a hell-shaming fellow can never be reckon'd, Whate'er he may publish, a capital second.'
"But now having had our fling at his vices, let us speak of him more agreeably; for the fellow hath some qualifications which, if humour suit, enables him to shine forth a star of the first magnitude among bons vivants and sporting characters, who ride, amble, and vegetate upon the banks of the Chelt. Such is his love of hunting, a pleasure in which he not only indulges himself, but enables others, his friends, to participate with him, by keeping up a numerous stud of thirty well trained horses, and a double pack of fox-hounds, that no appropriate day may be lost, nor any opportunity missed, of pursuing the sports of the chase. This is as it should be, and smacks of that glorious spirit which animated his ancestors; although the violence of his temper will sometimes break out even here, in the field, when some young and forward Nimrod, unable to restrain his fiery steed, o'er-caps the hounds, or crosses the scent. As the Chelts are, or have been, greatly benefited by the hounds being kept alternately during the hunting months between
1 A good-morrow to you, Captain Gun.
2 Miss Glasgow, divine perfection of an