4 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



As procrastination is the thief of time, payment delayed 

 is a 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 the 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 this 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 con- 

 sideration, this punctuality in the disbursement of a large 

 income rendered Mr. Raby very popular in his neighbour- 

 hood ; and knowing, from experience of the world^ that 



When the means are gone that buy this praise, 

 The breath 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 landlord, 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 so respon- 

 sible a situation upon himself, or, it might have been, 

 from a mistrust of his ability to do justice to it, it devolved 

 upon a neighbouring 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 enlightened, at the expense of the best feelings of the 



