1773 THE MISTERS 105 



(not the same hat, as some authorities have it, not 

 being careful to make their meaning clear) for twenty 

 years, without any change of shape (a ' fad ' which 

 one would have a difficulty in gratifying nowadays, 

 when we are at the mercy of imperious firms and 

 have to wear what we can get, not what we should 

 like). He, however, made up for his dogged persist- 

 ency in this little matter by changing his name, as 

 we have seen, frequently — for substantial considera- 

 tions, however, of property. At last, having inherited 

 several estates and worn but one (style of) hat, the 

 poor gentleman (rather than live any longer among a 

 hat -changing generation) shot himself, in the year 

 1800. He was brother to the wife of Mr. Hugo 

 Meynell (also a member of the Jockey Club), the 

 * Father of Fox-hunting ' ; and he was probably re- 

 lated to a Mr. Robert Boothby who ran racehorses 

 in the early days of the Jockey Club (1758, for 

 instance), but he himself is said (by an enemy again) 

 to have inclined rather towards the ' Board of Green 

 Cloth ' than towards the Turf, and to have preferred 

 the impoverishment attainable by the ' bones ' at Spa 

 and elsewhere. At any rate, he has left no signs of 

 having contributed to the improvement of the English 

 thoroughbred. 



fMr. Boswell is ' Jemmy ' Boswell, the Laird of 

 Auchinlech, the admirer and biographer of Dr. John- 

 son (whose young friend Sir John Lade was also a 

 member of the Jockey Club, as we shall see hereafter). 



