FULWAR CRAVEN. 99 



FULWAR CRAVEN: 



"A BIT OF. A CHARACTER." 



'^ FuLWAR Craven/' as witli something' more than a 

 contempt for the conventionallfr.he insisted on being called, 

 was a bit of a character it was hard to lose. There was 

 an eccentricity about the man that was all his own. It 

 was in obedience neither to any passing* whim of fashion 

 nor the ^^ fancy" that he chose to be odd and remarkable 

 — and remarkable he always was. He was an orio'inal, 

 no doubt; in a day when there were more of the sort than, 

 there are in our own dull and decorous times ; but even 

 then, he ever stood out from amongst his fellows. Try him 

 by the severest of tests. Take him at Ascot in^ perhaps, the 

 very prime of its history, as that glorious procession was 

 seen rising the New Mile — when youth and beauty, wealth 

 and taste, rank and splendour, did all they could to en- 

 chant one. When D'Orsay the Magnificent displayed 

 his wristbands, threw back his light overcoat, and re- 

 joiced in the enormous spread of his blue satin stock, just 

 as a peacock might in the full effulgence of his plumage. 

 "When good Sir Gilbert, always a bit of a buck in his way, 

 gave us a thorough '^ study" of the Old English Gentle- 

 man, with the silver buttons on his coat, the silver cord to 

 the knees of his breeches, the one or two smart under- 

 waistcoats, and the immaculate white cravat. When 



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