3 o MR. HENRY PAD WICK. 



not know whether the failing was inherent in his 

 character ; but it was one that he cherished to the 

 end, leading him unfortunately into both loss and 

 trouble. Necessarily, in his calling he was no stranger 

 to litigation. Yet he must have always been well 

 advised to work behind the scenes, for I do not 

 remember his appearance in the witness-box, where 

 many of his craft are too often seen to their disgrace. 

 He did not believe in the adage, ' Neither a borrower 

 nor a lender be,' for he was both. Indeed, to borrow 

 with one hand and lend with the other to his own 

 advantage was the one object of his life, to which all 

 other motives were made secondary. I do not profess 

 to be able to describe exactly his modus operandi ; 

 but I should think the following would represent 

 what he would consider a good transaction, and one 

 dear to his heart. The advance of a few thousands 

 at the outset would soon be doubled and trebled by 

 accumulated interest and expenses into a formidable 

 sum. To this would be added a few race-horses at his 

 own prices, some houses perhaps, or a few acres of 

 land of which he wanted to be rid ; and these would 

 form the sole consideration for which the title-deeds 

 of an ancestral estate would pass from the hands of 

 the luckless borrower into his own. In this, or a 

 similar way, he became possessed of Spye Park, one 

 of the most beautiful and romantic estates in Wilt- 

 shire ; and of how many more nobody knows, although 

 Mr. Forbes Bentley, the purchaser of Mr. Pad wick's 



