406 RACING CAREER OF SIR W. H. GREGORY. 



I will pull his nose the first time we meet.' 7 

 Acting on the advice of Colonel Anson, who offi- 

 ciated as his second, the haughty patrician then 

 resolved to swallow his pride, and to go out 

 with his aggrieved foe. Wormwood Scrubbs was 

 named as the tryst ; and at six o'clock, upon a 

 lovely spring morning, the two combatants were 

 drawn up, pistol in hand, at twelve paces from 

 each other. It was a serious moment. Lord 

 George had never had a pistol in his hand before, 

 while his small and wiry antagonist had often 

 killed birds on the wing with a pistol-ball. When 

 shooting with Sir Richard Sutton, the Squire, 

 moreover, had, not long before, killed ninety- 

 eight pheasants out of one hundred shots, and 

 at pigeons he had few superiors. Lord George 

 was arrayed from top to toe in black, and not a 

 speck of white was visible about him for his 

 formidable enemy to aim at. The Squire had 

 openly declared that he would kill him ; and but 

 for Colonel Alison's adroit management of the 

 duel, it is but too probable that Lord George's 

 mortal career would have ended that day upon 

 Wormwood Scrubbs. 



Approaching the two belligerents, Colonel 

 Anson addressed them in a few emphatic words. 

 " He told them that if the affair drifted into a law 

 court, the verdict of the jury would turn chiefly 

 upon his evidence, and that if either combatant 

 disobeyed instructions, and chanced to kill his ad- 



