28 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



four horses, postilions, outriders, and bugle horns ; liow 

 he would sit at the window of the noted ' Vendanges de 

 Bourgogne,' in company with other iiiveurs, to see the 

 ' descente de la Courtille,' tlie return from the ' barrier 

 ball,' in the early morning after ' Mardi Gras ; ' and how 

 (being a pleasant gentleman who Hked his gold to be 

 burning hot before he gave it away) he would scatter 

 anions the crowd of returning ' maskers ' and others a 

 copious ' friture d'or,' may be learned from such works 

 as ' Les Salons de Paris sous Louis-Philippe,' by Viscount 

 de Beaumont-Yassy. What curious testamentary docu- 

 ments, and how many of them (something over a score 

 between 1855 and 1859), Lord Henry drew up or caused 

 to be drawn up, and what trouble he created (not un- 

 intentionally, the cynics have suggested) by his hand- 

 some bequest of 72,000/. to be divided between the 

 ' hospices ' of Paris and London, may be gathered from 

 the reported case of ' Wallace v. the Attorney-General.' 

 He may have Ijeen considered by his friends a ' fellow of 

 infinite jest ; ' but, as there were few, if any, mourners 

 (beyond four or five members of the French Jockey 

 Club) at his funeral, according to the accounts, or 

 at any rate one account, his intimate friends were 

 probably at last estranged ; and certainly his fun was 

 frequently of a questionable sort, akin to the worst kind 

 of practical joking. He is said to have been the original 

 of Balzac's ' droll,' who would administer drastic 

 medicines furtively to his dearest friends and derive 

 intense enjoyment from the very unpleasant results. 

 He delighted, it is said, in the humane and ingenious 

 pastime of giving away cigars with something explosive 

 inserted in the extremity, and watching the effect when 

 a light was applied by unsuspecting smokers. It is 

 almost a i)it3^ that he did not live in the days of dynamite ; 



