Excerpt from Digby Grand, an Autobiography

I was brought up a dandy - that was the word in my younger days. From the time I left the nursery, the first lesson inculcated on my youthful mind was Digby, hold up your head, and look like a gentleman. Mister Digby, don't dirty your boots, like the poor people's children. I lost my mother when still a baby; so my ideas of her are chiefly drawn from her portrait in the dining-room - a fair and beautiful woman, with large melancholy eyes and nut brown hair: I presume it was from her that I inherited those glossy locks, on the adornment of which I have spent so much time and trouble, that would have been far better bestowed on the cultivation of the inner portion of my skull. My father, Sir Peregrine Grand, of Haverley Hall, was What is emphatically called a gentleman of the old school that is to say, his weaknesses were those of drinking a great deal of port at a sitting, swearing considerably even in ladies' society, and taking an inordinate quantity of snuff; but then he was adorned with all the shining virtues that so distinguished this same old school: he eschewed cigar-smoking as a vice filthy in the extreme. His morals were as loose as those of his neighbours, but his small-clothes were a great deal tighter. He had his hair dressed by his valet regularly every morning - and then fie knew his position so well, and he took care everyone else should know it too. Neverthe less, though an ill-judging, he was an indulgent father to me; and I do believe his dearest wishes were centred in myself, his only child. Not that he thought much Of my morals or my intellect, but he took care that I should be a good horseman and an unerring shot; and as some fathers would wish their children to be distinguished in the different walks of public life - as warriors, authors, orators, or states men - so was it poor Sir Peregrine's dearest hope that Digby should be a man of fashion - by Jove! The sort of fellow, sir, that people are glad to see, and a man that knows his position, Dr. Driveller - that knows his position, sir. I recollect many years ago, when I was a young fellow, the women called me Peregrine Pickle; I could do what I liked then, anywhere, and with any of them, but I never forgot my position, sir - never forgot my position.

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