77 



way, how characteristic of a man is his hat, and the way he wears it ; 

 it is nearly as indicative of his character as his eye. 



In fact a man, if he has the will, can do most things he has a 

 taste for. I remember, when I was a boy in London, learning the 

 business of wine merchant, my father allowed me very liberal pocket 

 money, out of which, however, I had to pay for my mid-day dinner 

 in the city. After a while, I found these dinners made sad inroads 

 upon ray allowance, and that, after paying tailors' and other bills, I 

 had very little " to carry over " for amusement ; and, as my great 

 ambition was to learn to box and to drive tandem, I had to devise 

 some modus operandi, for I would not trespass further upon my good 

 father's liberality. My plan was this : I ate a tremendous breakfast 

 at eight a.m., and an equally substantial supper at ten p.m. at the 

 house of a good old aunt, where I lived ; but instead of spending 2s. 

 or 2s. 6d. on my dinner, at " Baker's," in Change Alley, or " Joe's," in 

 Finch Lane, I dined off twopenny worth of bread-and-cheese and a 

 ])ennyworth of beer at an eating-house. I must confess, however, 

 that the capital dinner my aunt gave every Sunday, and any to which 

 I was invited during the week, suffered severe punishment from my 

 healthy appetite. Now this deprivation (a very mal a j^'i'opos term, 

 by the way, when comparing grub with sport at the age of eighteen) 

 enabled me to save some 12s. or 14s. a week, which additional surplus 

 left me quite enough to enter into arrangements with Nat Langham 

 and a swell jobmaster in Piccadilly — I forget his name now — the one 

 to teach me "the noble art of self-defence," and the other how to 

 drive one horse before the other. By steady attendance upon " old 

 Nat" from six to eight nightly, I soon became tolerably handy 

 with the gloves ; and as I spent every Saturday afternoon and any 

 odd hours I could get away during the week with the head lad of the 

 stables, it was not very long before I was equally handy with the 

 ribbons, so that after about six months I was honoured by Nat's intro- 

 ducing me to a distinguished audience at the Mitre Tavern, as " a new 

 Corinthian novice," and right proud I was on the occasion ! My other 

 mentor was equally good ; in fact, as regards my pocket, very much 

 better, for he often gave me a tandem gratis to show them off in the 

 Park on a summer's Saturday afternoon. Reader,7orgiYe this egotistic 

 digression, but the pen refuses to leave unrecorded what memory 

 recalls with such mingled feelings of pleasure and regret. Ay, and 

 I now remember that by doing without dinners I had an odd day 

 now and again with the Surrey Staghounds and West Kent Fox- 

 hounds. What pleasure would it give me now to remember dinners 

 I ate over thirty years ago ! But I have a great deal of pleasure in 

 thinking of the " rounds " at Old Nat's, and the rounds of the Park 

 in those heedless, happy days, 



I agree entirely with Colonel Davenport's concluding remarks in 

 the chapter on foxhunting in his splendid book entitled "Sport," 

 and " ugly visions sometimes haunt me " too — visions of a time coming 



