John Trusler

Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Dr. Trusler - Written by Himself

John Brown, 1806.

Leaving Cambridge soon after I was twenty-one years of age, I returned home to my father's house, at Marybone, for I could not take orders until I was nearly twenty-three.

The author's father was proprietor of the Rose Tavern and tearooms at Marylebone Gardens when the future cleric came down from Cambridge in 1756. 'Let loose from a school of discipline, in the prime of youth, and in such a vortex of dissipation, as a public place of amusement affords, without the least controul; it would have been no wonder had I deviated from the line of rectitude, I was taught to pursue'. He was ordained three years later, escaping from the noxious influence of such habitués as the Butcher of Culloden:

William, Duke of Cumberland, used to amuse himself in the dark walks of this place, and gave way to a variety of unbecoming frolics with the women, which would have disgraced one of the lowest class in society, and which to relate would disgust the reader. He was supported in these unprincely acts, by two honourable aid-de-camps, too often pandar to a prince's vice