THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



thief of another description. It is not, per se, a robber, but it 

 opens the door to robbery of every description ; and gentlemen 

 who require long credit, pay twenty per cent, at least for it. 

 Mr. Raby, however, went on quite another tack in the conduct 

 of his expenditure. In lieu of paying a bonus, that is, what 

 is called the ' put-on-price ' for long credit, he received a 

 discount by paying ready money for everything purchased in 

 London, or other distant places ; and, in his own immediate 

 neighbourhood, on the first Monday in every month, all his 

 small bills were discharged. He had a list of them on his 

 dressing-table, when he came down from his chamber in the 

 morning, and, having examined the items, and found them 

 correct, wrote a cheque on his banker for the amount. He 

 reckoned that by tliis arrangement he saved five hundred 

 pounds per annum, which about paid his wine-merchant's bill. 

 It is scarcely necessary to add that, exclusive of any other 

 consideration, this punctuality in the disbursement of a large 

 income rendered Mr. Eaby very popular in his neighbourhood ; 

 and know^ing, from experience of the world, that 



When the means are gone that buy this praise, 

 The l)reath is gone whereof this praise is made, 



he never deviated from the practice to the last year of his life. 

 In fact, so much esteemed was he, as a gentleman and a land- 

 lord, that he might have represented his county in Parliament, 

 had he been disposed so to have done ; but either from a 

 disinclination to take the onus of such a responsible situation 

 upon himself, or, it might have been, from a mistrust of his 

 ability to do justice to it, it devolved upon a neiglibouring 

 baronet. Still, let it not be supposed that Mr. Raby was a 

 man of mere animal life, given to decry the value of literary 

 attainments, averse to the fashionable refinements of that 

 polished age, much less insensible to the common feelings of 

 our nature. Far from it, no man indulged more in those 

 sympathies which unite landlord and tenant, master and 

 servant, in a bond of reciprocal kindness and good offices, 

 nor more strictly performed the higher duties of his station. 

 But his chief purpose was this : — he wished to be considered, 

 as nearly as his nature would admit, a perfect specimen of the 

 English country gentleman, whose head modern philosophy 

 had not yet enliglitened, at the expense of the best feelings of 



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