Old Nash was, perhaps, a better gentleman than his son; but with far less pretension.  He was a partner in a glass-manufactory.  The Beau, in after-years, often got rallied on the inferiority of his origin, and the least obnoxious answer he ever made was to Sarah of Marlborough, as rude a creature as himself, who told him he was ashamed of his parentage.  ‘No, madam,’ replied the King of Bath, ’I seldom mention my father, in company, not because I have any reason to be ashamed of him, but because he has some reason to be ashamed of me.’  Nash, though a fop and a fool, was not a bad-hearted man, as we shall see.  And if there were no other redeeming point in his character, it is a great deal to say for him, that in an age of toadyism, he treated rank in the same manner as he did the want of it, and did his best to remove the odious distinctions which pride would have kept up in his dominions.  In fact, King Nash may be thanked for having, by his energy in this respect, introduced into society the first elements of that middle class which is found alone in England.

Old Nash—­whose wife, by the way, was niece to that Colonel Poyer who defended Pembroke Castle in the days of the first Revolution—­was one of those silly men who want to make gentlemen of their sons, rather than good men.  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.  The affair was discovered, and Master Richard, who was not seventeen, was removed from the University.[19] Whether he ever, in after-life, made another offer, I know not, but there is no doubt that he ought to have been married, and that the connections he formed in later years were far more disreputable than his first love affairs.