THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 11 



The mention of one more person is essential to the 

 development of my tale Mr. Beaumont Raby, brother to 

 the Squire of Amstead, but of very different habits and 

 pursuits. In the first place, he was not a sportsman ; and 

 this for reasons independent of a natural disinclination for 

 all sports of the field. His immense size -would have been 

 an obstacle to it, for he might have played Falstaff with- 

 out stuffing. Again, his health was not good. He had 

 incurred some of the penalties attendant on idleness and 

 high feeding ; but he equalled his brother in kind-hearted- 

 ness and good feeling, and exceeded him in accomplish- 

 ments, the result of the life he had led. His history is 

 this : Having had an ample fortune left him when a 

 child, by a person to whom he was but distantly related, 

 he entered, with his brother, as a gentleman commoner of 

 Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a very high degree. 

 He then became a member of the Inner Temple, not with 

 the view of making a profession of the law, but to qualify 

 himself for a member of the senate, which it was his 

 ambition to become. Nor was he disappointed. He sat 

 in two short Parliaments, during which he made three 

 speeches, each affording the promise of brighter days 

 to come. They were not only occasionally adorned by 

 classic flowers, culled from the poets and historians of the 

 Augustan age, but they were also remarkable for clear 

 views of their subjects, and a business-like manner of 

 debating them. The natural indolence of his disposition, 

 however, obtained the mastery over his inclinations ; his 

 seat in the House was not sought for a third time ; he 

 became a mere votary of ease and pleasure in fact, what 

 is called a regular London man ; thinking with Sir 

 Fopling Flutter, in the play, that " all beyond Hyde Park 

 Corner is a desert." At all events, the simple and humble 

 pleasures which a country life affords would have been 

 to him something more than insipid. Nevertheless, the 

 two brothers were greatly attached to each other ; were 

 inseparable when in London together ; corresponded 

 regularly when at a distance ; and, perhaps once in three 

 years, the ci-devant Templar and ex-member of the senate 

 would quit the gay scenes of London and Bath to pass a 

 few weeks at the Abbey. 



It has already been stated that the family of Mr. Raby 

 consisted of four two sons and two daughters all of 

 whom lived to attain their majority : Francis, the second 



