HIS DRESS AND DIVERSIONS 57 



at the Coach and Horses, Dover Street, Piccadilly, not 

 in the most select company. He was slovenly in dress, 

 wearing a faded black suit that appeared to have been 

 made for his grandfather, so ill it fitted him. He was 

 not particular as to cleanliness, and his hard features 

 were too surely an index of the working of his mind. 

 His conversation was licentious and vulgar; though I 

 do not doubt that he himself may have esteemed his 

 vile wit the essence of cleverness. ' Indebted to his 

 memory for his wit, and to his imagination for his 

 facts/ he would crack his sides with laughter at his 

 own personal and ill-timed gibes, not being ashamed to 

 utter what others would blush to hear. 



' Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart 

 Than when a blockhead insult points the dart.' 



In spite of lack of education and a dense ignorance of 

 most things, he had common-sense in the knowledge of 

 how to look after his money. Yet, like others more 

 deserving, he had his reverses. His heaviest loss was 

 in the St. Leger, in West Australian's year, when Frank 

 Butler was carpeted before Colonel Anson and Mr. 

 Bowes, and told his fate if he did not win. This sum- 

 mary and very needful procedure naturally upset the 

 plans of Hill and his colleagues, by which, in the 

 method described, they had made sure of benefiting 

 themselves at the expense of the unwary. Hill at once 

 changed his tactics, hedging all he could, which was 

 but little, it not being easy then to find anyone that 

 would lay. This incident led to his expulsion from the 

 Whitewall stable, as I have before related, and to his 

 losing 20,000 on the race. Once, on the Stock Ex- 

 change, like Mr. Padwick, he thought he knew some- 

 thing in fact, more than those accustomed to the 



