346 SPORTING STORIES 



cried the ex-Chancellor, " if I had driven a cabriolet when I 

 was Solicitor-General ? " " They would have said," replied 

 William Henry, "' There goes the greatest lawyer and the 

 worst whip in England.' " 



Lord Eldon was quite aware of his own limitations. 

 Clumsy and inefficient in all field-sports, he used to laugh 

 at his own deficiencies. This good-humour was the more 

 creditable as he enjoyed playing the part of a country 

 squire, and took great pains to qualify himself to kill the 

 game which he preserved at considerable cost. As long 

 as he could relish bodily exercise he carried a gun ; but 

 he never rode to hounds after reaching years of sound 

 discretion. 



Lord Chief Justice Cockburn was fond of yachting and 

 shooting, and was by no means a bad shot. 



I remember a story in which both the Lord Chancellor 

 and the Lord Chief Justice, then Sir Alexander Cockburn, 

 figured. The latter took a house and some shooting in the 

 neighbourhood of Lingfield in Sussex, and among his 

 guests at one of his shooting parties were Lord Westbury 

 and his son, Dick Bethell. Cockburn had never seen 

 either of them shoot, but had heard Westbury telling ex- 

 traordinary stories of his success at the covert side. 



After the first beat Cockburn observed the two members 

 of the Bethell family shooting rather wildly, and as, besides 

 the pheasants, there was a good deal of ground-game in 

 the covert, he told his head keeper to post the pair close 

 together. 



Presently, from the spot where Lord Westbury and his 

 son had been posted, a yell of pain was heard, and it was 

 found that the keeper had been shot in the leg. Cockburn 

 made his appearance from quite another part of the wood ; 

 but Lord Westbury at once began to accuse his host and 

 to read him a lecture as to how careful one should be, and 

 as to the folly and danger of commencing field-sports late 

 in life. As for himself, he explained, he had been educated 

 to them from boyhood. 



The Lord Chief Justice was a great deal too polite a 

 host to make any reply. When, however, the party were 

 proceeding to a neighbouring spinney — Lord Westbury 



