24 Among Men and Horses. 



he then adopted my further suggestion to take trips to 

 London for instruction from John Roberts, it was not long 

 before he became the best billiard player in the army. In 

 Dublin in 1883 we backed him to give the marker of the 

 Army Club 100 points out of 500, and then we 'kidded ' that 

 we had played the fool, and appeared downright sorry that we 

 had made the match. This was swallowed by the * clever 

 division/ who to a man backed Pat the marker. This astute 

 lot, among whom were three or four generals (one a terrible 

 Wolseyite), was told by Pat that he could not lose, as he 

 was able to beat John Bayly level. The match came off and 

 John Bayly won. There was tremendous consternation in 

 the ranks of the clever division. By far the worst loser was 

 the Wolseyite, who is still alive, I much regret to say. One, 

 and only one, loser, namely, General " Begorra " Brown, took 

 his licking gracefully and paid up without a murmur. " Be- 

 gorra " has, I am sorry to say, left this planet what a fine man 

 he was ! Six feet two inches high ; grave and sedate ; only 

 one arm ; and a well-known figure in Rotten Row. The day 

 after the match, "Begorra" came up to me and said : " If it 

 had not been for you, sir, John Bayly would have lost. You 

 know what I mean, sir ! " The stately figure then withdrew. 

 I am fond of all thoroughbreds. " Begorra " was a thorough- 

 bred Irishman from Galway, and had all the good points, 

 with very few of the bad ones of the Hibernian.' 



The people in Cork were so devoted to amusement that, 

 as a boy, I made little progress in study. My mother prayed 

 that I would be famous in the world for goodness, wisdom and 

 learning ; my own aspirations were for billiards, riding, row- 

 ing, boxing and running. Her gentle admonitions had some 

 small effect on youth's brutal selfishness ; for after spending 

 a year on the Continent, where I learned gymnastics, fencing, 

 French and German, I worked hard and passed fairly high up 

 on the list for the Royal Military Academy, which was then 

 the only gate of entrance, by competition, to the army. As 

 a set-off to my reluctantly rendered obedience, I devoted 



