84 IRfngs of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, an& Gun 



to his staff with admiration as "le premier chasseur 

 d'Angleterre." The First Consul deigned to accept 

 from the English sportsman a brace of very handsome 

 pistols, and in return showed the Colonel a beautiful 

 fowling-piece which had been made for him at Versailles 

 at a cost of 800 guineas, or nearly double the price which 

 the Marquis of Rockingham paid for a gun which he 

 presented to Colonel Thornton, after seeing him pick 

 off with a single bullet a sparrow which had perched 

 on the top of Wentworth House. I do not know 

 that there is much else worth noting in the Colonel's 

 sporting tour through France, except that he was 

 shocked by the " undress of the French ladies " and 

 the " lasciviousness " of the waltz, to which Byron had 

 an equally strong objection. Colonel Thornton was 

 sure it would never be tolerated in England, the home 

 of domestic purity. This, from a member of the Savoir 

 Vivre Club and th? " protector " of at least half a dozen 

 ladies of the Alicia Massingham type, is an amusing 

 example of that British prudery which our Continental 

 neighbours are rude enough to call hypocrisy. He 

 notes, too, that skittles was then the favourite pastime of 

 French officers ; do they still, I wonder, patronise that 

 plebeian but vigorous pastime? 



Towards the close of 1805 the Colonel found himself 

 in " Queer Street," as a natural consequence of his lavish 

 expenditure. He parted with Thornville Royal to Lord 

 Stourton for 226,450. His collection of pictures, 

 valued at 30,000, his choice wines, his horses, his 

 hounds, his deer, his guns, were all sold. But he kept 

 his hawks, the finest in the world. The fair Alicia had 



