114 FAMOUS RACING MEN. 



the world in a manner quite comnie il faut. His last night was 

 spent at a whist party, from which he arose at five o'clock in the 

 morning with a graceful apology for leaving, as some very important 

 business required his attention. The important business was to 

 meet his adversary on Wimbledon Common. They were stationed at 

 twelve paces, and as they took their places, Payne, who was a dead 

 shot, whispered to his second that he should not return Clarke's fire. 

 He kept his word ; but his opponent's bullet passed through his 

 groin, and at half-past four in the afternoon he died at the "Red 

 Lion," Putney, leaving a widow, two sons, and two daughters to 

 mourn his death and the manner of it. The eldest son was the subject 

 of our sketch, who thus at once inherited Sulby Abbey, with a rent 

 roll of £13,000 a-year, increased before he came of age to £17,000, 

 and the large sum of .£300,000 in ready money, which, with his rents, 

 gave him an income of £30,000 per annum. One of his guardians 

 was his uncle, Mr. John Payne, a great patron of the turf, who 

 won the Derby with Azor in 1817, and from whom probably, to a 

 great extent, the nephew derived his ardent love for the national 

 sport. After four years at Eton he went in due course to Christ 

 Church, Oxford ; but though the Dons of that day were parti- 

 cularly lenient to young men of fortune and family, the escapades 

 of young Payne were more than even their easy-going notions of 

 discipline could tolerate. In vain his tutor remonstrated with him 

 and held up before his eyes the frightful example of Colonel 

 Mellish, to whom the worthy Don declared his pupil bore a striking 

 resemblance in many points. Payne was incorrigible ; and having 

 converted Christ Church into a hunting box, and kept a stud wlrich 

 enabled him to achieve no ordinary distinction in many a run 

 from Tubney Wood and Stratton Audley, he was at last requested 

 to withdraw from the I'niversity — a request with which he will- 

 ingly complied. Mr. Payne then made his entry into the great 

 world with every advantage that mortal man could possibly desire : 

 a princely income, a splendid constitution — such indeed as Nature 

 does not bestow upon one man in a million — remarkable talents, 

 which would have fitted him to shine in the Senate or at the Bar, 

 a fascinating address, wliich attracted men and women to him irre- 

 sistibly, and an inexhaustible vivacity of spirits, the buoyancy of which 

 nothing could depress. But, to use an expressive vulgarism, he 

 " played ducks and drakes " with all these gifts. He squandered 

 health, wealth, and happiness in gambling, and disdaining the 

 temptations of Parliament, though often urged to stand for his 

 native county, where he was so popular that he would have been 

 placed at the head of the poll whenever and as often as he chose 

 to offer himself as a candidate for election, he preferred the 

 attractions of the turf, the chase, and the card-table. He was a 

 most accomplished M.F.H., and when, by the universal suffrages 

 of the sportsmen of Northamptonshire, he was elected master 

 of the Pytchley Hounds, his tenure of office was marked by a 



