His attentions to Miss Flack at
a race ball were such that her father said De Mogyns must either die on
the field of honour, or become his son-in-law. He preferred marriage.
His name was Muggins then, and his father--a flourishing banker,
army-contractor, smuggler, and general jobber--almost disinherited him
on account of this connection.
There is a story that Muggins the Elder was made a baronet for having
lent money to a R-y-l p-rs-n-ge. I do not believe it. The R-y-l Family
always paid their debts, from the Prince of Wales downwards.
Howbeit, to his life's end he remained simple Sir Thomas Muggins,
representing Pontydwdlm in Parliament for many years after the war. The
old banker died in course of time, and to use the affectionate phrase
common on such occasions, 'cut up' prodigiously well. His son, Alfred
Smith Mogyns, succeeded to the main portion of his wealth, and to his
titles and the bloody hand of his scutcheon. It was not for many years
after that he appeared as Sir Alured Mogyns Smyth de Mogyns, with a
genealogy found out for him by the Editor of 'Fluke's Peerage,' and
which appears as follows in that work:--'De Mogyns.--Sir Alured Mogyns
Smyth, Second Baronet. This gentleman is a representative of one of the
most ancient families of Wales, who trace their descent until it is lost
in the mists of antiquity. A genealogical tree beginning with Shem is in
the possession of the family, and is stated by a legend of many thousand
years' date to have been drawn on papyrus by a grandson of the patriarch
himself.
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