Sir HHcbarfc Sutton 399 



tradesmen, however, took advantage of Sir Richard's 

 liberal disposition, and fleeced him so shamefully that 

 after seven seasons with the Burton he quitted the 

 country. When, two years later, he revisited Lincoln, 

 one of the prominent tradesmen of the city, who had 

 fattened upon the generous baronet, said to him, " We 

 want you back again, Sir Richard." To which the 

 baronet drily replied, " You ought to have kept me when 

 you had me." 



The immediate cause of Sir Richard's resigning the 

 mastership of the Burton was a bad accident by which 

 he broke his thigh. He was too fond of riding difficult 

 horses, and used to say that he didn't care what a horse's 

 temper was so long as he could go. It was this reckless- 

 ness as to the temper of his horses which brought about 

 his serious accident. He put his horse at a stiff fence, 

 which the obstinate brute refused ; but, finding that his 

 rider would not be denied, the horse clumsily charged 

 the fence and fell on the edge of a ditch on the other 

 side with Sir Richard's thigh under him, which, says an 

 eye-witness, " snapped like the smothered report of a 

 pistol, and lamed him for life." To be laid on his back 

 for weeks was, to a man of Sir Richard's active habits, 

 the worst of mental and bodily tortures. But he had to 

 grin and bear it, not only that once, but a second time, 

 in later years, when he again fractured the same limb, 

 and was laid up for many weeks in London. In times 

 of perfect health his appetite was that of the proverbial 

 hungry hunter. Imagine his feelings, then, when he 

 was ordered by his London physician to limit himself 

 to " half a boiled turnip " for dinner ! 



