PERSONAL HABITS AND PECULIARITIES. 125 



was the plainest man in England, generally adding, in allu- 

 sion to his famous pugilistic encounter at Eton, "that 

 fellow, Jack Musters, spoilt my beauty/' His ordinary 

 dress was a blue coat with brass buttons, and a buff waist- 

 coat ; during the hunting season he dined in scarlet, the 

 inside of the coat being lined with white silk. In his mode 

 of living he was particularly abstemious as regarded drink- 

 ing ; but in eating he indulged more freely, and his 

 appetite was surprising. The immense exercise which he 

 was daily in the habit of taking, and his early hours in the 

 morning, required an adequate supply of nourishment, and 

 after his severest day's work he was never " off his feed." 

 The copious plate of hashed mutton, which was his constant 

 breakfast before going out to hunt, even to the last hastily 

 eaten while his horse was at the door, and digested in the 

 saddle, was a proof how well he was able to set all rules of 

 diet at defiance : unlike the more careful and no less cele- 

 brated Meynell, whose hunting breakfast was a pound of 

 the best veal condensed to as much souj) as would fill a 

 small tea-cup. In Tom Smith's bachelor days, relates an 

 old friend who saw a good deal of him at that period, his 

 usual dinner was mutton soup of the best description, and a 

 couple of glasses of claret. " I once rode with him to Hun- 

 gerford," he adds, " in a bitter cold frost, and our luncheon 

 was tea and toast." The fact was, his hearty breakfast 

 served him for the day, and he seldom took anything, until 

 quite latterly, between that meal and his dinner. 



In his friendships he was warm, generous, faithful, and 

 noble-hearted ; on the other hand, like all men of ardent 

 temperament, he had his dislikes, and never took any pains 

 to conceal them. Where he had once conceived an aver- 

 sion, he could be seldom brought to overcome it. This 

 peculiarity he inherited from his father, who used to say of 

 himself, " No man was ever in my company twelve hours 

 without fully perceiving whether I liked or disliked him." 

 " And no man," rejoined the friend to whom the remark 



