38 TALES OF THE TURF AND THE CHASE. 



same time ; and, in fact, his lordship seldom appeared in public 

 unaccompanied by a comedian and a bruiser. The well-known 

 Hooper (' The Tinman'), a conspicuous ornament of the P.R. in 

 those days, was Lord Barrymore's inseparable companion, and 

 was instrumental in getting up some very pretty mills in War- 

 grave Park. His lordship was himself one of the best amateur 

 boxers in England, and he was fond of exercising his fistic 

 powers. The wagoners on the Bath-road supplied him with 

 numberless opponents on whom to display his athletic prowess ; 

 for, like many of this class nowadays, they were lazy surly louts, 

 who let their horses wander at their own sweet will about the 

 road, obstructing the free passage of his lordship's phaeton, and, 

 when remonstrated with, indulged in the foulest language. Lord 

 Barrymore never allowed an insult of this sort to pass un- 

 punished ; he would pull up his horses, jump from his box, fling 

 off his coat, and challenge his insulter to fight it out like an 

 Englishman. The result, of course, was almost invariably in 

 favour of the cool and skilful boxer ; and when the wagoner had 

 received what his lordship considered sufficient punishment, the 

 victor magnanimously handed him a guinea, and bade him im- 

 prove his manners for the future. On two occasions, however, 

 the bruising Earl caught a tartar. Once the wagoner proved to 

 be a sturdy West countryman, who closed with his lordship, and 

 threw him so heavily on the hard high-road that he could not 

 come up to time ; on the other occasion the yokel turned out to 

 be a provincial pug of no mean pretensions, who gave his noble 

 antagonist something uncommonly like a hiding. But in each 

 case Lord Barrymore bore his defeat like a man, shook hands 

 with his conqueror, and doubled the usual guinea fee. 



Not content with racing, theatricals, and pugilism. Lord 

 Barrymore must needs aspire to be a master of hounds. He 

 started a pack of staghounds, and his advertisement for deer to 

 hunt with them was a signal for the dealers in such commodi- 

 ties to foist upon him all the halt, lame, and blind creatures 

 they had on their hands. His hunting retinue, indeed, was gor- 

 geous. There were four real African negroes, in magnificent 

 dresses of scarlet and silver lace, who made the woods resound 

 with the blast of their French horns. There was no end of 

 liveried servants, huntsmen, whips, and grooms. The hounds 

 were good enough, but there was never anything to hunt. The 

 deer would not, or could not, run ; and the whole thing was a 

 burlesque which irritated genuine sportsmen beyond measure. 



