THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 265 



virtue, and being the friend of goodness, rather than a 

 good man. In your father, the union is accomplished ; 

 and whilst I have been amusing myself with a phantom of 

 happiness which has been always dancing before my eyes 

 turning them, alas ! from the light of Reason which 

 would have discovered the illusion, and shown me what, 

 perhaps, I never wished to see, my own real case he has 

 possessed himself of the reality, by fulfilling every duty 

 incumbent upon an English gentleman, and, I may safely 

 add, the Christian. Compared with his then, mine has 

 been a solitary, a barren, and a cheerless existence, and 

 my name will be forgotten ere my remains are cold. As 

 the shadow waits on the substance, Frank, even so true 

 honour follows virtuous actions, and not merely the 

 profession of them." 



The natural strength of Mr. Beaumont Raby's consti- 

 tution had, to a certain extent, rallied after passing a 

 tranquil night, in which sleep that vis rnedicatrix nature 

 had come to his relief ; and it was not until the eighth 

 day after this interesting conversation took place between 

 himself and his nephew, that death came to his relief on 

 the very day, indeed, on which he had arrived at his fifty- 

 third year ! On his will being opened, matters stood 

 thus : He bequeathed 1000 to Mr. Egerton, "as a mark 

 of gratitude for his having instilled those notions of pro- 

 priety into his nephew that would not fail to benefit 

 him through life ; " 100 to one of his oldes friends and 

 the same to his brother, to purchase mourning rings ; 

 annuities of fifty pounds to three of his own servants, 

 " who had served him faithfully in their respective 

 situations ; " and the rest of his fortune, without any 

 stipulation whatever, "to his dearly beloved nephew, 

 Francis Raby, trusting that he would make a better use 

 of it than he himself had done. It consisted of 137,000, 

 in the three per cent, consols, together with a small estate 

 in Hertfordshire, of about 150 acres, on which it had 

 been his intention to have built a villa for his summer 

 residence, but the natural indolence of his character, 

 together with his love of Brighton at that period of the 

 year, had prevented his putting it into effect. And 

 there was a short codicil to the will, bequeathing fifty 

 pounds a year to the poor of the parish of Amstead, for 

 ever. His remains were conveyed to the family vault at 

 Amstead ; and in the course of a few months, a plain but 



