38 



LOliD GAEDNER. 



In the " Sporting Magazine," forty-five years ago, there 

 appeared a poem called " The Chaunt of Achilles/' con- 

 cerning the authorship of which no slight curiosity was 

 expressed at the time. The lines in question purported 

 to issue from the bronze lips of the Achilles statue in 

 Hyde Park, and to satirise the appearance, character, 

 and antecedents of all the most conspicuous persons of 

 both sexes who frequented " the Eow," upon which the 

 Grecian hero still looks down. Shortly after the death 

 of Mr. Bernal Osborne, some papers were found which 

 seemed to establish that *' The Chaunt of Achilles " came 

 from his pen, nor is there any lack of internal evidence 

 to show that this surmise, if not correct, is at least not 

 wanting in probability. The anonymous author was 

 certainly of a sarcastic and censorious turn, and among 

 the well-known personages of the day who came under 

 his lash none fared worse or received harder measure 

 than the third Lord Gardner, who died last week. In 

 1838, when '* The Chaunt of Achilles " was written, 

 Lord Gardner was in his twenty-ninth year, and had 

 already established for himself the reputation of being 

 one of the best and hardest riders that ever sailed across 

 country with the Quorn or Pytchley hounds. Achilles 

 exclaims — 



*'But lo! where, following on chesnut dark, 

 The grinning Gardner canters down the park, 

 Slow in the Senate, though not wanting sense, 

 Quick at retort, but quicker at a fence ; 

 With him no hunter ever dare refuse. 

 So good his hand, though damnable his muse. 

 Strange, though for years I've listened to the crowd 

 Who canvass character, the rich, the proud, 



