1835 THE COMMONERS 229 



(the Eeverend, who held the living of Chetwynd); and, 

 according to a writer in the ' Sporting Magazine/ as 

 has already been mentioned, they were known respec- 

 tively as ' Shark ' Pigott, 'Louse' Pigott, and 'Black' 

 Pigott. But there is some reason to doubt the accu- 

 racy of the writer quoted ; for the great racehorse 

 Shark, distinctly stated by Pick to have been bred 

 and to have been run by Mr. Charles Pigott (and we 

 have seen that Mr, Robert Pigott's stud was sold in 

 1772), did not run till 1774, and Lord Carlisle, writing 

 to George Selwyn in 1772, says : ' Nothing will sur- 

 prise me about Lord H. ; not if he were to come upon 

 the Turf and be a confederate with Black Pigott.' 

 Unless, then, we are to understand that the Eev. 

 William Pigott was, like his brother, on the Turf (not 

 by any means an impossibility, but his name never 

 appears in the records), and that the epithet ' Black ' 

 is in honour of ' the cloth,' it is more natural to sup- 

 pose that ' Shark ' Pigott, Louse ' Pigott, and ' Black ' 

 Pigott (the epithet applying figuratively either to 

 character or looks), are but one and the same person. 

 Anyhow, there is no doubt that Mr. Charles Pigott 

 and ' Louse ' Pigott are one and the same person. 

 Nor is it quite certain that ' Louse ' was a nickname 

 conferred upon him for some reason derogatory to 

 him ; on the contrary, there is authority for saying 

 that it stuck to him in consequence of a creditable 

 proficiency in the French language, which enabled 

 him, when a boy at Eton, to turn 'pou' into the 



