The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day's Ride, by Charles James Lever

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Title: A Day's Ride
A Life's Romance

Author: Charles James Lever

Illustrator: W. Cubitt Cooke

Release Date: June 4, 2010 [EBook #32692]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S RIDE ***

Produced by David Widger

A DAY'S RIDE

A LIFE'S ROMANCE

By Charles James Lever.

With Illustrations By W. Cubitt Cooke.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

1904.

A DAY'S RIDE:

A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

CHAPTER I. I PREPARE TO SEEK ADVENTURES

It has been said that any man, no matter how small and insignificant the
post he may have filled in life, who will faithfully record the events
in which he has borne a share, even though incapable of himself deriving
profit from the lessons he has learned, may still be of use to
others,--sometimes a guide, sometimes a warning. I hope this is true. I
like to think it so, for I like to think that even I,--A. S. P.,--if I
cannot adorn a tale, may at least point a moral.

Certain families are remarkable for the way in which peculiar gifts
have been transmitted for ages. Some have been great in arms, some in
letters, some in statecraft, displaying in successive generations the
same high qualities which had won their first renown. In an humble
fashion, I may lay claim to belong to this category. My ancestors have
been apothecaries for one hundred and forty-odd years. Joseph Potts,
"drug and condiment man," lived in the reign of Queen Anne, at Lower
Liffey Street, No. 87; and to be remembered passingly, has the name of
Mr. Addison amongst his clients,--the illustrious writer having, as it
would appear, a peculiar fondness for "Pott's linature," whatever that
may have been; for the secret died out with my distinguished forefather.
There was Michael Joseph Potts, "licensed for chemicals," in Mary's
Abbey, about thirty years later; and so we come on to Paul Potts and
Son, and then to Launcelot Peter Potts, "Pharmaceutical Chemist to his
Excellency and the Irish Court," the father of him who now bespeaks your
indulgence.

My father's great misfortune in life was the am