165 
much wounded, but whether mortally is not known.”* Yet 
another extract from a letter from Bath, 1st July—‘‘ Young 
) n and Capt. M s had another duel this morning upon 
Kingsdown, about four miles from this place. S-——n much 
wounded. They hacked at each other rolling on the ground, 
the seconds standing by quiet spectators.”t This conduct of 
the seconds, it must be remembered, was in accordance with 
the previously made determined agreement already mentioned. 
The Zimes memoir after Sheridan’s death in 1816 and the 
_ Gentleman's Magazinet on the same subject both record the 
event as having been on Kingsdown. Thus these contem- 
porary accounts agree, and must be more reliable than the 
recollections or imagination of a lady fifty years after the event, 
_ who is the sole authority for the Claverton story, and whose 
_ other statements are so often untrue. Moore’s life, published 
in 182 5, quotes the depositions of the postillions, yet he seems 
but carelessly to have read his own story or he could hardly 
have allowed Claverton Down to have remained. Probably 
all the ladies of or visitors to Bath know this Down, as it is 
always before their eyes, but how many knew, or even to-day 
know, of Kingsdown four miles away. The reason why 
‘Kingsdown was chosen is clear enough, as the fight being for 
life the London road must be available at once for escape. 
‘Sheridan in this second affair, unlike Mathews in the first, 
having refused his life, was considered to have done well and 
right, according to the views of the time; and Mathews now 
by his challenge and conduct and success was considered to 
have wiped off the stain left by his former submission, and so 
tt once he was socially reinstated. There was thus no other 
feeling against him. 
_ It happened that at the time of the duel Miss Linley was sing- 
* Bingley’s Journal, 11th July. 
+ Say’s Weekly Journal, 11th July. t Vol. 86. 
