200 THE BROCKLESBY HOUNDS. 



the harbour came on board, and there was no end of a 

 row for a time. But no officer had given the order, and 

 so the affair was settled without a court-martial. The 

 British flag had saved the Royal Tar, but another vessel 

 that attempted to follow her was sunk at the first dis- 

 charoje. That night the insurgents threw over two 



o o c 



thousand shells into the city as a set-off to the trick that 

 was played them. 



Mr. Skipworth joined Colonel Baker's regiment as lieu- 

 tenant, and his knowledge of horses and skill as a horse- 

 man soon obtained him the post of riding-master. One 

 of his earliest exploits was the capture of a large picket of 

 the enemy concealed in a low-walled garden, which the 

 horses of Mr. Skipworth's troop cleared before the Por- 

 tuguese knew what had happened. Mr. Skipworth suffered 

 all the horrors of famine during the siege of Oporto, and 

 a very rough time he had of it. He became captain 

 before the siege was raised, but a touch of dysentery, and 

 a difficulty in obtaining his pay, detained him in Portugal 

 some time after the war came to an end. 



Captain Skipworth only had time for a brief visit to 

 England, for Lord Palmerston had granted permission to 

 raise an English legion of ten thousand men, to serve the 

 young Queen of Spain in the War of Succession in that 

 country, and, of course, Captain Skipworth was one of the 

 first to volunteer for service, and he was hard at it again 

 for two years. In his " Soldiers of Three Queens " Mr. 

 Henderson speaks of Captain Skipworth as follows in refer- 

 ence to " a very dashing affair of cavalry which occurred 

 at Loros, when General Baker, Captain Skipworth, and 

 several other officers distinguished themselves " : — 



*' As was said of the well-known Squire Osbaldeston, ' No age, or time, or 

 country ever produced a better sportsman than this latter gentleman,' and a 

 thorough sportsman always makes a good soldier. I have seen all the crack 

 riders of my time, in the hunting-field and with regiments — steeplerace jockeys 

 and military riders — hut I have never seen the man in either place who equalled 

 Captain Skipworth, taking him all in all. Very much of the taste for English 

 horses and English turn-outs, properly and correctly appointed, had its origin at 

 the time I am writing of in the impression made on the Spanish noblemen liy 

 Captain Skipworth, Major Bail, and others of their class." 



