94 'OLD q' 



called to inquire how he was progressing. ' The 

 next time Mr. Selwyn calls,' replied his lordship, 

 'show him up. If I am alive I shall be delighted 

 to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad to 

 see me.' 



But the witty Selwyn — and no man of his time 

 possessed a purer vein of wit — frequently turned 

 the point of a ' deadly ' joke against the perpetrator. 

 Thus, when the brilliant but prodigal relative of the 

 aforesaid nobleman asked Selwyn if he had witnessed 

 the execution of a criminal who bore the same 

 cognomen as his questioner, Fox — ' No,' answered 

 George Augustus, ' I make a point of never attend- 

 ing rehearsals.' 



Whatever was the nature of the ' bond ' that united 

 two men so similar and dissimilar as Lord March 

 and Selwyn, the fact remains they were firm and 

 ' singular ' friends from the period under notice until 

 Death deprived the younger man, March, of the 

 other's society. Selwyn's passion for gambling may 

 have been the first cause of this friendship; but 

 that venality did not enter * his soul ' deeper than the 

 length of a pasteboard ' deuce,' whereas Lord March's 

 was empiric. 



The reading of his lordship's correspondence ^ not 



' See Appendices. 



