THE HISTORY OF SAMUEL TITMARSH
AND THE
THE GREAT HOGGARTY DIAMOND


LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1911




CHAPTER I


GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF OUR VILLAGE AND THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE DIAMOND

When I came up to town for my second year, my aunt Hoggarty made me a
present of a diamond-pin; that is to say, it was not a diamond-pin then,
but a large old-fashioned locket, of Dublin manufacture in the year 1795,
which the late Mr. Hoggarty used to sport at the Lord Lieutenant's balls
and elsewhere. He wore it, he said, at the battle of Vinegar Hill, when
his club pigtail saved his head from being taken off,--but that is
neither here nor there.

In the middle of the brooch was Hoggarty in the scarlet uniform of the
corps of Fencibles to which he belonged; around it were thirteen locks of
hair, belonging to a baker's dozen of sisters that the old gentleman had;
and, as all these little ringlets partook of the family hue of brilliant
auburn, Hoggarty's portrait seemed to the fanciful view like a great fat