CHAP. IV.] Mr. G. Payne. 14^ 



room and were making free with the provisions, he 

 instantly took off his coat, and went for the lot. The 

 appearance only of the stalwart cricketer was sufficient 

 to scatter the thieves, and the captain of the Sulby side 

 resumed his seat regretting that the *'' curs ^^ would not 

 stop to be thrashed. 



The unaccountable '^ glamour " of the " P. R," has al- 

 ready been referred to, and in George Payne it found one 

 of its most earnest advocates. An old sportsman living at 

 Brixworth, and now approaching his seventy-eighth year, 

 told the writer of these pages that he witnessed a great 

 fight that came off near Towcester many years ago 

 between two celebrated pugilists. Standing near him 

 was a neighbouring Duke, and hard by were other 

 county magnates and Justices of the Peace ! The day was 

 bitterly cold, but such was the excitement in seeing two 

 men knock each other out of all shape, that the narra- 

 tor never felt it for a moment, and described the spectacle 

 as being ^' one of the most interesting and enjoyable he 

 ever witnessed ! ^' He added the following corollary to 

 his proposition, namely, that on the same night three or 

 four of the houses round about were broken into, and that 

 the rioting and drunkenness that went on in Towcester 

 were disgraceful in the extreme. Such was Mr. Payne^s 

 influence with the ^' P.R.^' and its associates, that when 

 " Owen Swift ^' fought " Atkinson of Nottingham '' near 

 Horton, the contest was not allowed to commence until 

 he appeared upon the ground. 



During his second Mastership of the Pytchley hounds, 

 ill-success upon the turf, and losses in other directions, 

 had produced their usual results, and Sulby Hall with 

 the property attached was doomed to pass into other 



