CAREER AT ETON. 7 



and looking like a tench just taken out of the water, in a 

 gasping state. " What is the matter with the child ? " she 

 inquired. ^^ Nothing ; he is doing nicely,'' replied the 

 nurse. Upon examination, however, Mrs. Smith found 

 that he had succeeded in disgorging a large pin which he 

 had swallowed, and which he was munching as boys do 

 lolljpops. In 1783, when only seven years old, he was sent 

 to Eton, at that time, as it is now, indeed, the best school 

 in England for making a man at once a scholar and a gen- 

 tleman. He was the youngest boy in the school when 

 he went, and he continued there until 1794, a period 

 of eleven years. It was here that he first acquired that 

 ardent love for athletic exercises, for skill and pro- 

 ficiency in which he was afterwards so eminently dis- 

 tinguished. He excelled especially in cricket, and his 

 fondness for this noble game he long retained in after-life, 

 as these pages will fully testify hereafter.* Boating was 

 also one of his favourite diversions. His Eton career is, 

 however, rendered most memorable by his famous battle 

 with Jack Musters, still spoken of by Etonians as one of 

 the most hard-fought and severe contests ever recorded in 

 the annals of youthful pugilism. So equally were these 

 young champions matched, that their protracted struggle 

 ended in a drawn battle. They shook hands, and, to the 

 credit of both be it recorded, the most perfect harmony and 

 high feeling towards each other existed between them ever 

 afterwards. Both were masters of hounds, and both were 

 celebrated as first-rate horsemen as well as sportsmen. t 



* Vide Appendix, No. I. 



t Mr. Musters is well known to every reader of Lord Byron as the 

 successful rival of the poet for the hand of the beautiful Mary Chaworth, 

 whom he married on the 17th of August, 1805. He was one year 

 younger than Tom Smith when the remarkable encounter between 

 them at Eton took place, their ages being respectively 17 and 18. The 

 battle lasted an hour and a half, and both were so punished at the close, 

 that in the last round they could not distinguish each other. Mr. 

 Musters, on coming of age in 1798, had his own pack of hounds. 

 It was said of him that he could ride, fence, fight, play at tennis, swim. 



