348 SPORTING STORIES 



his retirement. He retired at 84, after two-and-twenty 

 years on the Bench, and it was not till four years later that 

 he died, hale and vigorous to the last. 



Among the present ornaments of the judicial Bench, Sir 

 Thomas Tovvnsend Bucknill is the most pronounced lover 

 of sport. " Tommy Bucknill," as his friends call him, has 

 always been a keen sportsman. In his younger days he 

 was one of the cleverest light-weight boxers I have ever 

 met among amateurs — the cleverest, I think, was the late 

 Thomas Brett, of the Chancery Bar, whose learned Com- 

 mentaries will long keep his memory green in both 

 branches of his profession. " Tom " Brett was as eccentric 

 as he was brilliant, and his eccentricity was unfortunately 

 a bar to his success. He was a good all-round athlete, 

 but boxing was his forte, and I have often accompanied 

 him in our " salad days " to the Blue Anchor in Shoreditch, 

 where he would put on the gloves against all comers — pro- 

 fessional or amateur — and so well did he acquit himself 

 against the pro.'s that I have often heard derisive cries of 

 " Which is the hama-toor ? " from the critical spectators. 

 Brett was standing counsel to the " Fancy," and I have 

 known such eminent ornaments of the Prize Ring as Jem 

 Mace and Joe Goss express the profoundest reverence for 

 his legal acumen. 



Another mighty athlete of those days was Richard 

 Ouseley Blake Lane, now K.C. and one of the West 

 London Police Magistrates. He, too, was a fine boxer, a 

 heavy-weight standing considerably over six feet, remark- 

 ably powerful, and singularly active for his size. Like Tom 

 Brett, he was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and 

 both of them afforded signal proof that men of muscle may 

 also be men of brains. 



But " Tommy " — I beg his lordship's pardon, I mean 

 Mr Justice Bucknill, was what neither of these fine boxers 

 could ever claim to be : he was a first-rate horseman, and 

 at one time promised to take high rank among the gentle- 

 men riders of England both on the flat and across country. 

 But for a serious affection of the eyes, which for many 

 anxious months threatened to deprive him altogether of 

 sight, he would probably have made a considerable name 



