416 ifctngs of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, anb (Bun 



sport and superior skill in the pursuit of it, but with 

 their aspirations cramped and stunted by poverty, eyed 

 this spoiled darling of Fortune with undisguised jealousy 

 and contempt. Like the hero of Mr. Charles Leland's 

 ballad, they exclaimed 



Oh ! how hard is life for many ! oh ! how sweet it is for some ! 



There must indeed, they thought, be something wrong 

 in the general order of things when, with the love of 

 sport so impartially diffused, the means of gratifying it 

 were so partially and unequally distributed. But it was 

 no fault of William Scrope's that Fortune had heaped 

 her favours on him. He found himself so favoured, and 

 he set himself to make the most of the good things the 

 gods had provided for him. What more could he do ? 

 How otherwise would John Younger have acted in the 

 same position ? But let us see how the fortunate artist 

 and sportsman used his opportunities. 



William Scrope came of a good old North-country 

 family which had for four centuries left its mark on 

 history. The Scropes of Bolton, lords of the Lancashire 

 Marches, had been a power to be reckoned with in the 

 North Countree from the time that Richard Scrope was 

 made first Baron of that ilk by Edward III., whom he 

 served as Lord Treasurer, whilst under his grandson 

 Richard II. he attained the still higher dignity of 

 Chancellor of England. Readers of Shakespeare, who 

 are probably more numerous than students of history, 

 will remember the part which the Scroops (for so the 

 name was then spelt and is still pronounced) played in 

 the Wars of the Roses Sir Stephen, Lord Scroop, and 



