Life and Times of The Druid

LIFE AND TIMES
OF
<(
THE DRUID"
{HENRY HALL DIXON).
HON.
FRANCIS LAWLEY.
THIRD EDITION.
With a New Chapter Containing Reminiscences of " The Druid," by His Wife.
LONDON
VINTON &
8,
Co.,
Limited,
Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.

1912.
DEDICATED,
BY KIND PERMISSION,
TO THE
Right Honoujiable The

IN
EARL OF ROSEBERY,
K.G.^
GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF
HIS
WELL-KNOWN APPRECIATION
OF "THE DRUID'S " WRITINGS,

IN
CONNECTION WITH WHICH HE HAS LATELY

DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS
" ONE WHO FINDS CONSTANT REFRESHMENT

" FROM READING A FEW PAGES OF THIS
"HEALTHY AND
VIVID AUTHOR,
POET,
"HALF SPORTSMAN AND HALF
"WHO
HAS PRODUCED
"A NUMBER
"WHICH
IN
OF VOLUMES,
THEIR WAY ARE MASTERPIECESi.

BE SURPASSED."
"AND WILL NEVER
PREFACE.
It
is
time that a
life
of perhaps the most pleasing
sporting writer of the present century should be

written, or attempted.
t;yclopaedia
which
in
a
After searching every Enand Dictionary of Biography upon could lay ray hand, I have not been suc-
cessful in finding the
name of " Henry
Hall Dixon
"
any of them.
On
the other hand, there
is in all
memoir, sometimes a prolonged memoir, of Mr,

it is
William Hepworth Dixon, although

Jive as long
more than
will
" Silk
doubtful whether any of his numerous books

as "
Post and Paddock," or

in
and
Scarlet."
The only volume
which
is
can find any
mention of
^'
my
present hero
in a
work
called
Celebrities of the Century," edited by Lloyd C*
Sanders (formerly Exhibitioner of Christ Church

College, Oxford), and published
by Messrs.
Cassell
and Co. (Limited) in 1887.

I refer is in the following
The
:
notice to which
words
"Dixon, Henry Hall; born 1822, died
1870:
viii
Preface
sporting writer, well

'
The Druid and was educated

:'
known through his pseudonym was the son of a cotton manufacturer,

at
Rugby under
Dr. Arnold.
He contributed largely to the Press on sporting and agricultural matters, but is now chiefly
remembered
for his
life
admirable memoirs and descripin

'
tions of country
Post and Paddock' (1856)

'Scott and Sebright'
'Silk and Scarlet' (1858);
(1862); 'Field
Sirloin' (1870);
and Fern' (1865); 'Saddle and and also for his treatise on 'The
fourth edition, 1879)."
felt
Law
of the
Farm' (1858;
need be
Little surprise
that the " Dictionary

first
of National
Leslie
Biography," edited at
by Mr.
now by Mr. Sidney Lee, should omit all mention of " The Druid." From the first commencement of that monumental work down to the present hour, when it is more
Stephen, and
than half completed, sport of

rule,
all
kinds has, as a
or
altogether
been
insufficiently
It is to
treated,
ignored.
be regretted that the editor or
editors did not select for the task of dealing with
open-air sports
some expert who was
as fond of
them and
as capable of doing justice to their most

is
conspicuous votaries as Mr. Joseph Knight
of
commemorating
This
lives
is
actors, actresses,
and dramatists.
all
the
more
to be regretted, because the
of the three Chiffneys (not Chifneys) have been well handled by Mr. G. C. Boase. Surely, however, Elnathan Flatman, commonly called " Nat,"
Preface:
ix
deserved a vatessacer, if for no other reason than that the example of as honest a jockey as ever got into
the saddle might with great advantage have been
held up for imitation and emulation by other members of that dangerous profession. No trainer,
except William Chiffney, has thus

in this
far
found a place
storehouse of biographies, and no jockey, with

It is earnestly
the exception of George Fordham.

to be
hoped that among the lives still to be treated, those of Robert Robson, once called the " Emperor
of Trainers,'' of James
Robinson, the Prince of

not be forgotten.
I fear,
jockeys, of John Scott of Whitewall House, Malton,
and of his brother.
Bill Scott, will
As
regards other trainers and jockeys, few,
are likely to find admission to pages which ought
surely to be devoted to qiiicqnid agunt homines.

is
It
true that in the

is
memoir of the
three Chififneys
made of " the famous jockey, Frank Butler," who was nephew to the younger Sam Chiffney and of William, his brother. When, howmention
Frank Buckle, the Dawsons, the two John Days, Alfred Day, Flatman, Conolly, Forth, Frank Butler, Job Marson, and many others, are unnoticed, and only the two Chiffneys and George Fordham
ever,
mentioned, there
is
a sense of incompleteness in
the ensemble of a work to which in other respects

I
myself owe deep obligations, and which,

its
in the
in. its
regularity with which
volumes appear, and
general fulness, accuracy and excellence, awakens
Preface
all
gratitude and pride in the minds of
capable of
loving and appreciating literary

for the
work
honestly, and
most part elegantly, executed.
That " The Druid's " memory deserves to be held in honour by succeeding generations will be cheerfully conceded by those of his admiring contemporaries,
whom
the scythe of the universal reaper.
Time, has not yet
may, however, be necessary to impress upon younger readers of this work that " The Druid's " claims upon their
away.
It
mown
attention rest mainly
upon the following
substantial
foundations
I.
" The Druid
"
was one of the most

just
inflexibly
honest, upright,
and
men
that ever lived, and
could not be induced, on any pretext, to accept the

slightest pecuniary
reward for his writings, beyond
the small honorarium paid to him by his employers,
which never exceeded six hundred pounds a

all told.
year,
In the following pages

late
it
will
be found how
he made the
Mr. Rarey's fortune, and how the
attempts of the latter to give a complimentary

present to Mrs. Dixon, in recognition of the invaluable services rendered to him by her high-minded and disinterested husband, were indignantly repulsed by " The Druid " himself. So delicate was
his sense of
honour that when he went down
to a
stud farm to describe a yearling sale he would not
even accept luncheon from the owner of the place lest he might be suspected of being biassed, if his
Preface
xi
honest conviction led him to praise some of the

lots
brought up for auction.
of his eldest son,
The disappointment Mr. Sydenham Dixon, when, as

bountiful luncheon, to which
a hungry boy of twelve, he was forced by his father

to turn
away from a
in
both were invited, and to munch some dry bread
and cheese
a public house,
is
amusingly de-
scribed in Chapter VIII. of this work.
was never known to wager more than ten shillings upon a horse race, and, as a rule, he never betted at all. In the preface to his " Post and Paddock " he tells us that " he has simply written of the Turf as he has known it for
"
II." The Druid
some years
past, not
through the feverish medium

its
of the betting ring, but as
leading features were
brought to his mind by an occasional stroll on to a racecourse on a crack afternoon, through the boxes
at Tattersall's, or
farm."
among
the paddocks of a stud
As regards the accuracy of his descriptions III. "The Druid" has never been surpassed when he wrote of scenes which came under his own observation.
rare penetration as "half sportsman
Lord Rosebery has spoken of him with and half poet

;
and the amount of poetry which he infused into his writings will be recognised by those to whom many passages, scattered like gems throughout his works, are as familiar as they are to Lord Rosebery
himself.
xii
Preface
IV.
"The
Druid's "equal in endurance of hard-
ship,
exposure to weather, scanty fare and personal

all,
discomfort, and the courage with which he faced
and never flinched even when suffering from painful sickness and exhausting
and disregarded them

disease,
Press,
is
not to be found
living.
among
writers for the

I
dead or
Many
years ago
received
now Dean of Westa letter from Dr. Bradley was at Rugby and in the minster, same house with " The Druid," who visited his old school-fellow, then Head Master of Marlborough, under the following circumstances. At the time of which I am now speaking there was no railway
Dr. Bradley,
to
Marlborough, and the nearest station Swindon Junction upon the Great Western
thirteen
was
Rail-
way, distant about

borough.
miles
from
Marl-
One summer
afternoon there appeared
at Dr. Bradley's door a travel-stained pedestrian
with a huge portmanteau on his shoulder, which
he had carried
all
the
way from Swindon
to
It Marlborough across the Wiltshire Downs. " The Druid," who had made his way proved to be on foot to Marlborough in order to inspect the
racing establishments in the neighbourhood
that
of Alec
Taylor at
Fyfield,
where
Sir
Joseph
Hawley's horses were then trained; that of Jones, Alec Taylor's nearest neighbour, from which Marl-
borough Buck went forth, to run second Teddington for the Derby of 1851; and that
to of
Preface
Treen, at Beckhampton, (now occupied by
Darling,) at whicli for
xiii
Sam
many
years the horses of Sir
William Gregory, Captain Mervyn Archdall, and
Lord Bolingbroke were prepared for their engage" The Druid " was hospitably entertained for three days by Dr. Bradley, who in the letter to which I am now referring spoke of him as " the horsiest
ments.
Christian that he had ever encountered."
it is
When
remembered
that "
The Druid
"
rode on horsein
back from the Orkneys to Kensington

winter of 1864-65, arriving at
the severe
home
" in the
snow
of a February night, with fourpence in his pocket,
on the back of a Highland garron which he had bought for j los. at Pomona, in the Orkneys,"
little
surprise
will
be
felt
that
from the
effects
of that
exposed and
trying
journey he never
recovered.
As
a slight' tribute to the
memory
of one of the
most unselfish, courageous, modest, conscientious,

and pure-minded of men, the following pages are offered by his friend and admirer,
Thk Author.
1895
PREFACE TO THE "DRUID SPORTING LIBRARY" EDITION.

The copyright of the " Druid Sporting Library'' having been acquired by the present
publishers, the question of revision
sidered.
was duly conto
Any
idea of materially interfering with

it
the text was abandoned, and
was determined
introduce as few changes as possible, but to carefully revise the work, correcting little inaccuracies
that had escaped the notice of the author. Instead of altering the framework of the four books constiit was decided to add a fifth to number, and the publishers have been fortunate the in obtaining the co-operation of the Honourable Francis Lawley, who has carried out the congenial task of writing the " Life and Times of The Druid,' " which will now form a companion volume to the series, adding to their completeness in a more satisfactory manner than could have been accomplished in any other way. The titles of the volumes of the " Druid Sporting Library " are as
tuting the library,
'
follows
The Post and the Paddock. Silk and Scarlet. Scott and Sebright. Saddle and Sirloin. Life and Times of "The
Fehmary, 1895.
Druid."
PREFACE TO THE "RED LEATHER" EDITION.

years two FOR more than thirtyrecording additional volumes by "The Druid" Herds and
visits to
Flocks and sporting centres in Scotland under the title of "Field and Fern" have been- out of print, and have only been obtainable when second-hand copies came into the market. The first volume dealt with the North, and the second with the South of In response to repeated requests, the Scotland. publishers have reprinted these volumes, and have included them in "The Druid" Sporting Library, which now consists of seven volumes, viz.
:
The Post and The Paddock.

Silk and Scarlet. Scott and Sebright. Field and Fern (North). Field and Fern (South).
Saddle and Sirloin. Life and Times of "The Druid."

In preparing the two new volumes for press, the same method has been adopted as with the others there has been no attempt to bring the subject down
;
xviii
Preface
to the "
Red Leather "

have done
this
Edition.
to the present time, as to
would have
destroyed the charm of the author's attractive style. But it is very desirable that readers should bear in mind that the period referred tq jn these pleasant pages is from 1862 to 1865, when "The Druid" carried out his survey in the most thorough and painstaking way, collecting a vast amount of interesting information on Stock Breeding and Sport in Scotland.
Seplembeir, I9I2<
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface
.
I.
...
...
.
...
...
v.
xi.
i
Chapter Chapter Chapter

Chapter
Birthplace and
Rugby Days
its
Influences
...
...
II.
Birth and Parentage

...
.
...
...
29
45
III.
...
...
IV.
Cambridge Days and early Married Life

Reminiscences of his early Life
''
...
82
114 133
Chapter v. Further
...
" The Doncaster Gazette Chapter VII. "The Druid's" Eccentricities and Absence
Chapter
VI.
...
...
of
Mind
VIII.
...
...
...
..,
...
183
Reminiscences by his eldest Son Chapter IX. Decline of Cumberland Wrestling

Chapter
...
198
...
212
235 257 275
ChapterX. "The
Chapter XI.
Druid's" Versatility
...
...
His many-sided Sympathies Chapter XII. His Love of Children

...
...
...
...
...
Chapter XIII. "The Druid "as

Chapter XIV. The " Old
a Politician
...
...
287 308
Mortality " of the Turf
...
Chapter XV. "The

Death
...
...
Druid's " Endurance, Character, and

...
...
322
Chapter XVI. Reminiscences of "The
Druid,'' by his
Wife
335
ENGRAVINGS.
Dixon, Henry Hall
...
Rugby, The Schools
...
Rugby, The Head Master's House

Zetland, Earl of
Sykes, Sir Tatton
Lynes, G. B.
" The Orkneys

Dispatch"
to
Kensington with Punctuality and
LIFE
AND TIMES OF
"THE DRUID."
CHAPTER
HIS BIRTHPLACE
I.
AND
ITS
INFLUENCES.
atlife
is
worse than useless to
tempt to write a man's

unless
something
the
place
is
first
said
about
and
atmo-
sphere in which he was born. Horace Twiss, in his admirable biography of Lord Chancellor Eldon, attributes no
small
to
portion of his hero's
success
in
life
the fact that he was born at the foot
of a "chare."
in
The narrow
streets, or lanes,
Newcastle-on-Tyne are
called,
in
local
is
phraseology "chares," and Lord

said to
Eldon
have remarked one day from
the
Life and Times of " The Druid."

in
Bench
It
the
Court of Chancery that he

" charefoot."
himself had
been born in a
was
in
William Scott,
"chare" of this kind that father of Lord Stowell and
Lord Eldon, passed his active and useful each of these great legal luminlife, and aries remembered to his dying hour the
Grammar School
at
Newcastle
in
which
their
education commenced.
It was presided over by a clergyman named Moises, of whom Lord Eldon writes, in his " Anecdote Book," that "The head master was that eminent
scholar and most excellent
man, the Rev.

I
Mr. Moises, whose memory

to
shall hold in
I
the utmost venefatioii so Idftg as

exist."
continue
Mr. William Scott
" gathered
coal-
gear" enough as a "hdastman" or

fitter,
to send his
two famous
sons, William,
to
Lord
Stowell,
and John,
1761,
Lord Eldon,
Oxford, where the elder graduated at Corpus

Chrlsti College in
and the yoUttgerat
University College in 1766.

It
was due, however,
to the industrious and
thrifty habits
which the two boys picked Up
at their father's well-ordered
Lane, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
home in that when
LoVfi
they
His Birthplace and

went
bear.
its Injliienc^s.
forth into
to
proved
no work and no privations be greater than they were able to

life,
In
like
manner
Mr.
Henry
Hall
" I have undertaken to write, owed no slight debt of
Dixon, a sketch of whose
" Life
gratitude to the county in which he
first
saw
the light.
The
Walter
true history of the " Border " can best

in the writings
be found
Scott,
and poems of Sir whose famous lines

:
!
"St. George
a stirring
life
they lead
Who
tell
have such neighbours near,"
of the stormy times passed by the dwel-
Cumberland and Westmoreland when Solway Firth was their sole protection the
lers in
against the Scottish moss-troopers, of

for all time
whom
William of Deloraine
will
stand as
the typical representative.
But the Solway,
although in
broad,
many
places about twelve miles
was no adequate protection against an enterprising, aggressive, and warlike people.

It
could
well
be crossed*
acquainted
at
low tide by horsewith

its
men
f
sands and
eddies,
and
for this reason the northern half
Cumberland was constantly exposed
to thf
" The Druid" Life and Times of
depredations of the Scots.

farmstead,
No
the
village,
full
no
of of
no
cattle-yard,
no stable
horses was
safe
against
incursions
these lawless and daring marauders,

ried
who
car-
away
all
that they could drive
before
them into For these obvious reasons the people of Cumberland found it necessary from the
earliest times to stand to their
Annandale and Nithsdale.
arms
in order
to resist
and drive
off their troublesome tor-
mentors.
They
fortified their houses, leaving
a large vaulted chamber beneath into which

their cattle
were driven
at night.
Along
the
as
whole length of the Border,

they were
called,
castles
Peel Towers
were
or
erected
at a distance of a mile
in
from each
other, and
some cases there was an underground road
of communication between them.

these old keeps
still
Some
feet
of
survive, disclosing walls
about ten feet in thickness, a few

the ground.
above
They were
found*
divided into three

stable
storeys, the lower
one being an arched

shelter.
where the
sive door
cattle
The
mas-
was then fastened, and the men mounted to the upper rooms. If assailed,
they betook
themselves to their weapons,
His Birthplace and
its Influences.
and threw down from the roof huge rocks, or poured boiling water or molten lead upon
those
who ventured
to
attack
them.
But
when
the cattle had been safely housed this
was rarely attempted, for the moss-troopers were in too great a hurry to sit down before
fortified places.
In
the
meantime alarm
every
hill-top,
beacons
were
church
blazing
from
and
towers were used for the same purpose.
The
Cumberland and Westmoreland peaks and towers, which were lighted up to call the surrounding country to arms, were at Black-
combe, Skiddaw, Landale Top, Carlisle Castle,
Mulcaster
ington Hill,
ton,
Head, WorkBrampton Mote, Dale RaughFell,
St. Bee's
and Penrith.
in
In course of time there

families
grew up
booters,
Cumberland
of free-
among whom the Graemes, the Rutledges, and the Howards soon became as dashing and fearless as the Elliots, Armstrongs and Scotts from the northern side of
the
Border.
This
unsettled
condition
all
of
affairs led to
the destruction of
result that
morality
and order, with the
on both sides
of the Border, freebooting and cattle-stealing
Life and Times of " The Druid"
were regarded as honest and respectablfe proThe women were as bad as the fessions.
men, and
the
Scotch
gudewife
minded her sons when they sat to dinner that the last fat sheep was in the pot, and that if they wanted something to eat next day they must go and fetch it, was more than matched by the Cumberland matron,
who down
re-
who served up
three pairs of spurs in a
dish,
from which she pulled
off the cover, exclaim-
ing to her husband and her two sons that as
she had no meat for them to

for
eat,
it
was time
them
to buckle
on their spurs and go

there was a
forth to seek some.
Between the two countries

long
lay
strip called the
Debatable Land, which

belonged neither
to
the
north
of Carlisle, between the

It
rivers
Esk and
Sark.
England nor Scotland, and was infested outlaws and " reivers " from both, to whom its bc^gy and mossy surface
to
by thieves,
afforded a safe sanctuary.
does had, as
Camden
These desperasays, " no measure

;
of law save the length of their swords
and when caught alive, which was seldom the case, they met promptly with Jedburgh, or
His 6irthphce and

" jfeHdart" jasticethat
its Infiuences.
is
to say, they were
hattged
all,
Worst of says the " History of Cumberland," were

first
and
tried afterwards.
the Grsetttes of Netherby, from descended the brave General
whom
Elliot,
were
who
great
defended Gibmltar, and Sir James Graham,

with
whom
"
The Druid " was always a

raid,
favourite.
for
When
the hungry Scots prepared
a southward
they either waded the
Sol way, or forded the Liddel or the Esk.
Crossing the Border by secret ways known

only to themselves, and with a bag of oatmeal
slung to every man's saddle-bow, they met at
some appointed tryst, and flung themselves upon a lonely farmhouse, whence they drove Many a time off the cattle and sheep.
were they hunted with sleuth-hounds, which
tracked them to their retreats
among
the
hills,
and it was not until long after the Union of England and Scotland took place in Queen Anne's reign that the Border feuds began to
die out, and the inhabitants on either side
were
left
to cultivate their fugged acres in

tranquillity.
it is
peace and
It is
said that even to this day
difficult
to induce a Carlisle jury to convict a
man
of
Life and Times of " The
Druid"
murder, but when, on the other hand, the

offence
is
cattle
is
lifting
or sheep
stealing,'
conviction
certain.
From
or
these lawless
surroundings and
antecedents
sprang
the
fai"-
Cumberland
mers,
" Statesmen "
yeomen
who were
neither squires nor labourers,
and
of
until
a comparatively recent date lived

all
without money, and got

life
the necessaries
barter
by a system of exchange or
which they carried on with their neighbours.
Uncorrupted by luxury,
and blessed with

to get through
enough of
life,
this world's
goods
they passed their blameless existence

the
lonely scaurs, hills and
fells
among
of
and were as "stout of heart and steady of hand " as their forefathers, who
their native land,
lived always
on the
alert to resist the
armed
irruptions of the thieving Scot.
"
the greatest fatigue," writes one
They bear who knew
them well, "with patience and endurance, and living contentedly on humble fare, offer
the best that their houses contain to strangers
who seek in money

and
their hospitality.
Though
not rich
or land, they are rich in character
healthful contentment, their houses being
schools of thrift and industry.
The
clothing
His Birthplace and

is
its
Influences.
made at home, by women who spin their own linsey wolsey, while the men go to kirk
and chapel
in
homespun hodden
gray.
Stal-
wart sons and comely maidens are brought
up on porridge, oatcake and milk

they desire no better food.
in fact,
Occasionally
barley bannocks, Whillimer cheese (a corruption,

I
believe, of
bit of
Windermere), potato-pot,
and a
bacon vary the humble repast."
On
this fare the
become
they are
lusty
Cumbrians thrive well, and and strong. For the most part
of large stature, big boned and
men
broad chested, with firm muscles, well-knit

joints,
and sinewy arms, which give them
great advantage as wrestlers, and what they
want
in
and suppleness they make up sturdy stiffness and strength.

in agility
when Sir James Graham was appointed High Sheriff of Cumberland, he

In 1828,
was met outside Carlisle by a cavalcade of mounted " Statesmen," whom he called " a body of men not to be matched in any other It is sad to be compart of the kingdom." pelled to confess that the Cumberland States-
man
is
already a thing of the past.
One
of
the greatest misfortunes connected with Free
lo
Life and Times df " The Druid*^

is
Trade
that
small holdings have disapits
peared under
influence,
together
with
those fine specimens of
yeomen
farmers who
were once the strength and pride of England,
and of
i860, that
whom "many a
Dr. Lonsdale wrote,
in
canny homestead, where
yeomen had
traditions of
for centuries held their
own and
affords
days.'
taught their sons and grandsorts the proud

their
'
race,
no lonêf
shelter to the
weel-kennt folk of ither
Even
the names of the founders of these

in
time-honoured families are forgotten, and
many
rural
districts
this
disappearance of
reflections of a
obliteration of
names awakens
kind.
by no means agreeable
changes affecting
Among many
interests in the
is
men and
northern counties of England, none
more
marked, none sadder, than that arising from

the ceaseless acquisition of real estate, and
the absorption of small
holding's
by large
landed proprietors,
who
are scarcely
known
they
by sight
live."
to the people
among whom
How much "The
Druid" owed
to the
brave and rugged character of the simple,

manly, and truthful Cumbrians
among whom
His Birthplace and

he was
its Influences.
will, I think, be apparent from the following description of him written by
bom
widow, whose love for him has survived and been intensified by the twenty-four
his
years which have elapsed since his death.*

It
was from Cumberland
that
he acquired
is
the noble qualities with which he

in the following
credited
sketch, to which
any word
if
added by
"
me would
be superfluous,
not an
impertinence.
The
Druid," writes his widow, " was a

will,
man
ance,
of iron
and indomitable perseverand with absolutely no regard for the

life.
ordinary comforts of
He
called
would
rise at
daybreak,
if
his
work
him
to
make
* Dr. Smiles, the able biographer of " George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist," tells us in his preface, that he was for a long time unwilling to write the life of a man whom he had not known personally, and who seemed to him to offer nothing but ordinary and prosaic materials for treatment. " It was not," he adds, " until Dr. Percival, head master of Clifton College (now of Rugby School), called upon me, that I ascertained something of the actual life and charHe spoke to me of the man acter of George Moore. and not of the warehouseman. He said in a letter There is which 1 afterwards received from him so much genuine character in Cumberland folk that
:
'
12

effort,
such an
sleep
but his general habit was to

all
till
noon,
his
hardest work being
done between lo p.m. and 2 a.m. His hours Breakfast he for meals were most irregular.
rarely took,
and
his lunch often consisted of
a biscuit and a glass of milk.
One
large
meal was
this
all
that he
seemed
to need, and
was usually taken late at night. Till illness obliged him to follow his doctor's inHe structions, water was his sole beverage. had a weakness, however, for a cup of tea His dress was as little in the afternoon.
studied as his other personal comforts, and in
order to induce him to put on a

it
new garment
was needful to secrete the old one, and

sure you will be attracted by them.
I feel
You
will
Mr. Moore's boyhood and early life are sufficiently characteristic to enable you to use some of the excellent material furnished by the habits and traditions of the district. Then I hope you will also find sufficient illustrations in his middle life of his splendid pluck and energy, and
find that the incidents of
again in his later

trait
life
of his rare liberality.
ought to be instructive because of

I
among men who have never come man who had so entirely
rarity
did.
This last extreme have had to struggle as he

its
across any other self-made got the chill of poverty out
of his bones.'
"
His
Birthplace
and
its
its Influences.
13
real
place the other in
stead.
His one
anxiety seemed to be about his gaiters, with-
which he never went abroad, and so much store did he set by them that when his
out
sons had to pass through an ordeal of any un-
common
kind (such as a competitive exam-
ination or
making an
offer of marriage),
he
invariably offered to lend
them
his gaiters.
He
his
entreated permission to wear them on
own wedding day

fairly off
tucked them into his
and on being refused, pocket and put them on

;
when
with his bride for Northamp-
ton Station. Occasionally he picked up queer-
looking garments in out-of-the-way places.
One huge
ber
;
white driving coat

six
well
remem-
it
had
capes,
and possibly once
belonged to the driver of a stage coach.
Arrayed
in this,
and pacing up and down a
railway platform, talking to himself, or rather,
repeating aloud some quaint story he had
heard or read, he often attracted attention.
One day I was seated on a bench in a railway station when a gentleman remarked to What eccentric characters you meet me,
'
everywhere!
queer
coat,
Only look
at that fellow in the
muttering to himself like a
man
14
in
Life and Times of " Ther

a dream.
is.'
Drui4"
I
'
should like to
know who an
'
what he
satisfy
Oh
!
'
replied,
is
can soo
;
your curiosity
he
my
husband
it
me
introduce him to you.'
Need
be adde
that the
unhappy wight vanished through

other point affecting
'
side door.
"
One
The
Druid's
anj
hi
personal appearance caused him

ious
much
care
and thought.
On
it
the top of
head one rebellious lock of hair

stood erect.
persistentl
To
control
he always kept
hair brush in his pocket, of which he
mad
vigorous use on
unseasonable.
it
all
occasions, seasonable an
Failing in this
way
to reduc
to order,
he resorted to such profuse applies

at the hous
he?i
tions of
pomatum, that on dining
of a prim maiden lady, he leaned his
against the delica,te paper of her drawing
room, when a deep round stain was

the wall, which gradually
it
left
upo
grew in size unt met her horrified gaze. "It was his constant habit to walk whe
time permitted. He thought nothing ( twenty or thirty miles, carrying a knapsacl
made
by note books, and worls of reference which were his invariable coir
pretty heavy
His Birthplace and

;
its Influences,
15
pamons more frequently than not, he would tramp ok and on, mile after mile, without giving a thought to food. This in some
measure resulted from his determination
spend nothing on himself.
his wife, to
Ever
liberal to
children and
friends^
he grudged
personal
the
smallest outlay
on
his
own
wants."
Who
many
can doubt, after reading the above
touching sketch, that "
The Druid " owed

made him what
of the attributes which
he was to the Cumbrian blood which flowed His family sprang originally in his veins ?
from a race of " Statesmen,"
whom he
resem-
bled in the austere simplicity, the sterling

honesty, the fearless truthfulness, the coura-
geous endurance of
the most
fatigue, the indifference to
danger, exposure and hard fare which were
marked of
his characteristics.
life I shall
The
gradual evolution of his
endeavour
to trace out in the following pages, but before closing this chapter
I
cannot refrain from
quoting a few sentences
from the lecture
which the
at Carlisle
filled
late Professor
Freeman
in
It
delivered
on the place
English history
by
that ancient city.
was one of
those singularly able addresses which he de

livered sporadically in English cities for the
Archseological Institute,
whose journeyings
through
panied.
many
I
parts of this island he accom-
can imagine nothing which would
have afforded "
The Druid " more
pleasure
than to listen to Professor Freeman's exhaustive unravelling of the early history of Carlisle,
and among many other passages which I have marked for citation, none would have been
more appreciated by him than the following " I have defined Carlisle as being that one
among
England which, having once become English, became British again. The unbroken English life of Carlisle begins with the coming of William Rufus and the
the cities of
settlement of his southern colony.
For two
had been
hundred years before he came

British or nothing.
it
For
at least
two hundred
years before that

lish
it
had been part of an Eng-
kingdom, that of the Angles of Northum-
For at least two hundred years it had shared the independence of those parts of Britain from which the Romans had gone, and into which the Angles or the Saxons had not yet come. Of the Roman
berland.
before that
His Birthplace and

and
tell
;
its Influences.
17
to
British
life
of the city
it
we have
Under
its
little
but that
life
had a long Roman and

various
British
no man can doubt.
shapes and corruptions of

British name,
cities
Roman and
list
we
find
it
in
every
of the
of Britain.
Luguballium or Luguballia
a
occupies a site which seems marked out by
nature for a great fortress.

specially designed to
It
is
site
guard a border, to dewasting invaders.
fend a land against dangerous neighbours,
who may one day become
And
had
this laid
duty the
it
hill
of Luguballia has
upon
I
through more than one long

to say that
period, in the
hands of more than one set of

it
masters.
is
was once tempted

a certain
not
without
fitness
that
the
spot which was to be the bulwark of England

against the Scot should of itself put on some-
what of a Scottish
that the
likeness
castle hill
in
character.
pointed out
of Carlisle bore a strong

hills
miniature to the castle

Stirling.
hill,
of
Edinburgh and
castle
In
all
three
the
It
crowns a
it
steep at one end only.
crowns
those
therefore in a different sense from
hill
towns where the

city.
fortified acropolis
forms the centre of the
At Edinburgh,
Dmid."
crowns
at Stirling, at Carlisle, the castle alike
and ends the city. It is at once an acropolis and an advanced bulwark. All three strongholds are emphatically watch towers, homes
of sentinels, standing and looking
forth to
guard the land of their friends^ and to over-
awe the land

ling in
of their enemies.
That
Stir-
duty was at least as well discharged by

the hands of an
it
English-speaking
Carlisle in the
king of Scots as
was by.
Carlisle
hands of a French-speaking king of England.
What
distinguished
is
from
it
its
two
northern fellows
that while
has shared
Teutonic
with them the championship

Britain against the Celt,
it
of
alone of the three
had already held an analogous place in days before any part of Britain was Teutonic."
I
have come across one

it
other passage
"
which
"
would have given
The
Druid
"
unfeigned delight to transcribe.
It is
from
The Old Manorial
Halls of Westmoreland
and Cumberland," by Dr. M.
W.
Taylor,
F.S.A., Vice-President of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological

in 1892,
Society.
The work was
published
and
is
the best and fullest record of
His Birthplace and
its Influences.
19
the fortresses and Peel Towers (Dr. Taylor

calls
them
" Pele ") that

first
have ever come
across.
In the
place Dr. Taylor gives
us a graphic description of Yanwath Hall, about two miles from Penrith, on the right
bank of the Eamont

of Yanwath, like
river.
The
Peel
Tower
all
Border towns of the
same epoch, was
built for defence,
and as a
from the
It
place of refuge for
men and
position
cattle
incursions of Scottish marauders.

pies a
occu-
commanding
on the south
bank of the stream, so

river
as to interpose the
between the
situation
river,
fortalice
and the enemy.

guard the ford
The
shot.
was chosen
which
is
to
over the
within half a
bow
Before the period of stone bridges,
the ford at
Yanwath was
the most important
of the passages across the

lines
Eamont.
The
it
of a British stone avenue lead to
from the south, and give the nearest access

to
Penrith,
its
or
Voreda.
This ford would,

facilities
from
shallowness, afford
for the
passage of horsemen and waders when the
more formidable waters at Eamont and Brougham were not practicable. " Let our
fancy," writes
Dr. Taylor, "carry us back
20
to
some of the scenes which may have been enacted in the hall at Yanwath during the At the far end was the fourteenth century.
dais, or raised platform of
two
steps, with
its
high table for the lord and lady and

principal
their
guests.
Down
for
the hall
in
two
rows were ranged the table-boards on
trestles,
and the benches

degree.
retainers
of
floor,
inferior
No
carpet covered the
but
it
was strewn with sweet

fragrant plants.
rushes, lavender, and
The
lower part of the
walls
was roughly cased with

whilst
wooden boards, the upper part was covered with
crimson cloth or canvas.

antlers
From
the stag
on the walls hung the

targets, lances
battle' axe,
furniture of
war
shields and
and pennons,
broadsword and
sheaves of arrows,
together
also,
and the long-bow and cross-bow,

with the trophies of the chase.
Here,
hung the
fection,
beautiful burnished armour, which
at this perioa
had attained
its
zenith of per-
and was ready
at night
to be donned hastily on the alarm note of the warder's
bugle on the towjsr signalling the firing of the beacon at Penrith. Under the benches dozed the quick-scented bloodhounds, kept
His Birthplace and

by the Lord
its Influences.
21
for the chase, and, if
need were,
for the pursuit with hot-trod of the red
hand
moss-troopers from over the Border.

pursuit of
'
The
hot trod
'
was a power given by
the Border laws to the
Wardens
of either
kingdom
lifters,
in following
it
malefactors
or
cattle
which made
lawful to pursue the
chase with hound and horn, with hue and

cry,
across the
marches into the opposite

fugitive
realm,
where the
slain.
might be apprethe armorial
hended or
Over
the chimney piece in
Yanwath Hall were blasoned

bearings of the Threlkelds.
On
the wall
behind the dais there was a hanging of arras
some famous inddent work of the fair ladies of the house an art but lately introduced into England. The period was at the end of the
tapestry representing
of chivalry, the
long reign of
Edward
III.,
or the close of
the fourteenth century, the most brilliant for
prowess
in
the whole history
of England.
The
great North of England Barons, Roger
de Clifford of Appleby, and Rainulph de

Dacre, of Dacre Castle, near Penrith,
Com-
missioners of the Border Marches, were or-
dered by Royal mandate to repair to their
22

estates
northern
and arm their followers against the Scots. The Lord of the beautiful domain of Yanwath was William de ThrelLet us picture him sitting down to keld.
dinner surrounded by his vassals and menat-arms,
who might
presently be wanted on
the
Scottish Border.
Nor
is
the
Church
unrepresented, for the white

of the
and black garb
amid the clang of the half mailed knights, and the grace is said
rustles softly
monk
by the abbot of the neighbouring monastery

of Heppe.
"The hour is half past ten a.m.,

fathers rose at five.
for our fore-
On
the upper table the
white cloth
the call
is
spread,
and the trumpet sounds
for dinner.
The pages
bring
in
ponderous dishes for the banquet, a
bountiful
and varied
the
river
fare.
Salmon from the

the great
;
pool in
below,
served sodden and with
verjuice
sauce
grey
lake-trout
at
from
wild
Ullswater
eels
;
from the Stauke

the head of a
Pooley baked
boar
in crust
grisly
speared
in
Grisdale
venison
from a stag shot by the

dale, or
bowmen
in Martinsleuth-
from a noble stag run by the
hounds from the Manor of Oglebird and
His Birthplace and

âlloched
pull their in the forest
its Influences,
s^
of Ingtewood.
Nor
to
do the men-at-arms below the
salt fail
knives from their girdles and help themselves with their fingers (there were no
forks in those days) to slices from the baron
of beef taken from an ox stolen from the

Elliots
of Liddesdale, or on
the
braes of
Annandale,
The
high table lacks not for
more
refined
samples of the culinary art
highly flavoured pastries, poignant ragouts
and stews seasoned hotly with spices and coloured with saffron, for our ancestors were
^n
vivants in their way.
Mead and
sack.
Malmsey and Rhpnish, flagons of high-spiced claret cup and ippocrass, wassail and mazer
bowl pass
freely
from hand to hand, and the

with his black jack stoup,
hatch for
his
obsequious
cellarer,
makes many a the nut brown

thirsty
fool in his
trip to the buttery
ale to
fill
up the horns of
all
comrades.
And
the
while the
motley cracks his ribald jokes, and
the band of jongleurs or wandering miijstrels

in
the music gallery strum their merriest airs
company, and sing roundelays narrating how tfae Scots fell at Halidon Hill, or some Border knjght won his spurs at
to divert the
Crecy or
Poictiers."
24
Let us turn to more modern times.

are few racing
There
Druid"
men
in
whom "The
It
would have taken more

tain
interest than in Capis
James Octavius Machell.

" rebuilt
well
in
known
that a painting of Crackenthorpe
Westmoreland,
1629, sold
by Hugh
Machell,
by Launcelot Machell, 1786, and re-purchased by James Machell, 1877," hangs upon the
wall of Captain Machell's study
It
at
Bedford Cottage, Newmarket.
may
not
be out of place
from which
to give briefly the history of
the Machell family,' extracted from the work

I
have already quoted, merely
adding that the above-mentioned Launcelot

Machell was the father of two sons, Hugh
and Thomas, the younger of whom was one of the most famous antiquaries that the
county of Westmoreland ever produced.
" Crackenthorpe Hall.

" This mansion
lies
two miles
east
to the north
fertile
of Appleby, charmingly situated on a

river-holme on
the
side of the river
Eden.
house
The
is
only remnant of the old manor
the kitchen and back part of the
His Birthplace and

premises,
its
Infiuences.
25
which present some square mullioned windows and an apartment now divided by separate partitions which was once
a portion of the old wall
old
;
it still
retains the
flush
chimney piece with a wide arch
with the wall.
The house
is
of interest as
having been the ancestral home of the Rev.
Thomas Machell,
have so often
resided
here,
the Antiquary, to
whom we
The Machell family and continued the name as possessors of the Manor of Crackenthorpe for at least 600 years. The pedigree and
referred.
succession are set forth at great length in

the
fifth
volume of MSS., now

at
in the
Dean
great
and Chapter's Library

Rev.
Carlisle,
in
by the
Thomas
into the
Machell, who,
his
zeal for the antiquity of his

ise
it
name, did Latinform of " Malus Catulus,"
and supposes that they descended from the WithCatuli among the ancient Romans.
out giving credit, however, for the validity of these pretensions, there
this
is
no doubt that
in
name
first
existed at the time of the Conit is it
quest, and, in fact,
found
Domesday
the
the
mention of
in connection with
Manor
of Crackenthorpe occurring in the
26
person of one
reign of
Halth de Manchsel,
II.
in the
Henry
None
of the family ever
acquired the rank of knight, but they seem always to have maintained their position as
gentry and squires of moderate possessions
and means.
There
is
a stone
now
set in the
in
wall of the stabling with initials and date

raised characters, thus
;
" This stone refers to LaunceJot Machell,
the father of two sons,

it
Hugh and Thomas,

in the old hall.
and
was doubtless
raised to
commemorate some
Hugli
alterations he
made
succeeded to the
the
estate, and Thomas was at same time Fellow of Queen's College,
Oxford, Fellow of the Royal Society, Rector

of Kirbythore, and Chaplain in Ordinary to
King Charles IL
It is
to his
method and
diligence as an antiquary in collecting, record-
ing and preserving information concerning

various parishes in the two counties that
all
our local
histories
have hitherto been
so
much
indebted.
His Birthplace and

"
its Infiuences.
27
:
The arms
of the Machells were

:
Sable
three greyhounds courant.
Argent collared
Or.
there
On
is
the gable of the present building
a carved stone with an escutcheon,
surmounted with a helmet, mantlings and The crest represents the head and crest.
neck of a nondescript animal
as
it
might be a
deer or goat with straight horns.

it
The
house,
built
now
stands, appears to
last
have been
during the
twenty years of the seven-
teenth century, and the design probably arose
under the inspiration of Thomas Machell, the Antiquary, who was a devoted admirer of Palladian architecture, which at
that time
was
supplanting our national style throughout the

country.
It is
single,
narrow, tenemented
building, with an extensive frontage,
and rows
style. of numerous windows in There is a very fine black oak staircase with
the modern
twisted balusters leading to the second
floor.
Here there is one apartment which affords a good example of the style of high, oblong panelling in soft wood used at the end of the
seventeenth century.
Within the framework

is
over the mantel there

it is
a painting on panel
in its original site,
and represents a hunt-
2.9
CHAPTER
II.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE,
ENRY HALL DIXON

born
1
6,
was Cumberland on May 1822, and was the second

in
son of
siding
Mr.
Peter
Dixon, a
re-
large cotton
at
manufacturer
Warwick
old,
Bridge,
near Carlisle.
In 1820, Mr. Peter Dixon, being then thirty-
one years
Clarke,
married Miss Sarah Rebecca
Clarke, only daughter of General
Tredway
India
who
in
for
many
years was the senior
General
a
the
Honourable
intellectual
East
Company's
service.
Mrs. Peter Dixon was

attainments
woman
of
high
and romantic
to every
disposition,
which she imparted
member
of her large family.

wijl
What
in great
Mr. Peter Dixon was
be revealed by
the following details, supplied to
me
measure by members of
his family.
30
Before moving to Carlisle early in the present century, the Dixon family had lived
for a considerable time at
"
Whitehaven, where
The
Druid's
"
grandfather (whose Chris-
tian
name,
like that of his father,
was
Peter),
amassed a very comfortable fortune. He was a leading and successful merchant and
shipowner
in
in
Whitehaven, and became united
marriage to Miss
Mary Ferguson,
the only
daughter of a prosperous
citizen of Carlisle.
In consequence of this connection the elder
Mr. Peter Dixon emigrated from Whitehaven

to Carlisle,
which circumstance was probably
the cause of as great a change in the character,
prosperity,
little
and general appearance town as any other event

it.
of
that
famous
of
like
kind which ever befel
At
the time
when Peter Dixon the elder first settled in Carlisle,
no such thing as manufactories
existed
there.
Handicrafts there were on a small
scale, the result
of which was that fish-hooks,

style
whips,
and hats of a peculiar

and
were
a few
turned out in abundance,

school books
that
nature
were
In
principally of a geographical
printed in and about English

addition,
Street.
there
were
few
Birth and Parentage.
31
hand-looms producing calicoes

cottons
and
rough
by manual
industry, but not to such
an extent as to deprive Carlisle of the character of a quiet, sleepy old cathedral city, the
capital
and market town of a large surrounddistrict,
ing agricultural
which was inhabited
by old county families who looked down somewhat contemptuously upon their urban neighbours within the walls. Nothing broke the unvarying stillness and monotony of the
streets of Carlisle except the
weekly Saturday
into the city to
market,
when
the farmers and their wives for
miles round
came trooping
dispose of their country

year,
in
produce.
Once
August,
(I
His Majesty's Justices of
Assize
terior to
city,
am
speaking of a time long anVictoria's feign) entered the
Queen
escorted by the sheriff and gentlemen

its
of the county, to deliver the gaol of
scanty
contingent of criminals, and occasionally to

leave
some poor wretch

horse-stealing,
'
to
be hanged for
being
murder or
the latter
then a capital offence.

Assizes, a county ball
At
the close of the
was invariably held, fdllowed by the annual races, at which all the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood.
32
accompanied by their wives and daughters, made a point of being present. At the races His Majesty's Plate was always the great
event,
the course
and the most prominent equipage on was Lord Lonsdale's carriage, drawn by four, and in earlier days, by six
superb horses.
tion
When
a Parliamentary
elec-
came round, the blues

were brought
(Liberals) and yel-
lows (Conservatives) met

electors
in hostile array, and
into the
town from
all.
parts of the kingdom,

at the
and kept there
in luxury
expense of one or other of the
candi-
dates,
who were
expected to disburse
at least
one thousand pounds every day.

test
The
con-
generally
ended
in the
return of one
member on
either side, but the destruction of

con-
a v^st number of window panes, and the
sumption of unlimited quantities of whiskey
and beer were good

elections to
for trade,
and caused
be regarded with great favour by

the
the inhabitants of Carlisle, which, like other
towns of small population endowed with

right to
send two members to Parliament,
throve upon a general election, as in former

times the dwellers on the rugged and
iron-
bound sea-coast of Cornwall grew

shipwrecks.
fat
upon
33
the elder Mr. Peter Dixon's trntlsferenee from Whitehaven
The immediate
cause of
of his
was the death of some members family^ who were engaged in carrying on a cotton manufacturing busito Carlisle
wife's
ness at Langthwaite Mills,
near
Carlisle,
Warwick subsequently known
Bridge,
as
the
Warwick Worlcs.
Dixon,
left
The
deaths of Richard
and John Ferguson, brothers of Mrs. Peter

the
Langthwaite
Mills
without
in addition Mr. John Ferguson left a largfe family slenderly provided for, which made it desirable that
any one to conduct them, and
some one with
brains
and
capital should suc-
ceed to the business.

elder determined
Cotton' factory,
Mr, Peter Dixon the

to
therefore
take
left
to
the
which had been
like
;
defelict
by
by
his
two
brothers-in-law
and,
assisted
his sons, John, Peter
and George
Druid's"
firm
(the
secoftd of
whom was "The

the
father),
he soon created
new
of
Peter Dix;on
cial
&
Sons, with which the commer-
history of Carlisle
was
for so
many
years
connected.
Of
3
the three above-named
softs,
Peter was
decidedly the ablest and most
energetic.
At
34
Life and Times of " The Druid:'

his
the age of eighteen he was placed by

father in
full
charge of the Langthwaite
Mills,
and thus his association with Warwick Bridge began in 1807, ^.nd was continued until he
died there, nearly sixty years
early
life,
later.
Through
manhood, through middle and married and through his long and gentle decline,
softened
by the tenderness of
affection
his disposition,
uni-
and the
with which he was
versally regarded, he lived a
virtuous and
his
unambitious
life,
dwelling
last
among
own
the
people until at
he was borne
to
grave under the shadow of the church which

his
own
pious zeal had raised, and within

beautiful
sight of the
residence at
built
Holme
in
Eden, which he had

1840,
for
himself
banks of the river Eden.
on a "holme," or meadow, by the "This noble pile"

"
says the
Handbook
to Carlisle"
"
is
one
of the happiest modern efforts in the Tudor

or castellated
manor house
style, its architect
being the late Mr.

castle-upon-Tyne,
W.
C. Dobson, of Newalso the architect
who was
of St. Paul's Church, at Holme Eden, which Mr. Dixon built and endowed with a sum of
;^2,5oo, producing an
income of ;^ 100 a
year.
35
striking
traveller
The house
feature
in
at
Holme Eden forms a

landscape as
the
hill
the
descends the
Bridge."
from Carlisle to Warwick
The
situation to
1
which young Peter Dixon

for a
succeeded in
807 was a trying one
boy
in his nineteenth year.
friend
in
who knew
following
him
"
well
:
wrote of him
a one
the
words
Many
in
his situation,
and
at his
it.
age, would have failed and
made
a mess of
But Peter stuck manfully
to his work.
It
was a striking instance of early aptitude for business in one so young, to have the sole
management of so extensive a concern, with numerous workpeople under him and doubtless, being thrown mainly on his own re;
he there acquired those habits of energy, decision, self-rehance, and sound judgment which so distinguished him, and
sources,
contributed to his success in after

"
life.
and threw his whole He worked soul into his work. He was a grand example He was an to the young men of his day. success in life and the secret of early riser every morning, through winter and summer.
hard,
36
Life and Times of " The Druids
he was at the works when they started for the day, seeing that all were at their post,
and getting through an hour or two's hard work before breakfast, and before most
young men were out of

practice he continued
failing
till
their
beds.
life,
This
late in
when
active
him to give up the habits which he had so long and

health obliged
still
sedulously cultivated.
"
There are
some who can
call to
mind
his
'
his activity in other pursuits as well as in
business.
Some few
Volunteers,
the sere, the yellow

in
leaf,' will
now in remember him

and
here
the green
uniform of the Cumberland
Rangers
coat
in the time of the
war
the
and there an old sportsman

hounds.
" Mr.
will recall his red
when he hunted with
Inglewood
Peter Dixon early began with
his
eldest brother, Mr.
part in public
affairs,
John Dixon, to take a and there is hardly an
event in the commercial or political history of Carlisle in the present century with which
they and the firm to which they belonged were not more or less connected. " As a politician Mr. Dixon began life as
i^'j
a supporter of Mr.
Pitt,
and was a member
of the Pitt Club, then estabUshed in Carlisle.
But
after the decease of that distinguished
statesman he modified his views, and united

himself to the
Whig
party, especially to those
who advocated a reform in

and the removal of
the representation,
all shackles on commerce. There were several circumstances which led to this change of party, though, as Mr. Dixon used to maintain, it was not he so much who had changed his views, as the supporters of Mr. Pitt who had changed theirs, and had
ceased to carry out the liberal policy of their

leader,
who, had he been permitted to

war,
live
to
the termination of the
would,
as
Mr. Dixon believed, have been the first to initiate many of those changes or reforms
which have since taken
place.
In truth,
it
was not
Mr.
surprising that a
man
of the late
Dixon's' character and tone of
mind
There were, should be an ardent reformer. undoubtedly, many grave abuses both in Church and
State,
and especially the former,
which forcibly affected a mind such as his, and led him to take an active part in their
removal.
It
was under the
influence of these
38

that
feelings
Mr.
Dixon and
his brothers
associated
themselves strenuously with the
which led to the passing Reform of the Reform Act of 1832, and also with the
agitation,
Anti-Corn
Law
League, which resulted

In the
in
the repeal of the Corn Laws.

struggle, his firm,
latter
and
especially his elder
brother
Mr.
John
Dixon,
took
most
prominent
" Mr.
part,
being leading members of
the League.
Dixon never introduced any

politics.
ran-
corous feelings into
He
was a good,
open-hearted, thorough-going political opponent,
but
when
the
contest
was over he
trace
would shake hands and

of bitterness.
retain not a
" After the passing of the Municipal Re-
form Act, Mr. Dixon took part

in
for
some
time
municipal
affairs,
and was the second
Mayor
of Carlisle under the
new
regime.
at
He
retired
from the Council, however,
the expiration of his year of
office, in conse-
a question on which the
quence of a difference of opinion with his constituents and the majority of the Council on the subject of the election of Aldermen
universal practice

subsequently
39
adopted throughout
England
justified the correctness of
He
maintained that
in
it
Mr. Dixon's views. was the proper course,
and most
fitting
accordance with the intention of
the Act, for the Council to elect the most
persons as Aldermen from the

qualified,
citi-
zens
who were
without reference to
whether they were members of the Council

or not.
that
It was maintained on the other side no one should be elected Alderman who
first
had not
Board.
gone through the ordeal of a popular election to a seat on the Council

"It was
in
commercial matters, and
in pro-
moting the trade and interests of Carlisle that Mr. Dixon's judgment and ability were most He was one of the prominently displayed.
promoters of the Carlisle Canal,
Carlisle to the
for uniting
Solway Firth
at
Bowness
an
undertaking which gave a greater impetus to the trade and prosperity of Carlisle than any
other event in
pily the
its
its
previous history.
Unhap-
undertaking was not advantageous to
promoters
it
for just as
a pecuniary point of view, was beginning to be remunerative

in
fair
and
to
pay a
dividend, the introduction of
40
railways-
an event
quite unlocked for when

it
the canal was set on foot-^knocked
on
the
head, and diverted its traffic Mr. Dixon was the nels.
of steamboats
in
into other chan.

first
establisher
canal
connection with the
between Port
Carlisle
and Liverpool, and
was
for
many
years the active and energetic
Chairman of the Steamboat Company, formed

for that purpose,
which provfed a highly
re-
munerative concern
to
its
until railways put a period
existence.
He
was
also concerned
in
promoting the Newcastle and

nection
Carlisle Railcon-
way, forming with the Carlisle Canal a
between the east and west

traffic to
coasts,
and a feeder of
taking.
the older under-
In connection with the railway he

in
assisted in bringing cheap co^l to Carlisle,
conjunction with his brother, Mr. John Dixon,
by opening out and working the Blenkinsopp

Colliery."
The
father
facture
establishment of which
'
The
Druid's
"
was a member, when the cotton manuwas in its most flourishing state, be-
came a concern of very great extent. In 1835, he and his partners erected their immense cotton mill and works in Shaddpngate,

Carlisle, which,
41
with the lofty chimney, upfeet
wards of 300
carry the
high,
and designed to
object on
smoke
Carlisle
clear over the town, form
so conspicuous and
handsome an
entering
from the west.
At
that
time the firm employed thousands of hand
loom weavers, scattered over

north of England,
the
all
parts of the
south of Scotland, In the north of Ire-
and the north of Ireland.
land alone, about 3,000 hands were employed,

there being a regular agency at Belfast for
managing
long
all
this part of the business.
Before
was greatly changed. Handloom weaving was soon superseded by power looms which Messrs. Dixon erected extenthis
sively at their
works
at Carlisle, thus extin-
guishing the hand loom weavers.
Amidst all the strain, anxiety, and excitement of trade, " The Druid's " father was not unmindful, both for others and himself, of
what he
called " the better riches."
When
he took
not actually engaged in
business,
great delight in visiting his workpeople at their homes, looking to their domestic comforts,
and imparting
to
them
religious
in-
struction.
42.
Life and Times of " The Druid''

the Sabbath, in the interval of public
On
to
fail
worship
from which,
in the
until his health began
him he was never absent

to
he
visited the
aged people
neighbourhood and
read
and explained
them the
Scriptures, while
each returning Sunday morning found him

superintending his school or in the centre
his
of
own class. No man is entitled

rule.
to look for an unbroken
course of prosperity, and Mr. Dixon was no
exception to the
His
latter years were
crowded with
kinds.
trials
and
difficulties of various
His
eldest son, Mr. Peter
Sydenham
Dixon, "
The
Druid's " elder brother, a young
man
of great steadiness and promise, who
took an active part in the management of the

business,
ness,
became
last,
afflicted
with
total
blind-
and at
in
1857,
was suddenly
time,
cut
by young
off
scarlet
fever,
leaving a widow and

and
family.
About the same

fail.
indeed for some time previous, Mr. Dixon's
own
health had begun to
paralytic
stroke
came
on, which at last almost deprived
him of speech, besides seriously affecting his general health. At length he was compelled to withdraw wholly from active business, and

for the last six or seven years of his Hfe
43
he
never
left
Holme Eden.
Then came the deaths of friends, and of his own brothers, till he was left the last survivor of a once numerous family, seeing also
numbers of his own years remaining hearty and strong whilst he was laid aside, the wreck of his former self. Perhaps, however, these last were his happiest days. Necessarily withdrawn from contact with the outer world, he had time to give his mind more
intently than before to the great concerns of
the
last
future.
The
Bible became during the

life
few years of his
his constant study,
and, soothed
by the unremitting
attentions of
until
his family, his
days passed gently away,
on April
It will
28, 1866, the
end came.
I
be seen from what
have said that
"
The
He
of
was no ordinary man. combined with great energy and decision

a remarkable quickness
Druid's " father
character
and
clearness of judgment, which led his opinion to
be greatly deferred to by the other members

of the firm.
Even
to the last his counsel
was
sought and valued by his partners.

tion,
In addi-
his great heartiness
and cheerfulness,
44
" The Druid." Life and Times of

his
all
combined with
genuine
kindness
dis-
played towards dent on him, made him a general favourite.
connected with or depen^
He
him
affairs
was no
public
speaker,
which
led
to take a less prominent part in public
than he would otherwise have done.

to say, however, expressed in
What he had
one or two short pithy sentences, was always

the outcome of a well-weighed opinion, and
was invariably
respect.
listened to with attention and
Mr.
Dixon, though he had
not,
owing
in
to the early
age
at
which he engaged
of the
business,
the
benefit
extended
education which young
men
in his position
was a man of considerable and varied information, and having improved his mind by reading and reflection, his conver-
now
receive,
sation
was always interesting and
instructive,
so that he never opened his mouth without
saying something worth listening
to.
45
CHAPTER
III.
RUGBY DAYS.
iT
is
worthy of passing remark

the
that
two
best
sporting
writers of the present century
were both educated at Rugby

School.
ever,
Very
different,
how-
were the conditions and circumstances which surrounded Charles James Apperly
or " Nimrod," when he entered
1790, from those which
Rugby
in
or
first
Henry Hall Dixon, "The Druid," encountered there when

he passed under the arches of
its
Eliza-
bethan quadrangle in 1838.
In the former
year Dr. James wielded, as head master, the

instrument from which Horatius Flaccus, the
Roman
poet, suffered such
torments at the
hands of " plagosus Orbilius ;" in the latter, Dr. Arnold the greatest and most high-
minded gchoolmaster
that
England has ever
46
seen
" The Druids Life and Times of
presided over the fortunes of Laurence

set
Sheriffs famous foundation until he had
his stamp upon pubHc school education all over the world a stamp which time will
not soon efface.

spirited
"
sketch of
Nimrod " has the Rugby of

drawn
left
us a
day, of
his
accompanied
"
by
well
portraits
Master Langley," landlord of the Spread

of
Eagle Hotel, and of " Old Brummage, no harder drinking school

offence
in
the Black Bear," which reveal that there was
England.
The
the
boys got drunk with impunity, unless
was so
glaring as to attract notice
from some master,
who had
the
little
alacrity in
see,
spying out what he did not want to

still
and
Dr. un-
less
in
reporting
culprit
to
James, who never

sparingly,
failed
to
flog
him
without putting an end to the

his
bibulous propensities of
"
school mates.
pro-
Nimrod," and other boys of sporting
were regular attendants on foot at the meets near Rugby, of the Warwickshire
clivities,
and Pytchley hounds. The school discipline was so lax and education so neglected that
the class
list
at
Oxford and Cambridge
rarely
contained a
Rugby name, and Walter Savage
Rugby Days.
Landor, a contemporary of
left it
47
"
Nimrod," has
leave Trinity
on record
that,
having learnt nothing

to
at
Rugby, he was obliged

It
College, Oxford, without taking his degree.
was the most fortunate circumstance of Druid's " life that the school which he entered in 1838, at the mature age of sixteen,
"
The
was the best
for
educational purposes
that
England or any other
country had
ever
known down to that date. " Those," says Dean Stanley in his celebrated " Life of Dr. Arnold," " who look back upon the state of English education in 1827 must remember how the feeling of dissatisfaction with existing institutions, which had begun in many
quarters to display
itself,
had already directed

the
condition
considerable attention
public schools.
to
of
The range
of classical read-
ing, in itself confined,
and with no admixture
of other information, had been subject to
vehement attacks from the Liberal party, generally on the ground of its alleged narrowness and inutility while the more undoubted
;
evil of
the
absence of systematic attempts
to give a directly Christian character to the
education of the English gentry, was becom-
48
" The Druid." Life and Times of
ing more and mofe a scandal in the eyes of religious men, who at the cloSfe of last cfiti*
tury and at the beginning of this were
lifting
it.
up
their
voices
strenuously against
complete reformation, or a complete

tion of the
de'Stnic-
whole system, seefned
to fttany
persons sooner or later to be inevitable.

difficulty,
The
step,
however, of taking the
first
where the alleged objection

its
to alteration was
easily to
impracticability,
Was not
be
Stir*
mounted.
The mere
resistance to
change
in itself
which clings to old
institutions
was
a considerable obstacle, and in the case of
some
public schools, from the nature of their

insuperable.
constitution, almost
Whether
among
those engaged in the existing system,

it, it
of those most vehemently opposed to
must have been extremely man who would attempt, or,
difficult to find a
if
he
attempted,
carry through, any extensive improvements."
At
this
juncture Dr. Arnold was elected,
in 1827, to the
supreme command of a
school,
which, thus
far,
although founded in 1567, had
made but
country.
little
mark upon the
history of this
Dr. Arnold's chief aim was to make
the boys entrusted to his charge Christian
Rugby Days.
gentlemen
in
4^
the
first
instance,
"
and good
i.
scholars in the second.
The
business of
schoolmaster," he
used to say, "

is
no
less
than
that of a parish minister,

It is
the care of souls."
impossible to conceive anything which

filled
would have
at
him with more horror and
alarm than the Convention of
Head Masters
in
Merchant Taylors School

at
December,
1892,
which
it
whether religion
public
this
was seriously debated had anything to do with

In opposition to
school
education.
Pagan
theory. Dr. Arnold held that his
pupils ought to be treated as boys
whom
to
he
desired to
Christian
in short,
make
soldiers.
fit
for
growing up
be
His plan of education,

religion,
was not so much based on
as
in itself religious.
"He
on the
would," writes
satisfaction
Dean
had
in
Stanley, " dwell
he
being head of a society where noble
and honourable feelings were encouraged, or on the disgrace which he felt in hearing of
acts
of
;
disorder,
or,
selfishness,
treachery
trust
or
violence
again,
on the
which he
placed in the honour of his boys as gentle-
men, and the baseness of any instance in Is this a which that trust was abused.
'

Christian school
?
'
he indignantly asked
at
the end of one of his addresses, in which he
had spoken of an extensive display of bad feeling among the boys, and then added,']
cannot remain here
if all is
;
to
I
be carried on
by constraint and
as a gaoler
I
force
if
am
to be here
will resign
my
office at once,'
Few
scenes can be recorded more characof
teristic
him than when on one
of these
occasions he had been obliged to send away

several boys, and
when
in the
midst of the
excited he
general
discontent
place
'
which
before
is
this
stood in his
school
this
the
assembled
that
and
said,
It
not
necessary
should be a school of four hundred,
or
three hundred, or even one hundred boys;
but
it is
necessary that
it
should be a school
of Christian gentlemen.'
Perhaps
there
never
came
under
his
fatherly supervision a
to derive a lasting
boy better
calculated
his prethis
advantage from
cepts
and example than the hero of
biography.
In addition to a romantic and
poetical imagination, to a fervid love of his
native country and of beautiful scenery, and

to
passionate
attachment
to
antiquity,
Rugby Days.
51
Henry Dixon possessed a scrupulous regard

for truth, a
sense of responsibility in
all
that
he undertook, and a simplicity and manliness

of character which
to
commended him
especially
Dr. Arnold's liking.

still
great classical,
it
and
less
in
It
a great mathematical scholar,
was not
of him.
Dr. Arnold's power to
make
out
should be mentioned that as a
nine-year-old boy
attack of
Henry Dixon had a severe ophthalmia, which troubled him off

the
and on
for
next six-and-twenty years,
often confining
him
to a
darkened room and
necessitating complete idleness for a

at a time.
month
early
The
result
was that
his
education was greatly interfered with, and

that instead of entering
Rugby
at the
age of
eleven or twelve, he was kept back until his

sixteenth birthday had passed.
As a Rugby
boy he suffered so severely from ophthalmia

that for at least one-third of each term passed
by him there he was
totally disqualified for
work, being unable to write a word or read a

line.
Like Dr. Arnold himself, Dixon had no aptitude for mathematics, and his taste for
classical
literature
(as
he
showed
subse-
52

to
quently in his writings) led him rather
appreciate the beauty of thought enshrined
Greek and Latin poets than to study the construction and grammatical niceties of
in the
the language in which those thoughts were

clothed.
In
all
other respects he was a

specially framed to win the
model pupil
one
highest approbation of the great head master
whom
less
he served and looked up to with
little
than idolatry, and after

his sons.
whom
he named
one of
The
a boy
laws of
is
not in the Sixth

is
Rugby School require that if Form at eighteen

compelled to leave.
At
in
years of age he
the close of 1840 the
Henry Dixon was
still
Twenty
the
Form
interposed between
the upper Fifth and the Sixth.

in
He was
born
May, 1822, and had therefore attained his eighteenth birthday some months prior to the
Christmas of 1840.
stances
the
Under
letter,
these circum-
following
addressed by
Dr. Arnold to Dixon's

itself
father, will
speak
for
" Foxhow, Ambleside, "
Dear
Sir,
" January
I
i,
1841.
the
cannot deny myself
Rugby Days.
pleasure of writing to you to express
53
my
very
high opinion of your son's principles and conduct,
and
left
my
sincere regret that he should
have
Rugby without my having had an
opportunity of becoming better acquainted
with him by his being under
my own immeForm.
see the
I
diate instruction in the Sixth
was
very
very glad to give him the prize for composition

in
his
Form,
which
and
his
to
creditable place
name
holds on the
Class Paper.
With my
sincerest wishes for

I
his future happiness,
and hoping that
may
life,
not altogether lose sight of him in after " Believe me to be, dear sir,
"
Very
faithfully yours,
" T.
"
Arnold.
To
Peter Dixon, Esq.,

"
Holme Eden,
" Cariisle."
It
should be added
that
before
Henry
Dixon left Rugby he was requested one morning by Dr. Arnold to accompany him
into his study at the School
House.
Upon
that occasion " the

called
Doctor"
(as
he was always
by
his pupils)
thanked the youth who
stood before him for the support and encour-
54
Druids
agement he had always given by his good example and high principles to the moral ele" T value character vation of all around him. and example much more than talent and scholarship," added the famous head master,
he shook hands warmly with the pupil whom he never saw again. It is suggested
as
to
me by
Mrs. Dixon,
who
has already
out-
lived her
husband by twenty-four
years, that
when Dr. Arnold shook hands

Dixon
it
with Henry
also
was not alone the moral but
the physical qualities of the pupil which won

the Doctor's commendation.
At
that
time
the eighteen-year-old boy was six feet high,
and
proportionately
strong.
Rugby
some
has
always been noted for the superior running
and jumping of
gates
its
boys, and
of the
which
the
best jumpers cleared
of
notably Cole's gate on the Hillmorton Road
are
and
still
pointed out to each generation
new comers
as tokens of the athletic prowess
activity of their
I
predecessors.
writing,
time of which
Price's house,
am now
At the Mr. Bonamy

for-
on the Barby Road, was

to wit,
tunate in possessing three of the best athletes

in the school
:
Hodson, subsequently
Rugby Days.
of Hodson's
55
Horse
Sir
Richard Temple,
who was Finance

M.P.
;
Minister of India under
Lord Lawrence, and is now a distinguished and Henry Dixon, The last named
his schoolfellows
in their garries
was not very popular with

and
from his disinclination to join
sports, but they could not refrain
from
re-
specting him, when, in order to avoid being

incessantly
runs,"
badgered to join
feet
in
in
" big side
which he detested, he jumped a gate

six
nearly
height,
opposite Price's
house, and said he would run as often as they
pleased if any boy in the school would follow him over that gate. Until quite lately it was still shown with pride under the name of
" Dixon's gate "
a name which
it
bore ever
since he cleared it, backwards and forwards, on many occasions. The approach to it from the Barby Road was uphill, and even in recent days,
when
the records of Mr. M.
J.
Brooks
of Oxford University,
who
;
cleared six feet two
and a-half inches
in
1876
of Mr. P. Davin,
who
cleared
six feet
two and three-quarter
inches at Carrick-on-Suir in Ireland in 1880;
and of Mr.
W.
Byrd-Page, who cleared six
feet four inches in
America
in the
same
year.
56
are
enough
I
to
provoke widespread amaze-
ment,
doubt whether any of the three above named champions would, as an eighteen-yearold boy, have tackled " Dixon's gate " from
the Barby Road.
at"
tradition
still
survives
Rugby
that from
1840
until
1880 no boy
tremendous
ever
attempted to jump
that
obstacle.
I
subjoin the following "

written
Random
Recol-
lections,"
years after
by "The Druid" many he had left Rugby.
"
Rugby
its
S^drting and School
Recollections.
"
There
of
is
an innate love of sporting

Englishmen, which
in the
breasts
all
first
dein-
velops
itself in their
desperate efforts as
fants to imitate the cry of every animal, and
makes them
in after years
" Gaze from Grand Stands with their hair silver gray. And totter 'neath guns till their ankles give way.
it is the good luck of boys to have been begotten by a good sportsman, they are often entered to hounds at a very early age,
"
When
Rugby Days.
and sometimes
57
ride with better nerve than at

their Hves.
this,
I I
any other period of
may
also
add, in confirmation of
that
never saw
Precocious
boys handle a gun so early or so well as the
young Cokes of Norfolk

sportsmen of
this
did.
kind are generally looked

their
on with the deepest reverence by

schoolfellows,
younger
who
accept all their stories, true
or legendary, for gospel, and lament the hard

fate
which
may have
lot to
assigned the direction
of their
own
a matter-of-fact guardian
Boys,
or a serious aunt.
however,
seldom
take
much
in the
interest in racing unless they are
bred
very vicinity of a racing
stable,
and have been accustomed to drink in inspiration

'
from an occasional private view of a

gallop,' or
Yorkshire
'
rattling sweat,' or
from hearing a groom relate

trainer's
how some famous

to a
head lad had put him up

Chester
good
thing for the
Cup
or the
Derby.
a public
When
they
make
their
ddbut at
school, their eyes and ears soon begin to get more widely opened. Belts Life, The Era, and The Sporting Magazine which high-
minded masters of private
'
academies
'
re-
gard, along with Ainsworth's novels, as works
58
and calculated to warp youthful minds from Herodotus and quadratic equameet their eye in their studies and on tions
of Belial,
'
'
They begin to take tickets on the sly in Derby and Leger lotteries, and think that they are already fast men on
the hall table.
' '
the strength of the investment.
"It was
my
fate to
be
at
Rugby
'
in the
lamented Dr. Arnold's days.
Eton
gentle-
men, Harrow bucks, and Rugby

long been a proverbial saying.
ness
sical
'
snobs,'
'
had
Snobbish-
may be
in
essential to greatness in clasit is
and
other terrestrial pursuits, but
fair to say that Charles James Vaughan and Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, two of the most
only
accomplished sons of the
sister universities,
'
were, together with Macready and
Nimrod,'
fairs.'
it
educated
at
first
'
this
town of
thirteen
When
went there everything about

to
was calculated
encourage a sporting
taste.
Lord Chesterfield was living at Abington Abbey, near Northampton, and hunting the
Pytchley in a style
I
have never seen apis
proached
since,
and many
the time
when
in
have rushed
off after
second lesson
the
generally visionary hope of seeing his hounds
Rugby Days.
59
draw Hillmorton Gorse. Mr. Bradley's staghounds were also in full force, and one day I well remember that they collared their stag
opposite the school gates, and raced up and
down
off
the town with him, until he shook them
by leaping a seven-foot spiked gate withfalter. Steeple-chasing, too, was just becoming all the rage, and the kind-hearted Dr. Arnold being determined that the
out a
'
(as he used to call them) should have no pretext to disobey orders, dispensed with calling over one afternoon, in order to let
fellows
'
'
'
them see the fun which was going on

Dunchurch.
told
at
The
'
result of that
day may be
by the quotation of a dog- Latin verse from a Vulgus of the next morning in the Fourth Form. The maker of it (now a grave
'
Judge of
'
niggers
'
in the
Punjaub),
if
he
reads these words under his fluttering punkah, will no doubt recognise the last spirited
pentameter, containing, like a woman's postscript,
the gist of the whole matter

Lottery primus erat,
I
"
'
Nonna secunda
fuit,'
which
must translate
for the benefit of those
who afe unaware
that, in 1840, the
Dunchurch
6o

:
steeplechase ended thus

tery
Mr. Elmore's Lot-
(Jem Mason)
i;
the Marquis of Water2.
ford's
The Nun (Wm. MacDonough)

' '
Those were the days when grey Cigar was in his prime, and steeplechase handicapping was unknown, when 'Jem Mason,' prince of riders, was winning everywhere, over fences
either natural or
artificial,
from the Liverpool
Grand National to the Bayswater Hippodrome Prize. At Dunchurch, Mason's riding was, as usual, superb, and as he and the late hapless William MacDonough jumped into the
corner of
the
I
winning
field
at
the
same
moment,
could not help contrasting the

latter,
ridge and furrow selected by the
with
the cool judgment displayed by
Jem
Mason,
till
who
galloped along the bottom ridge
he
reached the one running up directly between

the flags, and then setting the old brown geld-
ing going in earnest, just passed
The Nun
post.
brilliant
a couple of lengths from the winning
The
rider,
recovery of his horse by this

as
jumping a hurdle at the Bayswater Hippodrome, was one of the finest pieces of horsemanship I ever remember in fact, I have seen it equalled but once,
in
;
he bungled
Rugby Days.
6i
and that was when Allan MacDonough was

riding
his
own
I
horse,
Sir William, over a
gate into a lane, in the Cheltenham steeplechase.
But
must
hark back.
general,
When
steeplechases
became
Rugby, as a
matter of course, could not rest without one

of
own, the town standing ,^15 and the Rugby boys ^15, to the sincere mortifiits
cation of their head master,
who
contrasted
the amount mournfully with the solitary sixpences and pennies which found their way into the alms box of the chapel, along
with
innumerable buttons and
'
orders
for
;î,ooo,' upon the 'Bank of Elegance.'
Races
the
within reach there were none, and the only
time
ever saw young blood stock in
town was when a locomotive ran into a horse box, which was conveying two of the Marquis of Westminster's young things from his
stud farm at Rickmansworth to John Scott,
his trainer's,
shire.
quarters at Whitewall, in York-
The steam
scalded them dreadfully,

to
and they were brought to the Rugby Inn, be placed under a Veterinary Surgeon.
more painful sight cannot be imagined, as the

skin was burnt off in large patches as well as
62
the hair. the
One, a black
colt
'
filly,
soon died, but
brown
recovered (almost as unex-
pectedly as
Resurrection,' who,
when
foal,
was thrown on
Auckland.
to a dung-hill for dead, and
revived from the heat), and was christened
He
subsequently
won
the
few
races, disputing
with Belgrade the honour of

in
being placed third to Attila
Derby.
The
I
old Marquis did not omit to send in a
claim against the

believe
"
company
for ;^3,ooo, which
was immediately
paid.
in
The
school fights were conducted

strictly
an
unique fashion, and were

to take place in
private.
forbidden
The
consequence
was,
their
that
boys mostly had to sleep upon

determination
to
fight
valorous
on
the morrow,
fully
and found themselves wonder'
cooled by the end of
first lesson.'
If,
however, sleep had not acted as a sedative,
was the appointed hour for the tournament. An immense ring was formed near the school chapel, and the windows of the adjacent houses on the Dunchurch road were as full as those of Water Terrace, overlooking Horsemonger Lane Gaol, when
eight o'clock
Mrs. Manning gratified the gaze of Charles
Rugby Days.
Dickens,
'character'
'
63
who
was
picking
the
up a
for
little
under
a
gallows
his
David
Copperfield.'
less,
tall
At
the end
of ten
minutes, or
figure
was generally
little
seen hastily issuing from the

the
turret
door of
which flanked the head master's
house, and opened into
'The
'
Close.'
'The
every
Doctor
tongue
;
the
Doctor
rang
from
combatants and spectators rushed
from the spot, and the belligerent pair were

forbidden to fight again.
As
just sufficient
time had been given them to find out which
was the better man, a respect for each other's prowess often produced a fast friendship
owing fights came

and,
"
to
this
admirable system, few
off in a half-year, to the great

'
disgust of the resident juvenile
Fancy.'
During the horse

Belzoni and
fairs, it
was our delight

stallions,
to interview the
thoroughbred
the
such
as
Mazeppa, which
for
travelled
about the
farmers.
country
benefit
of
the
Lord Westminster's famous sire. Pantaloon, had not as yet been hired by Lord John Scott to stand at Cawston Paddocks, where afterwards he became so distinguished.
It
was
at
a much
later date that
64
I
made acquaintance with him, and with his faithful custodian, Hemming, stud groom to
Lord John Scott, whom I understand that Matthew Dawson prefers to all the other
masters
career.
whom
us
he has served
now,
in
his long
" Let
revert,
to
more
strictly
boyish amusements than horse racing.

'
For
big side runs,' in which boys in the Upper
School were almost

never had much
compelled
to join,
liking,
and generally
de-
clined to take part in them,
although well
unpopular
aware that
with
my
refusal
made me
I
my
fellows.
But
took the greatest

in
'
delight,
when
free
from ophthalmia,
big
side jumping,' although to this day
my joints
warn me of the severity of the strain to which I subjected them in jumping high gates,
and plunging into brooks which
wide
clear.
vv'ere
too
to
for
'
me
or anyone else of
'
my
age
Hare and hounds
was
also a very
popular pastime with many, and the hares
had
special orders,
when they
pulled up at
some well-known
public house after they had

circuit, to
completed their twelve-mile
prepare
plenty of bread and cheese and home-brewed
Rugby Days.
65
beer for the hungry and thirsty hounds, who seldom succeeded in catching the hares. I re-
member
that the newly appointed rural police

it
thought that
was part of
their duty (which,

it
indeed, the farmers represented
to be) to
apprehend either the hares or the hounds for trespassing upon private grounds, and breaking
down
fences.
These
worthies, however,
had but a poor chance of catching boys in prime condition and able to stand a ten or twelve mile gallop without flinching. When
the guardians of the peace found that they
were not
quents,
fleet
enough
to
catch
all
the delin-
they had recourse to

stratagems,
kinds of
be-
Ulyssean
hind
such as
to
If
hiding
hedges
or
barn-ends
offender.
upon some stray
lay hands by chance
one was ever captured, no policeman that

I
ever heard of was proof against receiving a
quart of beer in exchange for a release.
"One of the most amusing
incidents during
I
my Cambridge
from
career,
which
cannot refrain
reminis-
hanging
on
to
my Rugby
cences,
the University in the year

the
was the announcement which thrilled when Attila won

prize-fighters,
Derby, that a couple of
66
Life and Times of " The Druid:
called
Johnny Broome and Dungaree (an Australian) were about to settle their differfistic
ences in the
far
ring at Six Mile Bottom, not
from Newmarket.
Upon
hearing
this
alarming news the Tutor of one of the
largest
Colleges at Cambridge determined to prevent

the University
men under
his charge from
attending this pugilistic encounter.
Accomhe had
posi-
panied by a few other Dons,
whom
pressed into the service, he took up. a

tion at the
'
Paper Mills Toll
Bar,' between
Cambridge and Newmarket, and pouncing

upon every man belonging
to
his College
who
rode up to
the toll bar, requested him
to take his ride in another direction.
The
moral triumph of the Dons was
short-lived.
One
and
'
or two of the acutest of them soon ob'
served that the clothes of the

'
countrymen
grooms who jogged along the road on Cambridge hacks did not seem made to order, and that the slang in which they addressed each other savoured more of
London and
of the
classics
than of highit
pitched Suffolk.
Perceiving that
was
all
a plant, they resigned their disciplinary task

in despair.
Nevertheless, one of the most
Rugby Days.
67
distinguished of them, zealous for the welfare
of his erring pupils, would
not be baffled,
and pushed
market.
his clever
There, after
bay nag on to Newhe had been sufficiently

'ropes and
bewildered by the betting hullabaloo in the
High
stakes
'
Street,
he
reached the
of the prize ring in safety.
With
desperate hope of seizing and admonishing
some of
his
young men, he got a countrya fractional
man
to hold his horse, invested
part of his Fellowship receipts in an inner

circle ticket,
stuck
it
in his hat,
and placed
himself
next to
the
cords.
His position
his
here was
one of no
ordinary tribulation.
Three times was
his hat
knocked over
;
eyes by disguised undergraduates

pocket's long-haired child,
a pickactive
who was on
and
duty that
day among
his elders,
from parental instinct the

innocently
whom kind-hearted Don

protect, took a
;
endeavoured
his
silk
to
fancy
to
handkerchief
and
the
'roughs' pressed upon him sore, and used

considerably stronger language towards
'
Old
was
White-choker'
thenes
defied
than that in which

the
Demos
Macedonian.
He
especially annoyed, to boot, with the polite
68

'
attentions of a
cad
'
in
very ottM raiment,
who
his
insisted
upon
following
place to place in the ring,

particular
him about from and upon calling

the
style
of
that
attention
to
Broome's
hitting.
Little did
he think
his
his tormentor was a Junior Fellow of
own
farce
College, who,
attained,
when
his classical honours were

still
is,
became, and
a capital
writer
and on
fight
'
the editoral staff of Punch.

to
The
poor
drew
a close without giving

'
White-choker
as
chance of
spying
his
out a single pupil, and at last he regained
horse and
fled
swiftly as
did
Dominie
Sampson from the presence of Meg Merrilies. Added to this a sporting paper, in its next
number, gravely announced that
'
Among
the
members of the fancy present we observed who seemed to take the the Rev. Dr.
,
deepest
interest
in
the
proceedings.'
His
troubles did not, however, end
here, as his
let
brother
die,
Fellows,
unwilling to
in
the joke
informed him
the
'
Common-room
Bungaree was dead, and that as he, a well-known University dignitary, had been
that
present aiding
and abetting,
he would
of
in-
course be
included
among
the persons
Rugby Days.
dieted for manslaughter.
69
For many days he
knew no peace, and took it as a personal insult when a sporting Fellow Commoner who figures in that well-known picture, Her'
ring's
Steeple
Chase Cracks
'
gravely
re-
quested his opinion, conjointly with that of

the Senior Dean, during dinner in Hall, as to
whether he
'
should
finally
stand on Cother'participation in
stone for the Derby.'
The
such a disgraceful scene by the children of

parental Granta' (as one
of the
Dons
rein
marked) led
to
a crusade against pugilism
Cambridge, and no more Sambo Suttons and

'
Deaf Burkes
'
were found enjoying suppers

It
in
College or opening sparring-rooms.
transpired that
Sambo had wheedled

part
several
Undergraduates into standing

stake for a match in which
soft as
of his
he cut up as
a Cambridge 'butter-yard.'
its
At
last
the University promulgated

'professors of the
fistic art,'
ukase against
and Cambridge
no longer remained the favourite haunt of Deaf Burkes.' That worthy's conversation, remarkably droll it must be admitted, was and dry, and although he was guiltless of
'
spelling
and incapable of reading,
his
head
70
was so hard that a Damascus blade would have been blunted by it. His great theme was his old patron, the Marquis,' and he would often remark with the greatest solem'
manner while sipping his punch, Gintlemen, I have been oncommon kind to that young man; I used to drive him in my gig and teach him to foight.' The acme, however, of the sporting Cambridge man's delight, was a ride over to Newmarket
nity
'
of
during the Meetings.
As
very
a general thing
little,
Undergraduates
old
bet
and
then
not very successfully unless they have some

cautious
'
bird
'
at
their
all
it
elbow.
the
They
to see
of
are
pretty
constant
on
good days
during the season, and
is
amusing
them disappear,
like
a regular squadron
dark-coated cavalry, through the gate by the
Ditch Stables about half-past three,

to get
in time
marked before a quarter to five in Hall. On the Two Thousand day missing Hall is winked at by the Dons, and men who have
'
'
not a thought during the year beyond the
Triposes and the University Scholarships,
cut
Hopkins and
a place
in
all
the other Tutors and take

for
a drag
Newmarket.
While
Rugby Days.
71
Gorhambury Races were in existence in 1842, some Cambridge men, hearing that
the
sister
University intended to
have a
very slap-up drag there, went to great ex-
pense to get up a
cut out their
rival
coach, in order to
Oxonian contemporaries." somewhat different version of the above

is
transactions
given
in his
Hughes, Q.C.,
School,
Judge Thomas prolusion upon Rugby
by
which
appeared
in
the
English
Illustrated Magazine, in 1891.
After men-
tioning that in the reign of Dr. John Wooll,
which ended
at
in
1827,
many "big
fellows"
Rugby owned
beagles and went out shootfields,
ing in the neighbouring woods,

coverts
and
their shooting being almost

poaching
without
exception
and
that
others
who
were bibulously disposed had private

in their studies.
cellars
Judge Hughes proceeds to when Arnold succeeded to Wooll he found Rugby " as rough and turbulent a
state that
place of higher education as ever

lot
fell
to the
of any
is
man
justly
to
take
in
hand."
Judge
indig-
Hughes
and contemptuously
in
nant at the ignorant and impertinent com-
ments made by a writer
the Scots
Ob-
72
server of
that "
August 23rd, 1890, to the effect Arnold had been considered a bugbear and a nuisance by many generations of Rugby boys, as he combined with divers
excellencies the weakness of being a prig,
and the breeder of prigs

in short,
will
the
all
sort of person,
whom
as
prigs of
succeeding ages
deify."
It
be lamentably prone to
correct
to
would
be about
" a
to
call
Dr.
Arnold
prig
"
as
denounce
It
Mr.
Gladstone
as an idle man.
to see a
has been
my
fortune
great deal of active hostilities as
Special
War
Correspondent of two great
London
daily newspapers,
and
have
often
regretted that Dr. Arnold was not born a

soldier, for in all his writings,
and
especially
in his
" History of
Rome,"
his Edition of
Thucydides, and his " Lectures on Modern

History," there are abundant indications that
he would have made one of the most accomplished and

islands
successful
Generals that these
ever produced.
Apart from other
noble qualities, a manlier, simpler, more un-
and guileless man than Dr. Arnold never drew the breath of life, and the one quality which, above all others, distinaffectedly sincere
Rugby Days.
guished
73
in
him
was
an
the
possession,
the
highest degree, of masculine common-sense.

It
is,
therefore,
insult
to
all
the
old
"
Rugs."
who knew
his
Dr. Arnold well,
and
now worship
is
memory,
that an anonrymous
Scotch "ink-slinger"
of this
the American phrase singularly applicable ignorant writers who never saw Dr. reckless
to
class
Arnold, should presume to brand the greatest

school-master that ever lived and his pupils
Turning from "this noteless blot on a remembered name," let me resume my quotations from Judge Hughes's interestas
"prigs."
ing
"
article.
I
Thus he
writes
never could quite ascertain
how
the
beagles and guns were put down, but from
by old Thomas, the head porter at the School-house and the Doctor's right hand man, I believe it to have been in this way. Every boy had a spending home (as
hints let drop
it
was
called)
at
one of the confectioners

left his
in
High
Street,
where he
books, bat,
and other like articles, to save backwards and forwards to his a journey boarding house, and where he spent his
fishing rod,
spare cash.
It
was
in
the back
yards
of
74
Druid"
these houses that dogs and guns were kept,
and Thomas quietly intimated to the keepers of each that any house harbouring either dog
or
gun would
'
at
once be made
In
'
out of
bounds
ruin.
a penalty
involving almost certain

all
The
cure was perfect.
my time
of,
there was no
dog kept
that
ever heard
and only one gun, a double-barrelled

ing
rifle,
sport-
which had been given

uncle,
to
its
owner
it
by a returned Indian took him all his time

Dr. Arnold found
it
and which
to hide away."
more
is
difficult,
how-
ever, to deal with the horse-loving section
of boy-sportsmen.
Rugby
miles
at
situated in the
middle of a
fine
hunting country,
away,
and
at
Dunchurch,
large
livery
three
there
were
stables
which hunters and

Moreover, the
little
hacks could be hired.
town
itself
was
full
of sporting inns, where
horses of
all
kinds were held in high honour,

wall.
and sporting pictures hung upon every

It
was a steeple-chasing age, and many a study (by which name the tiny rooms assigned
to
Rugby boys
in
every
boarding
house were known) had pictures of such famous steeple-chasers as Vanguard and
Rugby Days.
Cigar,
75
the
Gaylad
country,
and
at
Vivian,
after
Switcher
miles
and
across
Lottery,
finishing,
four
Worcester,
It
Newport
be readily
lack
Pagnell, or St. Albans.
will
understood
that
there
was
no
of
Rugby boys
Hughes
was
with a decided turn for horse-
racing and cross country sports, and Judge

refers
specially
at
to
one
boy who
and
about his
with
him
the
School-house,
who was
fered
to
notorious
for boasting
horsemanship.
ride
young braggart ofagainst any other boy over

This
hunting country, and at
four miles of fair

last
was taken up by Mr. Uvedale Corbett,

is
who
now a well-known Cheshire
squire.
Mr. Corbett chose for his mount a chestnut

horse famous for his jumping powers,
belonged
Chater.
to
Rugby
inn-keeper
who named
The
challenger
had
to
to
put up
with a bay horse, the property of another

publican,
who was known

uncertain
fencer.
be very
race
" in
fast,
but an
The
came
the
off before
a select circle of boys

result that the
know," with the
challenger
was beaten,
to his
own
;
infinite mortification.
He
ity
attributed his defeat to the vast superior-
of Chater's horse
whereupon Corbett
76
Life and Times of " The Drttid."
offered to
change horses, and ride the match
over again after dinner.

that another
Of
course the story

off
match was about to come

below Bilton Church
got wind at dinner, and there was a strong
muster
see the
gallop
Steeple,
in the field
start.
to
The
race was a point-to-point
from
Bilton
Church
to
Newbold
riders
and the course pursued by the
crossed the
London and Birmingham

and
had
Rail-
way, which at that time was in course

construction,
of
been marked out by Mr. Robert Stephenson, C.E., with stiff post and rails on each side. At this point
assembled,
in
many lower boys were

was a notorious
bully,
the
hope that the School-house champion, who

might come
to grief.
The
rider of Chater's chestnut took the lead,

first
and was
to refuse,
over every fence.
His oppo-
nent waited steadily, never allowing his horse
which he had done repeatedly

adjoining
still
in
the
into
first
race.
last
In this manner they jumped

field,
the
Newbold
Church, with the chestnut

dale
leading and
the bay lying at his quarters.
Then Uvelatter,
Corbett
called
upon the
and
passed his rival without an

easily
effort,
winning
by half-a-dozen lengths.
Rugby Days.
Everyone expected
certain that the
77
that
there would
it
be
a row on the following morning, as
seemed
about
Doctor would hear

however,
all
the
match.
Nothing,
happened,
and consequently the riding
fraternity be-
came so
Horses
elated that they resolved to have a
big race, for which there were several entries.
were
supplied
by the
stables
at
Dunchurch, and the intending

over the proposed course
tall
riders,
accom-
panied by the umpires, were actually walking
when
the Doctor's
form was seen stalking across a neighfield.
bouring
boys,
He
passed close to a knot of
who
saluted
him
in the usual fashion
by touching
or
Fifth
their hats, but
had no occasion
to shirk, as they all
belonged to the Sixth
That evening, however, Corbett was sent for by the Doctor, who addressed him in much the following words "Corbett, I know all about the match you rode the other day, and had I taken public notice of it I must have expelled you both. This would have greatly damaged your own prospects at Oxford, where you have just
Forms.
:
matriculated
father to
tell
but
have written to your

flagrant breach of
him of your
78
Life and Times of " The Di-uid."
discipline,
to add.
and have now this further warning I know what you and your friends and
will
are
intending,
rides
shall
expel
every one
on.
who
and every one who looks

I
For
this purpose,
have the roads
stricdy
watched."
Needless to say no steeple-chase
came
again.
off,
and none
later,
was
ever attempted
few weeks
there was a Grand
National Steeple-chase at Dunchurch, with

which, except as spectators, the
Rugby
boys
had nothing
deal
to do.
How
did Dr. Arnold,
the "master-prig" of the Scottish calumniator,

will
with this untimely incident
It
be observed from the following
letter
written by Arthur
Hugh Clough
to Arthur
Penrhyn Stanley, subsequently Dean of Westminster, that the version given in

slightly
it
differs
from that of "
The
Druid."
Clough
writes
"
I
went with Arnold's two youngest sons
to
a grand steeple-chase which took place
near Dunchurch.
The Doctor
very wisely
and indulgently altered the hour of calling over, and took off the Dunchurch prohibition for the day, so at least nine-tenths of
Rugby Days.
the School went there
that
;
79
I
indeed
to
don't
know
more than from twelve absent. As soon as Arnold

house
hall at dinner (he just
twenry were
the School-
left
comes in, you remember, to hear the names called over), the whole house, with the exception of myself
and seven
others,
started
off,
leaving
their dinners
and the empty

later
tables behind
them.
Ten minutes
except three, after them.

able animal there
ford,
we were all off, The most remarkhorse in jockey
was the Marquis of Water-
who was
riding his
own
attire.
Lee, master of the Fifth Form, set
a vulgus on the subject, and

curiosities
among
other
to him,
erat.'
'
had the following verse sent up Primus erat Vivian, Jerry secundus
"The
line
is
Druid's" account of this memorable

that
it
ran,
" Lottery primus

It is possible,
erat,
Nana secunda
that there
fuit."
of course,
at
were two steeple-chases

first
Dunsix
church, in the
of which Vivian and Jerry
were the two leading horses, and another,

the
or seven years later, in which Lottery and
Nun
occupied the same positions.
have
a distinct recollection of seeing the last-named
8o
steeple-chase, in
which Lottery was ridden by
Jem Mason, and the Nun, by William McDonough; and this was, doubtless, the race at which " The Druid " was also present. It
must be added that "The Druid" was some years younger than Clough, who was head of
the School
when
"
The Druid " and
were
only fags.
It
remains for
me now
crack.
to notice the fishing that the
difficulty,
which was the hardest nut

to
It
Doctor had
was well known,
according to Judge Hughes, that the School

paid a good rent for the fields on the Rugby
side of the
Avon, and assumed

river.
that this
in-
cluded the right to net the
This was
disputed by the owner of the opposite bank,
Mr. Boughton Leigh, and many squabbles

arose between
boys.
nets,
his
keepers and the Rugby
At
last
a keeper tried to seize the

in the river.
and the boys ducked him

at
Complaints were
Arnold,
once addressed to Dr.

to
his
who appealed
Sixth
Form
it
Prspostors to give up the names of the

culprits.
Nothing, however, came of
until
at last the
keeper stood outside the big school
at calling over time,
and
easily identified five
Rugby Days.
of his assailants,
expelled.
8i
who were then and

fifty
there
"After
years,"
adds Judge
:
Hughes, "their names may safely be given
Rose Peters,
Price,
Torkington,
Wynniatt,
and
I
Cock of the School, and another

it
have forgotten, unless

of the
was Gaisford, son
Dean
of Christ Church,
tremor ran
passed out
through the School as Oswell, handsomest
and most renowned of and was not recognised.

a feat which
I
athletes,
He
stayed on
some
left,
two years more, accomplishing, before he

I
can scarcely credit now, though
saw
it
done myself. This was the throwing

little
of a cricket ball from the
side
ground
over the elm trees into the School-house

garden.
sional,
George
Parr,
the famous profes-
some years later a hunway but I am convinced dred yards each

threw a
ball
;
that
Oswell could have beaten him.

in
He,
however, was then

stone,
Africa with Living-
shooting elephants, and sharing the

After this
but the
there was
fire
ivory with the great missionary.

crisis
no more
netting,
suppressed
still
of the disputed fishing rights
smouldered on, and was the cause of

flogging
all
many a
6
through Arnold's reign."
82
CHAPTER
IV.
LIFE.
CAMBRIDGE DAYS AND EARLY MARRIED
ROM
in
1
Rugby Henry Dixon

84 1,
to
;
went,
Trinity
College,
Cambridge
but
there
is
I
nothing to show, so far as
am
able to ascertain, that his partiality
for
horse-racing was acquired, as
has so often
proximity
of
been
the
case,
from
the
At College Cambridge to Newmarket. so his life was very studious and retired
;
much so, made long subsequently by " Argus " of the Morning Post, that Henry Dixon was " as
indeed, as to justify the remark
shy as a woodcock."
His predilections were

and, as
I
in favour of the Classics,
have
for
already said, he had no taste or faculty
shining in Mathematics.
Unfortunately the
had
same deadly
marred
his
foe
ophthalmia which
career,
Rugby
interfered
not a
Cambridge Days.
little
83
with his work at Cambridge, where he
was haunted by perpetual regret that he had not been permitted to matriculate at Oxford,
rather than at the head-quarters of Mathematics.
To
this,
however, his father would
not
consent,
as
Oxford was
at
that
time
infected with the
High Church
doctrines of
Dr.
Newman
and Dr. Pusey.

circumstances
discouraging
Under these Henry Dixon
addressed himself to the uncongenial task of

preparing to pass for his mathematical degree.
him no ordinary effort, and in the end he had to content himself with the humble place of " wooden spoon." This
It
cost
degradation,
his sensitive
as
he regarded
;
it,
preyed on
mind but the prospect of doing himself more credit in Classics and retrieving his comparative failure in Mathematics
buoyed him up with hope and eager expectation.
At
this critical
offer
of marriage to
moment he made an the young lady who

Miss
subsequently became his wife, and was met

in
the
first
instance with a refusal.
Caroline Lynes, third daughter of
Thomas
Lynes, Esq., of Hackleton
House, North-
ampton,
had long been the object of his
84
Life and Times of " The Druid'

but with
characteristic
little
affections,
modesty
he had said and done

very young, and her
to reveal to her
the true sentiments of his heart.

refusal,
Both were
although natural
under the circumstances,
inflicted
upon him
a blow which was more than he could stand.
His health suffered
to such
an extent
the
that
brain fever ensued, and on
morning
when
the classical examination commenced,

to leave for his bed.
he was unable
On
re-
covering, he applied
permission to be
told that the
examined
in Classics,
and was
mathematical degree through which he had

contrived to shave, was sufficient to make
him a B.A., and precluded a

in another field
further attempt
wherein he would doubtless

distinction.
have achieved some
The
his
dis-
appointment cast a cloud over his
after-life,
and depressed
his spirits
whenever
mind
reverted to his College days.
Upon
further
acquaintance with him Miss Caroline Lynes
was induced
declined.
to
change her mind, and

(as
will
to
accept the offer which she had previously
They were married

Henry Dixon's
be
seen from the next chapter) in May, 1847,
At
that time
father
was
still
Cambridge Days.
85
a prosperous manufacturer in Carlisle, and

it
might have been anticipated that the son

busi-
would have embarked upon the same

ness.
He
far
was,
however,
the second son,
and so
fifteen
back as 1837, when he was onlyyears old, his father had called upon
the profession
follow.
him
to designate
which he
subjoined
would
prefer
to
is
The
answer, which
above the ordinary mark
of a boy of his age, shows that at that time

his desire
was
to
become a
Barrister
" Skelton,
"November 10, 1837. "My Dear Father, As Mr. Dayman [his
schoolmaster at that time] has very unexpectedly determined to visit you on Monday,
and
you
I
specially
desired
to
receive
my
answer,
must ask you to excuse a much

letter
more hurried
have
written.'
than
would otherwise
one of
fully
The
question propounded to
me
in
your
letter of the
3rd
inst., is
I
the extreme importance of which
am
convinced, and
explicitly as the
will
endeavour
to
speak as
somewhat limited consideration which I have hitherto given to the With respect to the subject will warrant.
86

nothing has intervened
last
study of the law,

since the subject
was
I
named,
to induce
;
me
to alter the wish

I
then expressed
and,
as far as
can judge, provided that no serious

itself,
I
obstacle opposes
may
is
truly say that
the profession of a Barrister

I
the one which
would wish,
if
possible, to follow.
OJ the
which
is
hard work and

aware, and
close application
I
required for such a profession,

I
am
when
fully
trust
will
not be found wantput

I
ing in the necessary qualifications

to the test.
With regard
this
will
to the College,
;
have of course nothing fresh to add

1
in fact,
imagine
be fixed between Mr.

Christ Church seems
Dayman and
to
yourself.
be the one he most strongly recommends,
as best suiting
my
line of study.
hope
you
will
excuse brevity, as
I
my
far
watch warns
me
and
that
have encroached
beyond my
usual hour of rest.

all
With
love to
my
mother
at
home,
'
Believe
me
to
be
" Your affectionate son,
Henry Dixon." and its responsibilities appear to Marriage have reconciled him to the profession of an
"
Cambridge Days.
87
Attorney, and he and his young wife took up

their
abode
in
Doncaster
in 1847.
It
would
have been impossible to

taste for horse-racing
select
a position or
circumstances better calculated to foment the
and country
life
which
must undoubtedly have been innate

Druid's" breast.
in "
The
Turf
Doncaster, with
;
its
rich traits
ditions as a sporting centre
with
Tavern and adjoining paddocks, then presided over by Mr. Bowe, who had formerly been employed by Lord George Bentinck as the
nominator of
its
many
and
it
of his racehorses
;
with
annual race meeting

;
with
its
historical
Town Moor
presented by
writer of
finally,
with the attraction
as the residence of a sporting

capacity, in the person
no ordinary
of Mr. James White, who contributed to the Doncaster Gazette under the name of " Martingale,"
was pretty
field sports
fruit.
certain to inoculate the
young
articled
clerk
with that abounding
love for
which afterwards bore

in addition,
such rich
Doncaster had,
before
been the home, shortly

of Mr.
painter,
J.
that
time,
F. Herring, the celebrated horse
who came there an unknown

in
stranger
from London,
1814.
Fortunately he had
88
taken a few lessons in painting before leaving
London, and as he passed along the High Street at Doncaster in search of work, he
saw a rough country

to paint
practitioner attempting
an equestrian portrait of the Duke
of Wellington on the panel of a

called
"
new
coach,
The Commander-in-Chief."
to
Herhis
ring
offered
take
the
brush from
predecessor's
bungling hand,
and was so
to paint
successful that the coach-builder immediately
engaged him
gan
to
at three
pounds a week
in the
panels and signs.
Before long his fame beneighbourhood,
be talked about
and some hunting squires and yeomen gave the young artist commissions to paint their
favourite horses;
but
it
was as a portrayer of
forty years
St.
thoroughbreds that his great renown was

ultimately gained.
For nearly
he continued to paint every successive
Leger winner, and ended by being appointed Horse Painter to the Prince Consort about
the time
when
"
The Druid "
first
made
his
acquaintance.
I should mention that before embarking upon the career of a professional painter, Mr. Herring tried his hand on the box of
Cambridge Days,
the "
better
horses.
89
in order
London and York Highflyer,"

to
learn
the
>
business
of
painting
He
held the reins as coachman for

181 8,
about three years, beginning in
and
throwing them aside in 1821, when Mr. T.

O. Powlett's Jack Spigot
won
the St. Leger.

St.
Bill
This was the
first
of Herring's
first
Leger
Scott's
winners, and also the
of
many triumphs
Mr.
J.
in Yorkshire's greatest race.
B. Muir, the most
indefatigable of
delvers in the mines of the past, has lately
exhumed the
was trained
turn to
"
additional fact that Jack Spigot

at
Middleham, by
trainer.
"
J.
Blades,
let
Mr. Powlett's private
Here
me
The
Druid's
pages (" Scott and
Sebright," pages 85-91), for a description of
Mr.
J.
F.
Herring's declining years, which

at
were passed
in
Meopham, near Tonbridge
Kent, where
"The Druid"
visited
him
and recorded
words
"
' :
his experience in the following
Him go
vip,
vip,
vip
vot he
artist,
about horses?' said a jealous old
know when
Herring, the well-known coachman of the London and York Highflyer,' had thrown aside the reins in Jack Spigot's year, and
'
90
Druid"
I
fairly cast in his lot
with the mahl-stick.

as,
thought of the saying
under the guidance
of 'Sailor Jack,' another of the North Road
men who had

tunes,
followed Mr. Herring's
for-
and then looked after his Arabs, we bowled over the three miles from Tonbridge
Meopham Park. Even in the tender sunshine of a May morning, the hop fields with
to their countless
dreary
air,
wigwams of poles and made us long for
wore. a very
the autumn,
when
claim
their rich green clusters will once more

to
be Barley Brides.
The
carriagefantastic
drive shaded
by oaks with large
arms, which would have
of the
made Parson Gilpin New Forest gaze for a moment and

relief to his pencil,
is
then rush for

faultless
'
kept
as
in
Quicksilver
mail
order,'
memento of
the old whip days.

it
Scarcely a
wheel has touched
since Charles Herring
was borne over

it is it
it
in
1856 to his grave, and
really sacred to his be, as a better
may
memory. And well son or a more skilful

his
lover of art for his years never passed to

rest.
White and red rosebuds

bloom, clustered round
it
just bursting
into
the verandah,
and from
the outline of the pleasant woods
of Penshurst, which
Cambridge Days.
" Heard the sounds
'
91
of Sydney's song,
reed,'
Perchance of Surrey's
was
just
visible
in
the
drowsy distanc
Partridges were feeding on the lawn, and

scarcely caring to rise
on the wing, or run

;
behind the purple beech at your approach
and the deep coo of the wood-pigeons as they perched on the Scotch and silver firs,
which towered above the thickly interlaced
grove of holly and laburnum, vocal with
songs of spring, was
painter's
all
its
in
harmony with a
home.
" Jack, the thirty-seven inch pony, was free

to range
where he
liked,
and he mounted the
steps of the front-door
and walked gravely

for the basket
I
into the room, in search of his gingerbread,
or to inquire
that day.
if
he was wanted
is,
Favourite as he
did not meet
with h;m on canvas, and in this respect he

differs
widely from the white Arab Imaum,
of which the story goes that he has not been
seen to
lie
down
for at
least
eight years.
He
sleeps leaning against his
stall,
and
like
the oldest Alderney, and the
donkey which
in
runs unicorn
team,
in
the bush-harrow and roller

half
and wins
the
saddles
the
92

is
neighbourhood when so disposed, he

canvas
all
on
the world over, in nearly a hun-
dred
positions.
Sometimes
'
an
Ironside
stables
for
him in a cathedral nave, or he waits some boisterous Cavalier hard by an ale-
house bench.
of Muscat to
He
was one of the
four
first
horses that was ever sent over by the Imaum
Her Majesty
and was made

Stables,
a present to the Clerk of the Royal
him at Tattersall's. When it became necessary to have a model for the dead
who
sold
horses which Mr. Herring was to have
intro-
duced into the Battle of Waterloo

a black
at
the
Gallery of Illustration, he sent for Pedro,
man from
Batty's Circus, and had the
Arab taught to lie down. With a few lessons he became so corriplete a trick horse,
that
Pedro declared he wanted nothing
but
youth to beat the Bedas, and other time-
honoured pets of the horse

of the
field.
ballet, quite out
He
looks peeky, and worn now,
and
his
;
tricks
have rather departed from

prime,
him
but in his
Mr. Herring was

in
followed
Piccadilly,
for
by a gentleman into a yard and had two hundred guineas him there and then. In spite of
bid
the
Cambridge Days.
prejudice against the Arabs, he
fully stout,
93
was wonderand when his master drove him from Camberwell to Stevenage and back,
about seventy-five miles in one day, to paint
The Switcher and

for
other steeple-chase cracks
Lord Strathmore, he was fresher than the English black, who was in the phaeton by his side, and had never shirked his work by
comparison before.
Her
Majesty, hearing
of Mr. Herring's severe asthma, which for
some time quite disabled him from leaving

home, sent down three of her horses
for
him to
paint.
They
included
Korseed, a
white Arab, Bagdad, a black charger which
belonged to the late Prince Albert, and Said,

the
Arab on which Mr. Meyer
instructed the
is
Royal children.
The
latter
among
the
Osborne
tion of
collection,
with a background of
white land and
Arab tents, in the composiwhich Mr. David Roberts, R. A., gave

all
Mr. Herring the advantage of

lore.
his Eastern
"The
stable,
painting-room almost adjoins the

it
but
has been
little
used since his

in a case
son's death.
rests
model of a coach
upon some packing boxes, and the
94
original sketch of the picture
which he took
of the beautiful Attila, just before the Derby
winner went abroad,

easel,
is
the only tenant of the

fatal journey,
but the sketch, like that
was never completed,

"
Mr. Herring was then about

the
sixty-seven,
his old
or just
friends,
mean
in
age between
Scott,
John and William
Doncaster
naturally
and
its
Town Moor
it
associations
whetted his zeal for the brush long before he

took to
as a profession,
and many a
horse
and mail-coach sketched by him crept on to His earliest tavern walls and sign-posts.
anatomy study was the fractured leg of Spartan, one of whose small bones near the pastern was completely pulverised by his and Sniolensko and Comus break-down
;
were
'
the
racers
tried.
on
which
his
''prentice
hand was
"A
gigantic
is,
'
'Horse Fair' adorns

as Mr.
all
the
lobby, which
Herring's pictures
invariably are,
daylight.'
The
Mail
is
again in requisition, following in the wake
of
a gig whose horse trots right out of

picture,
the
and whose driver casts a glance at the troops of nags and stallions which are
Cambridge Days,
dispersing to their stalls
over.
95
business
is
when
All kinds have mustered there, and
the supply of ginger-bread nuts in the drawer
must have been unlimited.
Then we
line,'
get
among
the
for
'
the eight-day
waggons and a
pair of
blue jacket and white hat
stopping
refreshment at one of the old road-side

near the
inns
orthodox
trough
and
tree.
Wood-piling and hop-picking are not

gotten.
It
for-
seems that there
is
a family in
pride
the
neighbourhood
who
especially
themselves on the former accomplishment
and accordingly, at half-past six one summer

morning, Mr. Herring sallied out and caught
them by appointment just

resque
crisis,
at the
is
most
slung
pictualoft,
when
is
the timber
and the truck

the other, the
being backed under
it.
In
artist in
a strâw hat with a

tops,
black
'
ribbon
and
mahogany
plays
as
Farmer
if
Oldfield,'
and does not
look,
he gazes complacently at the

as
fast-filling bins,
the iron of the Chancellor of the Exsoul.
chequer was piercing his
The
jaunty
ribbons and tunics of the hop-pickers blend
very prettily with the green avenues which

they are ruthlessly
rifling,
and the farmer's
daughter with her bonnet carelessly tossed
96

is
back
taking the tally as the

to
widow
brings
up her bin
be measured.
his
"At
prints
that time Mr. Herring painted in

all
dining-room, which was hung
round with
'
from his works, of which
Distin-
guished
Society
'
Members
of
the
Temperance
was the premier.
It is there that
he loved to grapple with the Giant

shortening,
to
Fore-
who has given

lines
the cross-buttock
in
so many, flinging him
picture after
his
picture.
Leading
have always been

His great
great guide for perspective, and he invariably
works from
pictures
left
to right.
racing
were generally got by the

from
at
aid of a
sketch-book, with ideal horses, which a few

strokes
life
the
post convert
at
into
all,
portraits.
Of
Vision he had no sight

years
after
but
sketched- her
her death,
merely from the description of Will Beresford,
who pronounced
the likeness
perfect.
All the elder heroes arrested

I
my
attention as
in
full
turned from a gigantic Dutchman*

oil
gallop and scanned the

portfolio.
ful
treasures of
his
Sultan was there, with Arab head and dish nose, not more
his beauti-
Now in the Earl of Rosebery's collection at The Durdans.
Cambridge Days.
beautiful,
97
its
but more masculine in
expres-
sion than Attila's.
Langar's was another of
the glorious heads, and so were Dr. Syntax's,
his
Mameluke's, Partisan's, and Venison's, with deep jowl and tapering nose. Mr. Her-
ring considered that the coarsest thorough-
bred horse he ever painted was Ardrossan,

the sire of Jack Spigot (the
first
of his St.
really-
Leger winning
heavier than
series), as his
neck was
even Stubbs's sketch of the Godolphin Arab and Welbeck, the sire of
;
the neat
little
list
Bedlamite, ranks nearly

of the Ugly Club.
as
high in his
"
Next I came across the original sketch of Bay Middleton, just as it was left about a
quarter of a century ago.
It
occupied only
like the
one hour and ten minutes, but looks
work of a whole day.
No
horse impressed
this
Mr. Herring more firmly than
son of
Sultan with the belief that he had the heart
and muscular energy

with his
Jersey,
fields.
to
do what he liked
Fifth Earl of
George Villiers,
in
stood by the easel watching every

it
stroke as
was dashed
and seldom had

to
painter a higher
stimulus
bring
all
his
power
7
into his hand."
98
It

will
be
readily
believed
that
"The
the
Druid's"
residence at
Doncaster
and
atmosphere of horse-racing
in the midst of
which he
to
lived,
were eminently have
calculated
develop and increase the

I
taste for the
Turf which, as
his
said,
must have been
born in him as a natural
instinct.
To
use
that
own
"
;
words,
bitten
it
was
at
Doncaster
"he was
racing of
by the
tarantula of horse-
that he found constant opportunities

trainers
making acquaintance, not only with

bits
and jockeys, but also with those gnarled and

rugged
of horsey character with which
Yorkshire
and
its
race-courses
abounded
all-assimi-
about that period, and which the

lating railway has
now
destroyed.
Messrs.
arti-
Baxter, the Solicitors to

cled,
whom
he was
were bigoted Tories, and the whole

Liberal
"
of
Henry Dixon's
qf a
Druid's
political pre-possessions were
type.
There was
every
to
in
"The
surroundings
calculated
conceivable
his
appetite
writer;
stimulant
for
whet
assuming the rSle of a sporting
and no better opportunity than the present will be found to say a few words about
"Martingale,"
who became "The
Druid's"
Cambridge Days.
intimate
friend,
99
determination to
career
and confirmed him in his embark upon that literary-
which
subsequently
made him so
famous.
It
was not long before young Henry Dixon
was tempted into print. Beginning his adult life in an Attorney's office, he resembled his
old
friend
Mr.
at
Daley (long the Clerk of

Carlisle),
the
Course
in
that
neither
of
them
"
enjoyed calf skin."
Mr.
Daley
in
took to
"bossing" the
race- course
his
native town, and to cultivating his fine bari-
tone voice for the duties and rewards of a

professional
singer
while
it
was through
the advice of James White, or "Martingale,"
of Doncaster, that Dixon himself became a

public writer.
The
following extract from "Saddle and
Sirloin,"
a work
which was published

tribute to "
in
1870, contains a
tingale,"
handsome
a
Mar-
and
is
favourable specimen of
"The Druid's" best manner: " None loved the Town Moor
poor James White, or
'
better than
Martingale.'
Thirty
years ago he was in his zenith, with his book
on
'
Country Scenes,' and as a contributor
to
loo
'

' ;
Bentley
and
his
powers knew no
decay.
was quite the prose poet of Nature, and no man that I ever met was so keenly alive
to her beauties,
He
and could word-paint them

which
seldom
fox,
so
well.
Edlington Wood,
fails
to
produce a
it
when
the Fitzwilliam
his especial
hounds give
haunts
call,
was one of
seemed
the
when he was well and vigorous. He to know the haunt of every badger, name and the note of every bird, and the
genus of every wild flower that grew on its banks and glades. He liked to wander away
from Doncaster 'when the mavis and
prosaic days in which his lot
his dinner with
the
merle were singing,' and, regardless of the
was
cast, take
him and
best.
'
have a word with

old
the
woods.'
Weaving an
lived
last,
legend
deserted
into
hut,
shape pleased him
The
where a poacher had

lord of the soil to the
and
died, a very
seemed
to conjure
up in his niind a network of dark romance and Sherwood Forest and Merrie Barnsdale were themes which never palled.
"His
racing writings were very numerous,

left
but as he rarely
Doncaster, he was too
often compelled to take his description second
Cambridge Days.
hand.
loi
In dealing with current racing topics

far too discursive,
he was
and pitched
his
key-note so high that matter-of-fact readers
grumbled
of
after
wandering through a labyfind hardly

in his
'
rinth of fine
fact.
words to
one grain
His strength lay and

of the past.
If
Turf Char-
acters,'
in his recollections of the
Donin the
caster
he was not
Doncaster Gazette
his beautifully
office,
hard at work upon
small
and neat manuscript,

or
or in a chancel seat of the old church, or in
Edlington,
or Wheatley,
Sprotborough
a sure find for
Woods, the
to himself.
Town Moor was
him, and he was pretty certain to be talking
He
generally stationed himself
upon the
the
St.
Leger Day somewhere between

the
hill
Red House and
to catch the
first
symptoms of the 'pace complaint.' St. Leger after St. Leger was a scene he could unfold Every little incident with a master's hand.
from the
Duke
of Hamilton's day had been
treasured and invested with significance, and

as
John
Jackson,
the
celebrated
jockey,
lodged with him for a series of years, he
had a chance of posting himself up, which

he took care to use to the
full."
I02
It will
be found
in the
next chapter that
Henry Dixon's first "copy" was sent to Bell's Life when its writer was a Rugby
boy, aged seventeen years, but he began his
real
literary
career
first
as contributor, and
secondly as editor of the Doncaster Gazette, with which

nected for
" Martingale "
had been
it
conbe-
many
years.
Before long
that
"
came generally known

was wasting
sporting topics, and
The Druid
his precious time in writing on
when
in addition he venit
tured upon a few verses,
drew down upon

his
father,
him the
serious
displeasure of
whose feelings were akin

novel of "
the son
to those of Frank
Osbaldistone's parents in Sir Walter Scott's
Rob Roy," when

himself
with
they found that

to
whom
they had sent to Bordeaux
familiarise
commercial
details
and study book-keeping by double
entry,
was gradually assuming the

"
similitude of
A clerk condemned his father's soul to cross, Who penned a stanza when he should engross."
sent to Doncaster
at the
Henry Dixon had been

to
mug
law,
and
lo
and behold
writer.
he
was
settling
down
into
a Turf
affection
between
his father
The and him knew
Cambridge Days.
no abatement during the old man's
never stopped.
103
lifetime,
and the yearly allowance of the son was and

their
omitted to
Accompanied by Mrs. Dixon " The Druid " never children, pay an annual visit to Carlisle,
could not be concealed that his
although
it
sporting and poetical tastes grated sharply
upon the more prosaic
intellect of his father.
At
last,
however, a book appeared from his

of the Farm," which glad-
pen, "
The Law
dened the old man's heart so much that he

sent a cheque for ;îoo to assist his son's
struggling family, which had then taken

its
up
he
abode
his
in
Kensington Square.
to
When
made
way
the metropolis,
letter
he was
fortified
by a strong
" to
of introduction
from " Martingale

Dowling,
the late Mr. Vincent
who was
then the Editor of Bell's
Life in London,
the
first
undoubtedly at that time
sporting newspaper in the world.
Into the service of that great journal he entered

in
1850,
and here
may
own,
quote an
illustrative
extract from a
letter of his
of the sturdy independence of his character.

"
I
began
in
my
career by editing a Liberal

in
paper
Doncaster for three years, and
I04
1850,
tical

I
came up
verses
for a time.
late Sir
London and wrote poliin Punch and the Examiner Towards the end of 1852 the
to
James Graham, who had just been proposed for Carlisle by my father, got hold
of an article of mine, which seems to have
pleased him.
miralty,
He
sent for
me
to the Ad-
and giving
article
it
me
a kindly welcome,
took the
out of his desk and told
he had shown
castle
both to the
Duke
of
me New-
and Mr. Gladstone,

it
that
they both
really
agreed with him that

fair
was the only
account of the reasons which induced
the Peelites to combine with the
Whigs
told
to
throw out Lord Derby.

he was empowered to
Sir
James
me
offer
me
that
a post under
Government.
I
This
declined, telling him

I
was young and
strong,
had gone
through a bitter disappointment, and wished

to
go
to the
Bar and
try to retrieve
it."
Here, again, trouble with his eyes, small
means, and a rapidly increasing family im-
peded
his
hopes of success.
a deaf ear
Sir James
Many
to the
generations of readers will doubtless
rejoice that "
The Druid " turned overture made to him by
Cambridge Days.
105
would probably have made a very moderate official, and his roving life, from county to county, from stud farm to
racing stable, from one kennel of hounds to
another, from race meeting to coursing meeting,
Graham.
He
from spots sanctified
in
his
eyes by
illustrious
having been the birthplaces
of
race-horses to the graves in which

St.
Derby or
Leger winners were buried, would have been (exchanged for a dull daily walk from Kensington to the Admiralty and back for
dinner.
There have been

in
clerks like Charles
Lamb,
whom
the
literary
vein
was so
strong that even the atmosphere of the India

Office could not repress
it.
Charles
Lamb
it
entered that great Department of State (as
then was) in 1792, and retired upon a pension in 1825.
His
first
poems appeared
his
in
1798, and from that time forward never was idle. From it flowed
pen
in
rapid
succession dramas of which the very

are
names
the
now
forgotten,
and
criticisms
and essays
some of which
will
only perish with
English language.
The
first
peared in
"Essays of Elia" apthe London Magazine between

series of
io6

;
August, 1820, and October, 1822
the second
series between May, 1823, and August, 1825. All the above were written while Charles
Lamb was
was
an India
office clerk,
and so
little
his genius impaired
by
its
uncongenial
re-
surroundings that the "Essays of Elia"

flect all his
unique qualities of grace, quainttenderness.
ness,
humour, and
They
are
written,
as Judge Talfourd said of them, "with a smile on the lip and a tear in the
"
eye
of their author, and are
full
of his whims,
his wit, his poetic susceptibility, his charity,
and sympathy.
There
hand,
is
little
probability,
on the
other
that
had "The Druid" become an

pro-
Admiralty clerk he would ever have
duced
"Post
and
Paddock," "Scott and
Sebright," or " Silk and Scarlet."
The
is
chief
merit of these fascinating works

are from the pen of a poet
that they
who was
as great
himself,
a lover of Nature as Wordsworth
and derived
embrace.
all
his strength
from her tender

as devout a
Charles
Lamb was
critic
worshipper of Fleet Street as Dr. Johnson

himself,
and as a
of books he has no
superior, with perhaps the exception of Cole-
Cambridge Days.
107
ridge, his schoolfellow at Christ's Hospital.

"
The
Druid," on the contrary, was a devotee

life,
of country
and never happier than when
taking long walks with his knapsack slung
over his shoulder, along country lanes, or

across billowy downs.
called forth
" Elia's " strength
was
by contact with crowded cities, and by studying the noblest thoughts of the immortal dead. "The Druid" was at his
best
among
horses, dogs,
birds,
cattle,
and
all
sheep, which, chiefly
on
foot,
he wandered
over these islands to

which,
discover,
and
from
and the scenes wherein were passed, he derived his best
their lives
inspiration.
An
official life
in
London might have made

poverty less severe
;
his struggle with
but
it
would certainly have deprived him of opportunities
for
collecting
the materials out of
which he compiled a series of books, the

vitality
of
which
is
attested
by the new
a century
edition, which, nearly a quarter of
after their author's death,
will
be published
life.
simultaneously with this sketch of his
There
still
is
nothing, however, to forbid the
surviving
members
of his family to regret,

fit
in
common
with his friends, that he saw
io8
to decline
him in him in was best
one overture which was made to 1851, and which would have placed the position which of all others he
qualified
to
fill.
In
185
1,
Mr.
Vincent Dowling's health had begun
to give
way under
the strain of conducting a big

at
weekly paper
high pressure.
Mr. Clement,
the owner of Bell's Life, had long been on the look out for a successor to Mr. Dowling, and not much experience of " The Druid's
accomplishments and character was necessary

to
make
it
clear that in
him the
right
man
had
at length
been found.
The
;
place was
by no means an easy one to fill and no man was better aware than Mr. Dowling that, as
a
rule,
sporting writers are not
made
of the
stuff calculated
to blossom out into reliable
Editors.
No man
placed in the trying
posi-
tion occupied for twenty-eight years by Mr.
Dowling
acquitted
as Editor of Bell's Life, could have
himself better than he
did.
His
character was, in truth, singularly noble and
upright
his insight into
human
;
nature was
more than usually penetrating
and
in all
the responsible trusts which he accepted as
holder of stakes and referee for pugilists who
Cambridge Days.
were about to meet
in
109
ring,
the prize
his
honour was so unimpeachable that not a word of remonstrance was ever raised against
any of
in
his decisions.
Moreover, there was
him a vein of poetry, of sympathy, and of refinement which made him peculiarly susceptible to qualities and attributes of a like nature which abounded in " The Druid."
When,
as
therefore, the latter refused to accept
the post of Editor which Mr. Dowling, acting
spokesman
for the
owner of the paper,

it
offered
him con amore,
will
readily
be
conceived that this
decision
with surprise and regret.

regret
forty
I
must
confess, that
was received That surprise and writing more than

I
years after the event,

for
it
share to this
day
seems
had
possible that
to me by no means im"The Druid " consented to
succeed Mr.
alive at this
Dowling, he might have been
exposure,
fatigue,
moment. He fell a victim to the and hard fare which he

in
imposed upon himself

performance
duties
for
the conscientious
of
arduous
and
self-denying
paid.
which he was wretchedly
On
the other hand, the position of Editor
oi Belfs Life, with
a salary commencing
at
no
and with a contingent interest in the success of the paper, would have preserved him from the hard struggle
;î,ooo a year,
with poverty, which he was of too delicate
and refined a nature to endure with impunity. When I mention that " The Druid's " family consisted of seven sons and four
daughters, and that his income,
highest, never rose
when
at
its
above ;^6oo
a. year,
and
was often under ;^500, it needs no words of mine to point out that
"
Haud
facile emergunt quorum Res angusta domi."
virtutibus obstat
That he did so much under these narrowing and depressing circumstances is much to his credit but still more should it be imputed unto him for righteousness, that he bore himself like a white-souled Sir Galahad among the temptations and snares with which
;
horse-racing
is
always surrounded, and was
untainted by intercourse with the low and

often
disreputable waifs
and strays of the

his
lot
race-course,
among whom
cast,
was not
unfrequently
and with some of whom
he had a strange and mysterious sympathy.
Cambridge Days.
iii
The
following
tribute
in
to
Mr.
Dowling's
worth appeared
the Illustrated
London
News of November 13, 1852. " The career of Mr. Vincent George Dowling,
who
died on the 25th
ult.,
presents a
remarkable instance of a long
life
honourably
devoted to the services of Journalism, and of

unceasing energy to meet the requirements
of the
growing
intelligence
of newspaper
readers.
" Mr.
in
Dowling was born

which time
in the metropolis,
1785, at
his father
was conhis
nected with the newspaper press, in Ireland,
where the younger Dowling received

early
education.
He
returned to
London
with his father, after the Union, and occasionally
him in his duties for the Times newspaper which he had just joined.
assisted
this
Soon after
services
Mr. Vincent Dowling engaged
with the Star; and, in 1809, transferred his

to the
Day
newspaper.
In
1804
he became a contributor to the Observer, thus commencing his connection with Mr.
Clement, which continued
until
the
death
of the latter gentleman in the present year. In
1824 Mr.
Dowling became
Editor of
112
Druid"
Bell's Life in
London,
in
which position he
it
continued to the period of his death; and

is
but justice to add that, to his unceasing

is
energies through eight and twenty years,

to
be attributed the great and well-merited

Mr. Dowling used
in the
success of that journal.

to relate that
he was present
lobby
of
the
House of Commons when Bellingham

;
shot Mr. Percival in 1812
adding that
he,
Mr.
Dowling,
was
the
first
person who
is
seized the assassin, although the priority
claimed by Mr. Jerdan, in his recently published

'
Autobiography,'
who
states that Mr.
Dowling was among the earliest of the crowd who came up after the seizure. Mr. Dowling added that he took the weapon from Bellingham that he had often sat by him in the gallery of the House, and had at his request
;
pointed out various members.
"When Queen Caroline was about to return

from the Continent,
husband,
after the accession of her
George
IV.,
Mr.
Dowling
profor
ceeded to France to record her progress
the Observer; and the day before she arrived

in
England, Mr. Dowling, at the request
of
to
the Queen's principal attendants, agreed
Cambridge Days.
113
bring her despatches to England, which he

did in an open boat pulled
by
five
French-
men.
It
was a stormy
night,
and he was
nearly twelve hours in crossing the Channel,
having to make a long stretch up the French

coast before the crossing could be effected in
safety.
He
had the
satisfaction,
however,
to arrive first in "
London with
the news.
Mr. Dowling claimed to be the originator
of the plan on which the

;
new
police system
officers
was organized even the names of the
in
inspector,
sergeant,
&c.
were
published
BeWs
" Mr.
Life nearly two years before the
system was proposed by Sir Robert Peel.
his
is
Dowling was highly respected many excellent qualities, and his
for
loss
deeply deplored.
He
was thirteen years

years Chairman
a Guardian, and for
many
of the Board of Guardians of the
Strand
Union.
He
was
also a Trustee
and Man-
ager of the Hoi born Estate Charity of the

parish of St.
Clement Danes."
Biography
The
" Dictionary of National
adds: "Mr. Dowling died at Stanmore Lodge,

Kilburn, from disease of the heart and dropsy,
on October
25,
1852.
He
was the elder
brother of Sir James Dowling."
114
CHAPTER
V.
LIFE
FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF HIS EARLY
HE
I
first
time that the young
lady
who subsequently became "The Druid's" wife ever saw

whetii
her future husband, was
he was pointed out

playground, of
to her in the Close, or
Rugby
School.
At
that time
she was
teen.
fifteen years old,
and he was sevenat full
He
was lying on the ground
length with a bit of paper stretched out on a

flat
board before him, and a pocket ink-glass

his side.
by
the
His thoughts were absorbed by
"copy" which he was writing, and the school-boy who pointed him out exclaimed He contemptuously, " Look at that ass never joins in any of our games or sports,
!
but writes everlasting yarns for Bell's Life"
The nom de plume under which Henry Dixon
Further Reminiscences.
then wrote was
ii^
"General Chassd," which

Sir
name he borrowed from
celebrated chestnut horse,
James Boswell's who was then winin
ning Cups and long-distance races

times a special favourite with "
Scotland
at all
and the North of England, and was
The
Druid."
Reverting, however, to the young lady to
whom
it
he was afterwards united
in marriage,
gives
me
great pleasure to add the follow-
ing account of his courtship, written by the
hand which alone should hold the pen on such His widow writes as follows a theme. " My brief and imperfect sketch of The Druid's' daily life, tastes, and habits would
: '
be incomplete were
of his married
years,
life,
to
fail
to
make mention
its
especially during
lightly
earlier
and also to touch
upon a few
incidents of his courtship, which he conducted

in a
first
very eccentric and original fashion.
He
met Miss Caroline Lynes in the Isle of Man, either in the autumn of 1844 or in the He was reading there for spring of 1845, a tutor who knew her brother his degree with intimately, and thus he soon became on His friendly terms with the Lynes family.
choice of the Isle of
Man
was, as usual with
ii6
Life and Times of " The Di-uid"
him, fixed on by chance.

in
He
had two plans

Vacation,
view
for that particular

terribly
Long
and was
perplexed as to the question
which plan would best forward his interests.
At length he decided on writing to both the tutors who were making up reading parties, and
putting the two letters in his pocket, he went
after
dark to the Post Office, slipped
in the
first letter
upon which
to his
his
hand
fell
when he
thrust
it
into his pocket,
and only found out

instead of the
this kind
affect
on returning
rooms that he had pledged

Isle,
himself to visiting Mona's
English Lakes.
Small accidents of
bring about issues which fundamentally
the whole future of a man's and a woman's

life.
" All the strangers
who were
temporarily
resident at Douglas, in the Isle of
Man, made
a point, at that time, of hurrying to the pier
every day that the Liverpool boat arrived,
and amused themselves by watching, with

unsympathetic glee, the melancholy, washedout appearance of the hapless victims upon
whose
faces sea-sickness
had
left its strongly-
impressed mark.
In those remote days the

it
passage was twice as long as
is
now,
117
and
to to
the
boats
much
selected
smaller.
On
Mr.
the
particular
day
of
by
a
Lynes
was
transport his
wife
and three daughters

fierce
the
Isle
Man,
gale
blowing,
and 'The Druid' was an eager

party.
spectator of the landing of the woe-begone
and battered
Miss Caroline Lynes

sufferer,
had been a great
and with
too
dis-
hevelled hair and ghastly countenance she
staggered off the boat,
only
glad
to
touch terra firma once more.

as
it
Incredible
some who read these words, 'The Druid' told her some years afterwards that with him it was love at first
may appear
to
sight.
'
I felt,'
he said
or
to her,
'
that
would
marry that
girl
know
the reason why.'
A
ful
month spent in the Isle of
Man
in delight-
weather brought the young pair together

exploring
almost daily at pic-nics and on

excursions;
the advances
but so slow and diffident were
young lady
picion
made by The Druid,' that the returned home without a sus'
of
his
real
feelings
towards
mother,
her.
Occasionally
sisters,
he
invited
tea,
her
her
and herself to
and made Cum-
berland girdle cakes for them with his
own
ii8
Dmid"
hands, which attention he supplemented by

offering
them huge strawberry jam
tarts, of
which she subsequently discovered that he
was inordinately fond.
To her unsophisticated
Before parting,
invita-
mind
his attentions, such as they were, condefinite
veyed no
meaning.
however, he contrived to obtain an

tion to pass a few days at her father's
place,
Hackleton
where,
House,
an
in
Northamptonshire,
vacation,
during his
put
in
next
he sudsultry
in
denly
appearance
one
August evening, seated as a passenger

the village carrier's
"
cart.
Can
it
be wondered that the strong Tory
prejudices of the
Lynes family were revolted

be-
and
shocked
!
by such unconventional
haviour
It
was
'
subsequently
explained
The Druid that he learnt, in that mysterious way he had of finding out everyby
'
thing, that the carrier
was well known
in
Northampton
local histories,
to
be
full
of queer stories and
and that he had picked up

all
odds and ends of information on

of subjects.
as
kindg
As
fond of quaint characters

Scott
himself,
'
was
'
Sir
Walter
The
Druid
could not resist the temptation of
a seven-mile drive
in
119
company with a man
who, he expected, would provide him with

material for his next week's contribution to
BelFs Life. A second compromising and somewhat embarassing incident occurred on

that
same evening, when he went up to his bedroom to prepare for the evening meal. In the room he found a spacious cupboard
fiHed with ladies' dresses
hanging from pegs.
In the hope of discovering, by
some miracu-
lous intuition, a dress which belonged to his

lady-love,
he opened the door and entered

little
the cupboard,
dreaming that the door closed with a spring lock, which could not be
To his ineffable opened from the inside. found himself fast horror and surprise he bound in prison, while the gong was sounding and the family below
their
all
assembled for
evening repast.
There they continued

strict
to wait while
Mr. Lynes enforced the

respect
for
discipline
and
hospitality
for
which he was celebrated in NorthamptonAt last, however, his patience began shire.
to
fail,
and a few stinging remarks issued

lips.
from his
After passing an uncomfort-
able half-hour, the
famished group caught
I20
Life and Times of " The Di'uid"

signals of
the sound of shouts, kicks, and

distress
issuing
from
the
quarter
of
the
house
in
which 'The Druid's' bedroom was
situated.
instituted,
search party was immediately

at length
and the prisoner was
released from his humiliating position.
On
coming down he looked decidedly sheepish, and returned the very vaguest replies to the eager inquiries addressed to him as to the
cause of his entering the cupboard at
all.
The
ful
visit
passed
away,
however, without
advancing him more nearly to that success-
end of
his courtship
which he so ardendy
pass away
desired.
"Many months were

once more was
still
to
before any chance of meeting his inamorata

likely to recur.
He
found
it
impossible to pay another visit to that litde

village
all
in
Northamptonshire,
round which
his
hopes and aspirations revolved.

him, and at
No
he
chance of communicating with Miss Caroline
Lynes suggested
itself to
last
became so anxious
of the
that
he could no longer
authentic tidings
live without getting
some
young
lady's
well-being.
At
this
juncture he bethought himself of a vounger
brother of his own,
121
in
who was engaged

letter
mercantile house in London.
To him
he
addressed an appealing
bridge,
from Camto North-
begging him
in
to get
down
to
amptonshire
time to
go
Piddington
Church
the
next
Sunday
morning.
He
de-
scribed to his brother the exact position of
pew occupied by
'
the Lynes family, and
the seat usually occupied by Miss Caroline
Lynes.
If
you love me,' he wrote

if
to his
there,
brother, 'find out
my
little girl
is
and send
Fifty years
me word how
she
is
looking.'
ago a journey of sixty miles into

costly than
it
the country was a very different thing, and
much more
theless
is
now.
Never-
the delicate
mission was faithfully

Druid's
'
carried out
by
'
The
all
brother,
who
her
reported
seat
that
the
'little
girl'
was
in
and seemed
right,
but so devout that

Baffled in
face,
she never looked off her book.'

his
attempt to catch a sight of her
the
emissary did his best to give a description of

her dress and bonnet.
Druid's
"
Truth," adds
"The
report
widow,
" compels
me
to confess
that the devotion
spoken of
in the
was due
to the presence in the
pew
of
my
122
stern
Life and Times of " The Druid.'

father,
who
regarded
inattention at
to
church as a moral offence, which seemed
him as unpardonable as it would have done " to Sir Walter Scott's Davie Deans.'
'
have already stated that the

"
first
proposal
made by
The Druid
rejected.
"
to
Miss Caroline
refusal
affected
Lynes was
Her
his
him so deeply that and he was unable

ance
at
health gave
in
way,
to put
for
his
appear-
the
in
schools
the classical ex-
amination,
which
he
had
suph
hopes
of distinguishing himself
later
suit
A
of
few months
pressing
his
his
other
opportunities
presented
themselves,
and
quiet
determination and persistent constancy won

for
him the
fulfilment of his ardent desire.
An
engagement
was
entered
into,
which
terminated eight months later in his union

with the young lady, to
ried
whom
The
he was mar-
on
May
12,
1847.
incidents of a
simple marriage in a small village church
seem hardly worthy of

acteristic
record, but
two
char-
touches illustrative of the bride-
groom's disposition have often been spoken

of in the Lynes family, and are
still
remem-
bered with interest by some of
its
surviving
members.
sally
123
The
lightest
bride, following the univer-
accepted belief that on her marriage
day her
wish must be regarded as
law, whispered in the ear of her future father-
in-law that she would like four grey horses
attached to the carriage vvhich was to take
her and her husband seven miles

nearest
arrived,
to
the
railway
station.
The
greys
duly
and even amid the pangs of parting from her parents and family, the young wife
a ray of gladness at the thought that her
felt
equipage would produce no ordinary sensation

in
the minds of the simple villagers

early days
among whom her

"
had been passed.
Alas for the instability of earthly hopes
had a mortal objection to display or ostentation of any kind, and just

"
The Druid
before the carriage drove up to the door he
ran out and with his pocket-knife cut the

traces of the
two grey
leaders,
and told the
post-boy to go about his business.
appointment of the crestfallen lady
The may
dis-
well
be imagined when he handed her into a carAll that drawn by only two greys. she remembers further about that memorable day is that just as the young couple issued
riage
124
from church, a tiny sweep thrust his black
head through the top of a cottage chimney
which stood opposite the church, and, waving

his brush wildly in the air, shouted out his
congratulations
health
and
good
of
wishes
the
for
the
and
happiness
bride
and
bridegroom.
They
went
Druid
"
did not take any wedding
trip,
but
straight off to Doncaster,
where
"
The
have
had already resided
for about fifteen

I
months.
During that time he was, as
already said, articled to Messrs. Baxter, the
well-known
Tory
of
solicitors
of
Doncaster
but encouraged by
proprietors
" Martingale " and the

Gazette,
the Doncaster
contributed
he
had from the
first
many
political
and
in
sporting articles to that journal, of which
1848 he became the editor.
At Doncaster they passed

years of their married
in
life,
the
first
three
first
living
at
very
modest lodgings
"
and
"
in
very
quiet street.
The Druid
he
the
had occupied
his wife
three
rooms before
he
in
brought
back to them, and

paration
consisted
only special prefor
had made
the
her
of
reception
purchase
four
very
large
satin
cal
125 yellow
pin-cushions,
covered
lace.
with
trimmed with
incident
One
early
other comi-
of
their
married
days
his
widow
at
recalls
with
merriment.
She
asked him for the tea caddy, and he confessed

that
her,
once that he had

appendage.
never owned
necessary
He
directed
however, to pull out a drawer in his

tea,
wardrobe, "where he always kept his

as to
it
so
have
it
handy."
There, sure enough,

his white shirts,
was, lying loose

all
among
and scattered
a very
over the drawer.

maid,
Happily
efficient
whom
the
all
Mrs. Dixon's
mother had sent with her daughter from

Northamptonshire
to
new
this
home
in
Dpncaster, soon reduced

order.
chaos to
Not many days

to
passed,
however,
without her discovering that she had married a
man
whom
long
incessant
employment
wife.
left
little
time to bestow on
his
office
his
What
Messrs.
between
hours in
Baxter's law establishment and his literary
labours for the Doncaster Gazette, he seemed

quite
to
forget
that his
wife
wanted any
She had long been the most petted member of a large and happy family.
amusement.
126
and the sudden contrast might have seemed irksome, or even insupportable, had she not
fortunately found a large family of cousins,
that of the Rev. Mr. Preston,
who had
ten
sons and daughters, residing at Doncaster,
who
and
"
received her with unwearied kindness

affection.
Business
frequently
called
The Druid "
away, and without the com-
panionship of her cousins, his deserted wife
would have been sorely

of solitude.
tried
by long
spells
At
fell
the end of eleven months a small house

It
vacant at the top of Hall Gate.
stood
just opposite to Mr. Preston's residence, and

just suited the moderate
income of the young

it
couple.
They
contrived to furnish
eighty-five
very
comfortably they
for
pounds,
"
which
had
saved
during
out
the
of
first
The
year
Druid's
earnings
marriage.
effected
of
their
The change
in
of
quarters
was
a
"
strange
and
wife
exceedingly
thrifty fashion.
In the dusk of the evening
"
The Druid
and
his
might have
with
been seen gliding up Hall Gate laden

sorts of heterogeneous personal
books, desks, household linen, hassocks, and

all
belong-
ings.
127
porter
They were followed by a one-legged who owned a truck, on which the

their first
little
larger articles were piled.
were of
first
Very proud they house, and here their
Sydenham Dixon, was born in May, 1848, an exceeding great joy to both father and mother, the latter of whom from
child,
that
ness.
moment forward
lost all
sense of loneli"
All that time "
The Druid
The
parish
lived
on terms
of great intimacy with Rev. Dr. Sharpe, vicar

of Doncaster.
church of
St.
in-
George's was one of the oldest and most

teresting in Yorkshire,
and
its
11
central tower
wa-s the
was celebrated far and wide.

bells of St.
church
George's which sounded so pleasears
antly
in
the
of "Dr.
in
Dove,"
his
"
whom
Southey has immortalised
" Doctor
book
in
which
"
The Druid
took great
freely in his
delight,
and from which he quoted
description of Doncaster race-course in " Silk
and Scarlet."
totally
Unfortunately, this church was

fire
destroyed by
on February
28,
1853, and was rebuilt at a cost of ;^45,ooo by public subscription, Sir Gilbert G. Scott,
whose reputation
in the eyes of posterity
may
128
Life and Times of " The D^niid^'

rest
be safely trusted to
ture,
on
this
noble
struc.
being the architect.
The
Rev. Dr.
then
his
Sharpe,
who had been Curate and

Doncaster for the whole of
Vicar of
adult
life,
was
also a very successful school-
master.
stately
He
was a dignitary of
fact
singularly
manner, a
which lends additional
point to the following story.
When
her
first-
born son came into the world
in 1848, Mrs.
Dixon went, on her recovery, to be churched at St. George's, and was accompanied by her husband, who insisted upon kneeling
beside her at the
that part of the
altar.
After performing
related to
ceremony which
the mother, the Vicar leant forward, and, with a grave smile, whispered into " The
Druid's" ear,
also,
"Do you
" ?
desire to be churched,
Mr. Dixon
"
No
"
!
he answered',
if
with something of impatience,

nation, in his tone,
not indig-
"but nothing
shall prevent
my
returning thanks with

little
my
wife."
One
other
incident connected with the same
church was the cause of much amusement

at the time of its occurrence.
his
Shortly
suffered
after
marriage
"The Druid"
attacks
from
eye
several
inflammatory
of
the
which greatly affected his
pelled
sight,
129
and coma dark
him
to
confine
himself to
was told by his Doctor that unless he would keep his head covered in church it would not be safe for him to attend
room.
divine service.
in
He
Accordingly he
lost
no time he
di-
repairing to his barber, from
whom
purchased a flaming red wig of scanty
mensions
his
so
much
it
too small,
indeed,
his
for
head, that
left
a fringe of
own
black hair plainly perceptible under the red

covering.
tall
figure
As he walked up commanded general

titter
the nave his

attention,
and
an
audible
ran
round
the
church.
Utterly unconscious
of the
merriment he
was
exciting, "
The Druid "
stalked solemnly
into his
pew and took
his seat
by the side
and
the:
of his wife.
Presently the suppressed laugh
ter swelled into
an irrepressible
roar,
cause of this indecorous scene at length took

in the situation.
Shocked
from
his
at the
unseemly
were,
mirth
he
rose
pew and walked

as
it
slowly out of church, shaking

the dust off his feet as he
left
the building.
time came,
all
too soon to both of them,
when they had

9
to
exchange
their cosy
home
I30
in
Life and Times of " The I^ruid."
the bright Uttle

"
Yorkshire town which

Londoner-
"
The Druid
loved so well, for an unknown
house
in the great wilderness of
that wilderness with which neither of them
had the
least
acquaintance,
On
was
reaching
18.50,
it
King's Cross early in the spring of
suddenly struck him that
hei
entirely,
ignorant in what part of the Metropolis he
was
dren,
to search
for.
a habitation.
The
party
chil-
consisted of himself, his wife and two
and
also of a sister-in-law,
together
that
they,
with her child and nurse.
All
could muster between them in the way of
money was twelve pounds. He consulted, his wife, who having once put up with her
father at the
Golden Cross Hotel, Charing

withoviti
Cross, suggested their driving there

further
delay.
In their total ignorance of
London
luckily
it
prices
they imagined that twelve

for several days, but
bill
pounds would hold out
occurred to them to ask for the
on the eve of the second day.

consternation they found that
it
To
their
already ex-
ceeded ten pounds, and rising betimes next morning " The Druid " rushed off on foot to Chiswick, and poured out his tale of distress
FurtMr
Rsmmiscenc&s.
to an old college chum,

his wife resided there.
who
together with
Most generously did
these good Samaritans receive and welcome

the whole party, until on the expiration of ten days,
in
"The Druid"
secured a small house
George's Terrace, Gloucester Road. Curiously enough that modest row of houses
St.
still
exists,
having
undergone
no change
during the three and forty intervening years.
They had
not lived there long before

aspect.
life
assumed a sterner and graver

Doncaster,
Ex-
penses increased, prices were higher than at
and the struggle
for
existence
and fiercer. " The Druid soon got an engagement in the service of Bell's Life at three pounds a week, and worked early and late to increase his income
became
fiercer
by writing
his
wife,
for other papers.
He
was often
were
compelled to travel for weeks together, and
whose cares and
anxieties
rapidly increased by the birth of three

sons, found
brain.
ample employment
leisure
for
more hand and

on
the
in
Nor had she

discomforts,
loneliness
to
dwell
personal
or
indulge
sense of
which now and again

patter of her children's
oppressed her.
The
132
little feet,
and
their
sweet infantine laughter
beguiled
sionally
many
weary hour,
but
occa-
her heart yearned sorely after the

constant
sympathy and
companionship of
a loved husband.
133
CHAPTER
'
VI.
THE DGNCASTER GAZETTE."
HE
only
"
four
newspapers to
"
which
The Druid
was a
and
regular paid contributor,
on the
Gazette,
staff of
which he held
the
a permanent position, were the Doncaster

Bell's Life in London,
Mark
That
which,
to
Lane Express, and

in
the Sporting Life,

for
he sent voluntary contributions,
most
the
cases,
no payment was asked,
other papers and periodicals (and especially

to
Carlisle
to his family.
Journal^ is well known He was also a contributor

journals,
of
verses to
other
of which
he
specifically
names
two Punch
and
The
Examiner
larly
and
in addition
he wrote irreguhe was
for
the Daily News, though
never on the staff of that journal, the Editor
134
of which, however, held

I
him
in
can
well
remember
that
much when
esteem.
"
The
Druid's
" article
on the Marquis of Hastings
(who died in 1868) appeared in The Daily News, Mr. Labouchere, who was then the
proprietor of nearly half that journal, was so
much
delighted with the prolusion in ques-
tion that
on hearing of
its
writer's precarious
J.
state of health,
he urged Mr. (now Sir
R.)
Robinson, the Editor, to spare no
effort or
expense
in
order to keep so valuable a conif

it
tributor alive,
were possible
to
do
so.
Unfortunately,
"The Druid"
himself was at
that time not far from the end of his tether,
and, in his
fortunate
own words
gallant
applied
young
I
to the unof
Hastings
I
but
Marquis
" all the wheels
were down."
have before
all
me
as
write these words
almost
the
articles
written
by
"
The
Druid"
for the
Doncaster Gazette between

After his arrival
1847 and 1850, when he moved from Don^

caster to
London.
in the
Metropolis he was in
the habit of sending

Gazette,
a weekly letter to the Doncaster
which
or
he headed either
" Metropolitafla,"
"
The Weekly Compendium."
These
" The boncuster Gazette."

cotitributions are, like all
135
atticles,
fair to
newspaper
it is
of an ephemeral kind, and
hardly
reproduce any of them in a book published

forty yeai's
and more
after they
were
written.
They show, however,
that
"
The
Druid's
his ac-
repertory was unusually
large,
and
quaintance with Indian subjects^ country
which he had never
and of which, about that time, few young and untravelled Englishmen of his age knew anything at all
visited,
very
is remembered was the work of a young man of twenty-six who had never left
striking.
When
it
that the
following
article
his native land,
it
will
be read with
interest
by many who have been accustomed

gard "
to re-
The Druid "

It
as a sporting writer and

in the
nothing more.
appeared
:
Doncaster
Gazette in March, 1849
"War
"The
last
in
the Punjab.
with deep and
Indian mail has brought desrife
patches from the Punjab,
melancholy
interest.
Early on the morning
of November 21, 1848, Lord Gough took the command of 22,000 men and 100 guns, near
the banks of the Chenab.
On
the right bank
136
Dmid"
of that river, and immediately opposite the
town of Ramnugger,
cannon.
the
It
his
enemy, Shere Singh,

of
was posted with 30,000 men and 32 pieces
Rising in the fastnesses of Thibet,

of 540 miles.
rivers which
it
Chenab pursues a course

is
the largest of the
five
intersect the
Punjab and give
its
name,
places,
its left
is
and, though deep and rapid in
some
the channel between an island and
bank, on which our troops were stationed,
a mere sandy water-course, about thirty yards

wide.
This island was held by 4,000 Sikhs,
with six guns.
At two
o'clock
on the mornand then
ing of the 22nd, a strong force of our cavalry
and infantry were ordered
to parade,
march forward noiselessly to Ramnugger, from whence the Sikh detachment, who had unaccountably learnt this movement, at once On reaching the left bank the Royal retired. Horse Artillery were ordered to the front,
and promptly opened fire on the Sikhs in The heavy guns of the enemy the island.
soon proved too much for the English
pounders, and orders were given to
six-
retreat.
At
this critical
moment
it
was found
that one
of the guns had sunk so de'^p into the sand
"
that
The Doncaster
Gazette."
it.
137
it
was impossible
to extricate
The
who
it
unharnessing of horses from other guns to
draw
it
out was observed by the Sikhs,

fire
directed such an overwhelming

that the Artillery
upon
were obliged
to spike
and
leave
it.
The enemy
next endeavoured to
lure the British
advanced guard within range

;
of their guns on the right bank

feint failing,
but this
4,000 Sikh cavalry crossed the
sandy water-course from the island and rode

within a very short distance of our troops.
This was too much for Lord Gough's patience;

the bugle was sounded, the word 'Charge'
rang through the ranks, and

the
in
a few moments
14th
Dragoons
and the 5th
Bengal
Cavalry were hotly engaged under a most

deadly volley from the island.
Three times
In the
did the brigade return to the attack.
second charge Colonel Havelock,

leading
it
who was
the
third,
on,
was
shot,
and
just as Colonel
King
led
back
his
men from
General Cureton met him with orders from
Lord Gough
to desist.
Scarcely had the
gallant General uttered 'his message before
he staggered back, dead, with a forehead and another in his chest.
ball in his
In these
138
thtee defeperate onsets two

killed,
more offic^fs were two severely wounded, and forty-five

file
rank and
our
either killed or
wounded.
Such
was the eccentric but kind
feeling evinced by
Mahomedan
in
troops towards their British

that
comrades
these charges,
the
;^5o
in
which Lord Gough presented to them

token of their valour was promptly
in a
laid out
dinner to the 14th Dragoons.
On
the
30th
November
a ford was discovered above

imleft
Ramnugger, which General Thackwell mediately crossed and attacked the

flank
of
the
Sikhs,
while
Lord
Gough
With
assaulted
them from
slight
loss
his old position.
a
in
very
our
troops
succeeded
them westward, carrying their camp, baggage, and wounded with them
driving
towards the mountainous country.

cisive
A
is
de-
defeat
if
of
the
insurgents
much
of our
needed,
we
are to retain our prestige and
authority in the country.
The whole
troops on the verge
of,
or within, the Punjab
are divided into six divisions,
making a
total
of 49,000 fighting
British),
men
(12,130 of
whom
are
with
180 pieces of cannon.

is
The
death of General Cureton
a deep national
The
loss.
"
D'dnmster Gazette"
139
regi-
He
fell
at the
head of the very
ment
first
to whose barracks in England he was
marched, a raw boy, with the gay
re-
cruiting ribbon
on
his hat.
He
had served
from
his country for half a century, rising
the
ranks,
and had borne the burden and
heat of the day with the

his
Duke throughout
Peninsular
campaigns.
He
all
had been
witness of that greatest of
Indian sieges
fall
Bhurtpore
of Ghuznee
all
;
had triumphed over the had led

his regiment
through
the battles under
Lord Hardinge, which
ended in the reduction of Gwalior and the

occupation of Lahore.
The
tributes of
fell
deep
sorrow to his
memory which
from the
soldiers as they crouched

less
round their cheerwill
watch-fires on that eventful night
find
an echo in the breast of every admirer

throughout
of true British valour.
"Considerable anxiety
is
felt
the country for the arrival of the next Indian

mail,
which
is
expected to bring the news

decisive
of
some very
movement on
the
The conduct of part of the British troops. Lord Gough in allowing his men to charge the Sikhs, when there were no Sikh guns on
140
Life and Tivtes of " The Druid."
this side the
Chenab
for
them
to take, and
the
enemy
too strongly posted beyond the
nullah to be driven
away by a
in
all
single regi-
ment, has been the subject of the strongest

animadversion,
both
in
his
own camp
at
Ramnugger and
circles.
English
military
Such deaths as those of General

with
Cureton, the finest cavalry officer in India,
along
gallant
Colonel
Havelock and
a
bitter
comrades, form
their leader's
many commen-
tary
on
supposed rashness.
if
"It seems probable that

fully
Shere Singh can

already
elude the wariness of General Thack-
well,
who has
hill
crossed the
Chenab and
given him a severe check, he

the
will retire to
country and maintain a harassing

Sir Charles Napier, 'own
guerilla warfare.
brother to the devil,' as our Indian enemies

feelingly term him, used to hunt
them most
successfully through a country of this nature,
and General Thackwell, the one-armed hero

of the
Peninsula,
will,
it
is
thought, soon
earn for himself a similar
title.
"When
the v/ar
is
concluded, one of two

:
alternatives remains for us
either to with-
draw behind the Sutlej, or to annex the
" The Doncaster Gazette."
141
whole of the Punjab, making the Indus our

boundary.
Throughout the whole of the Punjab, the Hindus and Mahomedans are
'
heavily oppressed
in particular.
If
if
and rob him

outright,'
by the Sikhs, the latter you meet a Hindu, beat a Mahomedan, kill him
leader, to his
were the genial directions issued

Hence, the British occupation
by Har Gorind, a great Sikh

subalterns.
of the entire Punjab would be hailed as a

peculiar blessing
by these persecuted
is
natives.
The
by
fertility
of the Punjab, which
watered
five rivers, is
such as to present the idea
of an Indian garden of Eden.
The
crops of
wheat, after being twice

after
all,
mown
down, cannot,
be prevented from producing an
abundant harvest, while indigo flourishes in We trust that under the equal profusion.
auspices
of
Earl
Dalhousie
this
beautiful
region
may soon be
turned to nobler purfield
poses than affording a station for Sikh

pieces under hireling French gunners."
It
will
be inferred from
others like
it,
this article
and
from
many
that their writer's

that time, not to
attention
was directed about
143
musty law books, but to general literature, with

a strong bias towards sporting.
truth,
To
say the
no greater mistake was ever made by an
attached and conscientious father than when
Mr. Peter Dixon sent his son to Doncaster
and
articled
him
to such a firm of solicitors
as that of which Mr. Robert Baxter was the
head.
To
begin with, Mr. Baxter was an
ardent Conservative, and the trusted agent

of that party throughout the of Yorkshire.
racing,
life
West Riding
his long
in his
Secondly, he detested horseall
and was, engaged
through
in
endeavouring by every means
power
with
those
to abolish the Doncaster race meeting.
From him and
the narrow sect of Calvinists

in
whom
he was
texts
sympathy proceeded
on the elms
at Doncaster,
biblical line the
fastened
which
North Avenue
pass.
along which
every frequenter of the races
must necessarily
ened
all
These
texts threat-
who
repaired to the race-course with
unutterable woes and disasters here and hereafter,
and
in
it is
certain that "
The
Druid," who
was
every respect as good a Christian as

tolerant,
Mr. Robert Baxter, and much more
must have regarded the
latter's
demmciation
'^''Tfie
Doncaster
Gazette.'*
143
sports with disgust and aversion. It is probable that if " The Druid " had been sent
of
field
by
his father to study
law
in
London
directly
after
he had taken
his degree,
he might have
Nothing,
escaped
many
influences to which Doncaster
necessarily
ever,
exposed
him.
how-
could have been less judicious than
the course taken.
The youth who had been

make
out indentures^ found
sent to read law at a solicitor's office, to copy
precedents, and. to
metal more attractive in the Editor's room at

the Doncaster
Gazette,
where he was soon

unsophisti-
supplied
pen.
with abundant occupation for his
He
man
was too sincere and

is
cated a
to conceal his Liberal proclivities,
and there
every reason to believe that
Messrs. Baxter
&
Co. were only too glad

office.
when he absented himself from their
From
contributing
articles
on
all
sorts
of
subjects to
the Doncaster
Gazette,
he rose
manager of that journal, was by many regarded as its avowed and Through his and acknowledged Editor.
to the position of
friend,
" Martingale,"
he
soon
made
the
acquaintance of every sporting character in

the neighbourhood, and his natural appetite
144
îf^
'"''^d
Times of " The Druid."

and conditions
for conversing with all sorts
of men, and of being equally at home with
the peer and the peasant, found ample scope

for
indulgence.
The
following
letter,
ad-
dressed by the
was
arity
at
Rugby
all
Rev. W. B. Philpot, who with " The Druid," to the
latter's wife,
speaks of "
classes
The
in
Druid's " famili-
with
of society, from the
highest to
pressive
the lowest,
I
language so ex-
that
gladly
find
room
for
it
here
"The Beach
House,
" Littlehampton, Sussex.
"September
"
12, 1865.
Dear Mrs. Dixon,

at
We had a
delightful
is
day
Hurstmonceaux.
Your husband
England who can thoroughly appreciate on one afternoon the shape and
the only
in
man
make of a female thoroughbred and the memory of a masculine divine who can understand Julius Hare in his surplice and Hodge in his smock. I never knew anybody who so completely, so poetically, and
;
philosophically
enjoyed
the
pleasures
and
a
pastimes of the
moment, and yet had
"
loftier
The Doncaster
Gazette."
145
relish for the holy principles of the past and present, and for those of Eternity. Nor do 1 think that
range and a higher
there are
cally
many who can
write a
more musi-
balanced English sentence.

I
We
'
en-
joyed our afternoon vastly.
send
this to
you not knowing where
'
The Druid
may
now be housing. For aught I know, he may be pumping some decrepit herdsman
in
a remote ingle-nook or chimney corner,

stalking
or
over
some
desolate
moor
to
verify
an
illusion.
" Believe me, "
Always yours
faithfully,
"W.
"The Druid" was
him, and
B. Philpot."
Perhaps the greatest talent possessed by

his capacity for getting
to put confidence in
humble and unlettered men

secrets for his benefit.
unbosom themselves of their choicest Never was this more
exemplified than in the case of what he calls

" Dick Christian's Lectures."
that
in
it
He
tells
us
was on a
cold, frosty
evening early
January,
1855, that
he
first
met "that
great Professor of rough-riding," from
whom
he sought to learn
IQ
how
horses were tamed
146

fields
and
were won.
Dick Christian was

pulled
seated by a comfortable fireside in Chapel

Street, Melton,
when "The Druid"

pen
I
forth
his trusty steel
to report the old
man's " Lectures."
had never seen him before," he adds, "and came to the conclusion
that seventy-eight winters
"
had
dealt gently
sat,
with the veteran.

light-legged,
There he
the same
sturdy, five-foot-six
man, with
nearly
all
the muscular breadth of chest and

left
vigour of arm
in his
which had enabled him,

a horse's fore-quarters
heyday, to
if
lift
as high,
not higher, over a fence than any
man
to
that ever rode to hounds.

to
He
seemed
his
be anxious
jump
off at score
upon
great Marigold
just
feat,
the account of which had
been cut out of an old newspaper, and
sent to
him by a
friend
but
called
him
back, and asked
him what
sort of a boy he
was, and got him well away on that theme

at last."
I
do not think that
in the
is
whole of
"
The
Druid's" writings there
a more creditable
specimen of
getting
his unrivalled
powers of
ingra-
tiating himself with
men
of low degree and
them
to unfold their thoughts and
"
The Doncaster Gazette"
147
experiences than the second porton of "Dick Christian's Lectures " supply. " Dick Christian," writes
"The
Druid," in the
first
chap-
ter of
"Silk and Scarlet," "had practically
sounded the depth of every ditch and brook

in
Leicestershire for
;
tury
but
its
more than half a cenfox-hunters had never half

return.
for
sounded him in what a capacity

not destined
to
They
until
little
knew
was
authorship, which
its
blossom
seventy-
eighth spring, lurked in that thick-set frame
and merry twinkling eye.

the chestnut shade,
in his
I
Seated beneath
found him as remarkable

I
language as he had been when
gave
him
his first trial
eighteen months before, and
firmer than ever in his hero-worship of Mr.
Assheton Smith, Sir James Musgrave, and

Captain White.
It
was not
for
any lack of
I
epistolary stimulants on his part that
de-
layed
to
my
visit
so long.
He
fairly thirsted
be
in print
once more, and the post had

to this effect.
brought
me many an admonition You He kept on writing

'
don't
know
what injury you are doing yourself and

by delaying
me
It
seemed
to
my me
second Lecture so
that
in
long.'
effort
the
first
we
148
had indulged enough in mere table-talk, and hence I determined to make a gig-survey of
Leicestershire with
him by
my
side,
and ask
him
to point out the leading features in that his existence,
Waterloo of
often fallen
where he had
so
and fought again next day.
The
trip.
season was hardly in character with the
Thorpe Trussels was radiant with

of
his
in
dog-roses,
and honey-suckles clustered among the hedges
Ashby Pasture
but he assured
me
that
hunting recollections were just as vivid
summer
as in winter,
and soon sketched
out a comprehensive journey through the

Belvoir, the
tries.
Cottesmore, and Quorn coun-
Three sunny mornings we proceeded merrily on our way and although Dick added another tumble to his mammoth bead;
roll,
and
although the jolting occupation-
roads threatened at intervals to play havoc
with
my
notes,
found his geography of
the most jocular order, and travelled over

his
memory with a will." The additional tumble mentioned
in the
above passage came about

way.
in the following
The
well-matched
pair
were
pro-
ceeding in their gig,
when Dick
observed'
"
The Doncaster
a
short
cut
Gazette."
149
" We'll get
Cream Gorse.
fields
down here past Blamed if I know much
about these roads, but I've been across them
thousands of times with the hounds,

too.
and out larking with the gentlemen,

I
scarcely ever
fell
when
was out
all
larks.
I've
been fox
;
for
it
the gentlemen
over
the country
didn't signify
if
what part of
the country you were in

lark.
I
they wanted a
we'll get out of
don't just see

;
how
this field
we must
!
gate.
Dear me
W*
go back through the What's coming ?

just
^P
^P
"v
'V
^*
Get to the horse's head I kep' on I wish we'd never comed here. a-talking, and you kep' on a-writing, and we What a crumpler I never saw that grip. comes out of the gig I drives my nose right into the ground, then you tumbles out on top
a go
1
!
" There's
o'
me, and pins
my legs
right down.
I
There's
above twelve stone of you.

hitch
always likes to
my
them
legs out of the way, but

fast.
I
you
fairly
held
thought the wheels would

all
be over me.
laugh
ten
;
It's
very well for you to
you've been doing nothing else these

but your hat's quite as bad
minutes;
150

in
knocked
as mine.
it
There's your noteflying over

in
book
see
come
my
head.
That'll
be your pencil
!
yon
tuft
of grass.
Deary me
How
my
nose
Captain White
!
would
a-laughed had he seen us

bleeding on
;
This pimple's
in
it
was stuck
deep.
;
the
ground,
don't
know how
That'll
only be a graze on
ing badly though.
I'll
my
eyebrow
I'm bleed-
Just lead the horse, and
get to the pond and give myself a wash,
and get you to give me a bit of a rub down. It's a bad job trying these short cuts, except
you're on a horse
;
we must keep
it
snug
when we
It
is
gets back to Melton."
evident from this and

that
many
owe
it
other
suited
solely
passages
the
two companions
each other to perfection.

to
We
"
the laborious
"
and
painstaking
in
activity
shown by
The Druid
never missing
a chance of picking up interesting "copy,"

that these "Lectures,"
embodying more than

earliest days
cor-
can elsewhere be found about the

of steeplechasing,
rectly
or,
as
it
might more
be
called, point to point riding,
were
of
committed to paper for the amusement
a large and varied assortment of sporting
"
readers,
The Doncaster
Gazette."
151
before
Dick Christian and "The

into the
Druid" passed away.

I
must dip again

first
same lucky bag
to
hunt for another of Dick Christian's gems.

night,"
"The
I
he told
his vates sacer, "that
ever slept at Melton was the night before

first
the
steeplechase that was ever run in
Leicestershire
mind
you
put
that
down
was between Lord Forester, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, and Mr. Meynell. It was for one hundred guineas a side eight miles from Barkby Holt to Billesdon Coplow
race
;
The
and back again

roads, each
no
rules
as
to
gates or
It
to
come
as he could.
was
got
a grand race until three-quarters of a mile
from home.
Poor Sir Gilbert
He
jammed
;
in
a bullock pen, that threw him

. .
.
Clinker's and Mr. Meynell won. last and dasher's, again, was a great match they said it was for fifteen hundred guineas
side.
They
sent for
me
the night before,
White and Captain Ross, and locked me into their room; then they gave me their orders. They said, We mean
did Captain
'
you
let
to wait,
Dick.'
says,
'
You'd better
me
give the horse his head, and allow
152

to
;
go along and not upset him he'll take a deal more out of himself by waiting.' So I gets them persuaded to change their
him
Old Driver, the groom, was outside listening, and he comes up to me,-^' What
minds.
do they shay
for
?
'
What do you want
to wait
him that I was to go along, and that pleased him powerfully, it did. Next morning we weighed at Dalby, the Squire and I. Bless me, I was never in such condition, and away we trotted to Gar tree Hill.
I
So
tells
They were walking

Captain
the horses about, and

to
Ross says
he
?
'
me,
'
Clinker looks
well, don't
tain,'
I
'
He
looks too well. Caplifts
answers.
Then he
tells
I
me up
'
on
to Clinker's
back, and
me
the orders
It's
were changed, and
must
I,
'
wait.
giving
fall
away a
certainty,' says
all
and
it
if I
get a
then, I'm
behind.'
But
us,
was no manner
of use talking.
Sir Vincent Cotton and Mr.
Gilmore, they started
and Mr. Maher, he

course,
at the
I
was umpire.
I
We
rode twelve stone apiece
was
in tartan,
and the Squire, of
he'd be in green. post
When we
'
were
the
Squire says,
Now,
;
Christian,
know what your
orders are
but
do ask
"The Doncaster
one thing
said,
'
Gazette''
if
I
fall,'
153
I I
don't
give
jump on me
you
I'll
my
word,
Squire,
won't.'
with us
The gentlemen could hardly keep when we got off; some of them
at
had two or three horses fixed

points.
different
We
says,
'
were
almost
touching
each
other over Sharplands, and just before the
road
I
'
Squire, 'you're beat, for a hun-
but he never made no answer. Tomlin and Charles Christian stood over against Twyford Brook I got
dred
Joe
close
well
over
stiff
that.
Then we had some

Clasher
hit
rails,
such
'uns
'em with
all
four legs,
and chucks the Squire right on

Clinker took 'em like a bird.
in
to his
neck
We
were each
a mess soon
the Squire, he lands in a
bog, and his horse
took a deal out of him.

into
makes a dead stop it Then I jumps right

; ;
a dung heap up to Clinker's knees

Gaunt's
had no manner of idea the thing was
there.
Going up John
together, but
I
o'
turns to
we were close get some rails in a

field
good 'un at rails, he was winning, I was me down he comes at the but, deary There he lays for last fence, dead beat.
corner
rare
!
he was such a thought Clinker
154
Dmid."
as
lively
some minutes, and then gets up

as ever.
The
;
horse, indeed, looked in no

to
manner of form
country
the
run four miles across

hoop, and
for
all
as round as a as
world
though he
were
going
to
Horncastle Fair.
They
held Clasher up and
flung water in his face, and he

last
won
in the
hundred yards from superior

didn't like Clinker, but
I
training.
Many
hardly ever
got on so good a steeplechaser.
How
hard
the Squire did ride that match-day, to be

I went up to call on him, when he was an old man, in St. John's Wood, one afternoon, and he pointed to the picture of
sure!
the finish hanging up opposite the
fire-place,
and says to me,

Clinker day beat
'
Dick, that Clasher and
me
great
deal
more
at
than the two hundred miles against time
Newmarket.'
Not
return
forgetting the words printed at the

this chapter,
head of
to
becomes me now to the newspaper in which " The

it
Druid
" first
made
two
his mark,
and which he
articles
held in sincere esteem until his dying hour.

I
give
the
subjoined
from
the Doncaster Gazette as evidences of their
"The Doncaster
writer's
Gazette."
155
prima maniera, which
differed not
his
little
from the grace and polish of
style at
the close of his career, as will be
seen by those
who
read the third
article,
upon the death of the Marquis of Hastings, which appeared in the Daily News of
November
11,
1868,
Doncaster Gazette, October, 1848.

"
Death of William
Scott.
to
"
We
sincerely regret to
have
announce
26, 1848,
the death of that once eminent jockey, Bill

Scott,
at
which took place on October
Highfield
House,
near
Malton,
and
within a quarter of a mile of his brother, John

Scott's,
famous establishment
this year,
at Whitewall.
During the whole of

since his journey
to
but especially
last
to
Guildford
month
Sir
give evidence respecting his horse.

in
Tatton Sykes, which he did

declining state of health ing
his
usual
quaint and racy manner, he had been in a
owing
to the break-
up of that once powerful constitution At with which he had trifled not a little.
last
he sank into the grave, within a few days
156
of

at the compara-
Lord George Bentinck,

age of
tively early
fifty years.
The
last time
he appeared as a spectator on a race-course
was
at the last
York August meeting, when

for the
he came from Malton

Great Yorkshire
appearance
day
to see
for the
Springy Jack run, and be beaten,

Stakes.
His
first
public
in the pigskin
was
in 18 14,
when
he rode 6
at the
st.
10
lbs.
on
Belville,
and
his last
appearance was on Mr. Conway's Snowball,
York Meeting of
1847, so that his
whole
career in the profession
extended over
fortufirst
thirty- three years.
He
was the most
nate jockey of any age.
In 1821, he
won
the St. Leger at Doncaster with Jack
Spigot,
and
also steered to victory in the
same race Memnon, The Colonel, Rowton,
Don
John, Charles XII,, Launcelot,
Satirist,
and Sir Tatton Sykes. began

later in
His Derby successes

little
1832 with St. Giles, and a

Attila,
Mundig,
in
and Cotherstone bore

Industry, and Ghuznee
his St.
him home
in the
triumph past Tattenham Corner,
as well as Cyprian,
Oaks.
Many of
Leger winners
he had
at
skilfully handled when two year olds York and Doncaster, winning the Cham-
"The Doncaster GazetU."

pagne Stakes nine
times,
157
and the
Two
Year
Old Stakes six times over the latter course. His principal Cup victories were achieved for the late Marquis of Westminster on Touchstone.
He
had always an immense advan-
tage over other jockeys, as he had the pick

of his brother John's Leviathan stable, while
the others were obliged to
they received orders
for.
It
mount anything was his fate to be
engaged
in the
only two dead heats ever run
off thus far in the great events at
Epsom and
The Colonel he was indeed outridden but he by Jim Robinson on Cadland reversed the decision in the north on Charles
Doncaster. In the south on
finished second best
XII. in a similar second round.

nervousness, and
After
The
Colonel's dead heat, Bill betrayed very great
many who saw
his agitated
manner as he stood sucking an orange in the weighing house, just before mounting his chestnut, laid heavily against him on the
strength of
in
it,
especially as Robinson's nerve
those days was imperturbable.

later, at
Eleven
years
Doncaster,
Bill
Scott evinced
no such symptoms, as he was on his
own
ground and
felt
confident that
if
he only
158
reversed the style of running in the dead

heat, the big horse
would outstride the
little
one, despite
do.
all
that Patrick
Conolly could
Both the
riders in this last
memorable
struggle have gone to their graves within a
few years of each other.

Captain Becher,
Bill
Like the ironcast
Scott
met with some
severe accidents during his long career.
He
fell
got his collar-bone broken

in the St.
when Epirus
certainly
Leger of 1837 (which he would have won), and received a severe

his riding another race for
contusion out hunting in the winter of 1843,
which prevented
some time. He had never the good luck, like Macdonald in 1840, to be presented with a whip by Royalty but along with his brother
;
John he had the honour of an interview with Her Majesty, when, accompanied by Prince
Albert, she rode over, on the
Monday
before
the
Epsom meeting
of 1843, from Esher to
Leatherhead, to interview Cotherstone; and
he was often heard jocularly to remark
in
connection with that event, that had she only
known what he and Cotherstone were going to do on the next Wednesday she would have made them both Baronets on the spot
"The Doncaster
This dignity he
himself
Gazette."
159
his
conferred on
horse, Tibthorpe, after
he had won the

at
Two
in
Thousand Guineas Stake 1846; and the venerable

disclaimed
as, after
all
Newmarket
Sir Tatton
Sykes
jealousy at the nomenclature
the St. Leger of that year, he led
his equine
namesake back
to the
weighing
Scott win
house amidst the thunders of half Yorkshire,
who were
once more.
delighted to see Bill
He
could scarcely be termed
brilliant
jockey,
although
being
always
at the
on cracks with something

finish,
left in
them
he was generally enabled to get home.
By
as
the side of such a powerful
horseman
Harry Edwards, who defeated him at York on Naworth in a terrifically contested

racej
he did not shine to much advantage.

in
His seat on horseback was very good, and

the style
which he roared out
'
Faster,
faster!' to Nat on Van Amburgh, who, knowing that Coronation was short of work,
was making severe running for Satirist in the St. Leger of 184 1, and finding that Nat could go no faster, went past him like a shot
on
Satirist,
stamped
him
consummate
art.
master of the pace branch of his
i6o
Life and Times of " The Dndd."
more tremendous rallier of a slug never his riding of Mundig existed, and for the Derby of 1835 was one of his best
efforts.
Latterly he was exceedingly weak,

his last race
for the
St.
and
that
in
Leger he
Tulloch
shouted out to
it
Sam Day on Tom

was a-coming.'
was
'
None
of the Pigburn family but

Finally, he
Sir Tatton that
just escaped the rush of
Frank Butler on I ago, which, had the race been two hundred yards farther, might have been fatal, not from any
fault of Sir Tatton,
but from his
rider's
weakBill
ness.
son and a daughter survive
Scott, his wife
having been dead

will
for
some
in
years.
Long
'
he be
Bill,'
remembered
Yorkshire as
Glorious
and those who

fever
witnessed with regret his eccentric Myttonlike aberrations will,

is
now
that
life's fitful
over, testify to the kind
and manly
feelings
which never deserted him to

last resting-place in the
his last hour,

to their
His mortal remains were consigned
churchyard of Meaux
illness
Abbey, near Beverley, but

his brother John,
prevent^
unintermitillness,
who had been
ting in his kindness during poor Bill's
from attending the funeral.
On
the same
" day,
The Doncaster
Gazette."
i6i
and within a mile of Highfield House, another jockey belonging to a previous

generation,
John
Shepherd,
died
in
his
eighty-fifth year.
In his early years he had
won
the St. Leger thrice, on Lounger, Quiz,
and William, to which he added one Derby

victory
Scott,
on Lord Foley's
;
Paris.
Like
Bill
he died poor
first
in short,
John Shepherd
the
in 1844."
I
was the
recipient of charity from
Bentinck Fund, which was founded

In connection with this article,
am
as-
sured by Mr. Campbell R. Bedford, whose

letter
bears the date of " Knockhill, Eccle-
fechan,
August
7,
1893,"
that
Bill
Scott
was not buried

(pronounced
"
in the
churchyard of
aisle of
Meaux
is
Abbey, but underneath the
Waghen,
which
Wawne,") Church,
Bedford's
about a mile and a half distant from
Meaux
fol-
Abbey.
lows
:
Mr.
words are as
" Bill Scott
was buried
in a vault under-
neath the aisle of
Waghen
Church, in close
proximity to the bodies of the Richardsons,

his wife's family.
Mr. Jackson, who resides
opposite the church at Waghen, and occupies
the adjoining farm on the

II
Waghen
estate,
was
62
present at his funeral, and pointed' out to
me
in'
the stone slab on the pavement of the churcK
which covers
his remains.
There
no'
is
no
scription to his
memory, and
Hie
jacet
marks the
last
resting, place of
one of the
annals of
most renowned horsemen

the British Turf."
in the
The
next article chroniclies one of the most
remarkable scenes ever witnessed upon the
Dbncaster
its
Town
1850
Moor.
The
final
appearance of
St.
course
in
during the
will
heat of the
Leger
those
never be forgotten by
who were
small
present
now
on
their
number
day.
1850,
is
that
memorable
St.
The Doncaster
Leger of
From the Doncaster Gazette. " The morning of the seventy-fifth

versary of the Great
St.
anni-
Leger was dark
and lowering, and in Spite of the weatherglass many began to look out with no little
dread for a second edition of
decessor,
in
when
the Flying
fears,
its damp preDutchman won
1849.
These
which' soon proved
groundless, seemed, however; to have taken
a remarkably slight hold of the breasts' of

the excursionists to Doncaster.
THe
hard-
" TJie Doncaster Gazette."
163
lark,
artd'
ware youtHs Were up with tHough

that
th'e
traiti
the
first
Sheffield
until
Was not
announced to
start
10
a.m'.,
we
learn
by
six o'clock all the carriages in the
station-yard
were
filled
by
'
noble sportshien,'
who
breakfasted, sang, and indulged in

frolic,
every
kind of
relieving their feelings at times

in
by roaring out
Billy
no very
rechei^chi \ax\^g\sa%t
to the railway officials
'to
'arness a puffin'
half^past ten
and
tak'
us on.'
About
o^clbck the inmates of St.

in
Sepulchre's Gate
Doncaster became sensible of these and'
other fashionable arrivals, and for upwards

of four hours there
was one perpetual chorus

Those'
to attend^
of engine whistles in the station-yard.
who have been accustomed
Don-
caster Races for the lasr half-century assured
us that" the crowd which kept steadily tramp-
ing past the
'
Salutation
'
Inn was
before.
far bigger'
It
than they had ever seen
was
evident from the buzz of conversation that
Voltigeur was the horse of the million, and
they had cOme to see him win and' nothing else. His opponents were reduced in
that
number
at nine that
morning by the
scratch-
ing of Cyprus and' Mulgfave, thus leaving
64
Life and Times of " The Dt'uid."
the Whitewall stable without a single representative.

It lost all
hopes of winning the
St. Leger when Clincher met with an accident at Pigburn, and was scratched some weeks since. When the first two events (the Doncaster Plate and the Municipal
Stakes)
'
were
St.
over,
the
'
ominous
words
Leger Stakes were sent up the telegraph slide, and every one awaited in
Great
breathless
impatience
the
solution
of
the
great secret.
At
that
moment
the scene
on the course was most extraordinary, and

such was the anxiety of the crowd to catch a
glimpse of the
St.
Leger
horses, that
it
was
with the greatest difficulty that the course

could be kept clear.
The men on
in
horse-
back were powerless

thousands
the hands of the

forced to
universal
who
could hardly be
it
leave running space, and
was the
remark that a much stronger body of mounted

officials
must be placed on duty next year

was, the
As
it
deciding heat for the
St.
Leger was positively run off

lane of
down
a narrow
400 yards, and Robinson on Russborough had fairly to

clear the
human beings
way
for the last
for himself
and
his antagonist.
"
The Doncaster
Gazette."
to
165
in the
Pretty Pitsford was the
first
show
Grand Stand
tered
it
Voltigeur
up,
Marson
Lane.
and just as he enwas espied, with Job emerging from the Carr- House
enclosure,
it
His party thought
best, in spite of
the quiet temper of their horse, to saddle

in as
him
much
privacy as the fond public chose

Voltigeur only came into
to allow to them,
the enclosure for an instant, and then sallied

forth
for
the
fray.
Alfred
Day mounted
or four times
Pitsford as soon as he reached the weighing-
house, and walked
him three
the
round.
Although the horse was undoubthe
edly
light,
seemed
spirits,
impersonation
his
of health
and
if
and arched
neck
proudly as
the
nothing could stop his reversing

verdict.
Epsom
His friends professed

;
themselves
confident
but
the
majority,
although they well
knew
that
the ground
was just
his
in the state for
him
to indulge in
felt
favourite feet-rattle
accompaniment,
was a want of substance about him, and ran over the work he has gone through since he won the Two Thousand Guineas, declaring that such a slack-loined horse was not the boy for the St. Leger course by
that there
.1:6,6
Life <ind Times of ^\T&e nruid."

aide.of such musculair
,con5^petitrs.
tlie
As
Voltigeur quietly paraded past (the enclosure,
with a gait as sleepy as that of lazy leaner'
cost,'
criies
of 'He's ower big!' and 'He's

burst from .maay a pair of
devilish
lips.
dull!'
His
felt
friends,
and
that the
knew :better, Dqrby winner's he9.rt was

however,
,
in ;the
right place,
flesh
ounce more
rather
and that he had not an on him ,than a horse of ,hfe
make should
colt,
carry.
He
1.5.3
îs
a dark brown
height, without
little
above
.His
in
one spot of white, except a

hind
foot.
on the
off
head, twhich as coarse and

to a very muscular, stalUon-
large, is fixed
on
like neck, while he, is blessed
with fine oblique
shoulders, powerful quarters drooping towards
a somewhat shabby
tail,
muscular thighs,
good hocks and knees, and abundance of As soon as Marson sent him down a ,bone.
cracker from below the distance, his action
,was greatly admired,
and
,the
workman-like
action of his hind legs
was
1
especially com-
mented
on.
Russborough
inspired
that
had plenty
0/
in
eulogists,
and
extra confidence
some who swore

finest
he was one of the
horses in the race.
He
is
darjc
"
The Dmicaster
-Gazette."
little
167
of his
chestnut, reminding
one not a
Cruiskeen.
of
celebrated
his jockey,
mother,
in
Robinson,
spite
much
stitute
off in the spring,
having been very and obliged to subfor
dressing-gown
first
the
sweaters
during the
three
Newmarket Meetings,
to
looked as fresh as paint, and in wonderful

spirits,
not
hesitating
declare
that
if
he he
would frighten the crack amazingly,

did not beat him.
if
Windischgratz went as
.boots on,
he had seven-leagued
and seemed
to, get
over an enormous space of ground at

;
.each stride
ito
but although there was no fault
find with his condition, several spectators
took
objection
to
his
light
middle-piece.
Bolingbroke did
infinite
credit to
the pre-
siding genius of the Palace stable, and the
only fault brought against him was that his

action
was a
little
;
expensive.
Chatterbox
was not liked

in the race.
while
The
Italian
was de-
cidedly the icompactest and
smallest horse
He
presented a great contrast

fine slashing
to Beehunter, who, although a animal, was âdly too narrow
in
his back,
and showed symptoms of having had quite Poor Mildew had enough of it .this year.
i68
hardly walked
down
to
to the distance
when
Marlow found him

foreleg that he
further
be so lame
in his off
turned him round without

returned him
trainer,
parley and
his
into
the
hands of Smith,
the
thus reducing
number of starters to eight, the same as in Van Tromp's year. At last the flags were lowered, and away went the eight in a
going
in front at
cluster, Na:t
once and
;
cut-
work with Beehunter Chatterbox and Russborough well up, and Voltigeur settling down about seventh. Along the flat the pace was very slow, but when they
ting out the
reached the foot of the

to
hill
Beehunter seemed
warm
it
to his work,
at capital
and led them up and
over
speed.
No
change took
place in their Indian-file positions until they
approached the Red House, when Marson

took Voltigeur well by the head and administered a couple of smart strokes of the
whip
to rouse
The
and
gallant
at
the
him to a sense of his position, brown answered immediately, Intake Farm was fifth, with
his
left,
Pitsford
and Beehunter on
right,
Boling-
broke on his
Italian
and Russborough and

Just at this point
at his quarters.
"
The Doncaster Gazette"
169
Bolingbroke looked formidable; but in another hundred yards he began to hang to-
and Marson, seeing at a glance that he would be shut out, promptly

rails,
wards the
shot his
horse through the gap and took
the lead at the distance, Russborough being
handy on the
distance
off-side.
Half-way up
his
the
Marson steadied
to
horse,
who
ex-
seemed
be
in slight
difficulties
from the
severe pace, and just
when he got him
tended again
timed
effort,
Jim Robinson, with a wellswooped down upon Marson,
and
the
that
after
thrilling finish,
made a dead
spectators
heat.
As Russborough was
great
nearest to the Judge
majority
of
thought
fielders
he had won, and when the
learnt the decision their joy
"
The two
antagonists
knew no bounds. made their way
back to the enclosure, and were keenly scrutinised as their jockeys
dismounted and un-
saddled them.
Some
strong suspicions were
expressed that Russborough was a four-year

old,
and an examination of
his
demanded by Lord Zetland. examined by Mr. George Holmes, the wellknown veterinary of Thirsk, and by Mr. J.
mouth was The horse was
170
Life and Times of

of the 3rd
all
"The Druid."
pro-
Shaw
when
Dragoon Guards, who

right.
nounced him
all
little
after five,
the other races were over, the two
champions
of the
day
-into
were
in
again
their
seen
approaching the .enclosure
sheets.
Robinson jun^ped
jaunty
air,
the pigskin with a
and- a whisper went round that he

to
was going
trained
make
by
it
hot for the Richmondforcing
horse,
the
running,
Marson then came out from the weighinghouse, looking

confidence,
course.
very pale but

his
full
of quiet
and mounted
canter,
horse on the
parade,
Another
the
and another
for
and the two were again alongside Mr, Hibburd,

starter,
waiting
the
signal,
Robinson
at once
showed
had not
that his cutting
down
sented.
intentions
been
misrepre-
The moment
off like a shot,
,his
that the flag dropped
he was
lengths.
and Marson as quickly

legs
got Voltigeur on
and
laid off
two
The pace quickened

and the
fielders
as .they rose
in high hopes
the
hill,
were
that the
two lengths
would
become
four
when
the T. Y. C. post was reached.
They
position
reckoned, however without their host, as the
two steeds kept
in exactly the
same
'^
The Moncaster -Gazette."

^passed.
171
.till
the
Red .House was
Into the
straight running
Russborough came with the

Marson,
.same strong lea4. Robinson glancing pver

rhis
shoulder ât
who
sai
with his
,ha,nds well
down on
thêm,
hisihorse's withers, and
as
cool
as an
iqebecg.
.plosed in
upon
The vast crowd and the roar of a hunair.
dred thousand, iron voices fairly reat the

'
Voltigeur's beat!
JiillfS
I
'and Ms 'erheat?' was

;
'
ôb
.that;
response
You maun't
tell
me
knaws 'im
better
^Job's
a.coming!'
fwithin the
,-And fsure enough, Job, half

.distance, slipped
way
a finger
off.his.reiii,
gave the
Derby winner a sharp

spur^,
reminder -with his
had'him at
JR.ussboroiagh's.,girths-in the
,next,three strides, and handed

clever winner
him heme a
hurrahs,that
by a leqgth.
The
greeted ahorse and jockey as they returned

,to jthe
Stand were perfectly deafening, and -became, if .possible, louder when the Counof Zetland descended with
.tess
h^
husband
Spotted
Zetland's
.and .patted the conqueror's
neck.
handkerchiefs,
..colours,
symbolising
Lord
were waving
in
everywhere, hats were

air,
flung rrecklessLy
,fielders
the
and even the
cheered because one of the right sort
1/2
had won. This was Voltigeur's third race, all of which he has won, and it is remarkable
that
Charles XII,,
the only other
son of
Voltaire
to run
who ever gained

for
it.
the St. Leger, had

It is also
two heats
worthy
of notice that at this
moment
Surplice, the
Flying Dutchman, and Voltigeur, the only

horses, bar the almost forgotten Champion,
who
This
the
ever
won
at
the
Derby and
St.
Leger, are
standing
is
the
Turf Tavern, Doncaster.

Nutwith and Van Tromp
the third time that Marson has won
St.
Leger,
having
mounts."
been
his
two
previous
winning
"The Druid"
article that
omits to mention
in this
but for an accident which brought
John Scott, the famous Yorkshire trainer, upon the scene, Voltigeur would never have
won Bob
little
the deciding heat.

Hill, the trainer
After the dead heat
of Voltigeur, knew so
that
of his business
his
he was about
to
take
horse into a stable, to have him

corn, and
rubbed down, to give him a feed of

to allow
him
to
rest for a couple of hours

for-
before pulling him out again to meet his
midable Irish antagonist,
who was
the better
i 'ifd^M-SS'ii'fo^J'^
" The Doncaster Gazette."

trained
173
of the two horses.
Fortunately a
that
if
backer of Voltigeur,
who knew
still
the
horse was allowed to stand

of hours he would be so
race that
it
for a couple
stiff after his;
severe
would be impossible
less
for
him
to
move,
still
to raise a gallop,
implored
Bob Hill to change his tactics. The Richmond trainer, who was decidedly the worse for liquor and half mad with excitement, was much too obstinate to listen to the remonstrances of his companion. At that critical moment the latter caught sight of John Scott, who was engaged in conversation
with the late Sir William Milner, the fidus
Achates of
Lord Zetland.
Quicker than
" If
thought John Scott's authority was invoked,
and he instantly pronounced
you put
Voltigeur into a stable and allow him to get

stiff,
the
head.
you might as well shoot him through You must keep him walking
about the whole time until he runs for the

deciding heat.
Charles XII.
after
That was what I did with he had run a dead heat

Against the
with Euclid eleven years ago."
authority of John Scott there was fortunately
no appeal.
174
Life and Times of " THe Druid''

Ikst of
The
the three articles alluded to

in the
above appeared
"
Daily News, on Nov.

of Hastings.
'
nth, 1868; headed":
The Marquis
Earl's
"
'
The
year
has reached a sad

its
'
climax in the death of

'
leading actor.
is
The
Spider and the Fly
di-ama
ended.'
That
poor
into
coroneted'
six
youth,
who
had
more Corinthian excitement and^ weightier Turf cares than

crowded
years
many 'fast men know in a lifetime, has laid down his weary load at last. He was only
'
twenty-six in July, and' had already frittered
away two
to
fine family estates.
Betting
is
said
be the touch-stone of an Englishman's

;
sincerity
for the
but with the Marquis a craving
odds had' become a passion or even a
disease.
He
worsh'ipped chance with
all
the
ardour of a fanatic.
sidered,
least
His wits were, he conin the betting ring at
worth to him
;^ 2 0,000
a year, and he
sometimes
trials
threaded his
way through
the mazes of
all
and public running with

wizard.
liant
the sagacity of a
His public coups were often so brilthat it was hardly to be wondered at
that he believed in his
own
destiny,
and
his
" Tke Doneaster Gazette."
175
power
ing- t&
to Break the Ring.
I't
mattered noth-
improvements
another
him whether the draining or other on his Donnington estate were stopped; if he only got fresh suppHes
for-
Newmarket
left
campaign.
The
Ring, on the other hand, had marked him for

their
own and never
him.
They would
at
cliister
beneath the Jockey Club balcony
attention;
Epsom, holding up their hands to claim his and catching at his replies like a There he would flock of hungry hawks;
ing his hat jauntily at one side, a red' flower
stand, smiling at the wild' tumult below, wear-
in his button-hble,
and
his colours
round his
'
neck, perfectly cool and* unruffled,' while

talent""
the
made
his
horse a hot favourite at
once, and' a fewslipped' back to the Ring to
fdllow his lead;
For a time he was a

fell
perfect
Gocker; but he
strife,
at last in the unequal
and' the
most' copiously were

thteii"
men who had' 'drawn' him among the first to set

him when,
bereft
faces sternly against
of resources^ he wished' to see the
Heath
once more.
"The
Marquis's taste for the Tiirf was not
an hereditary one.
His
father's heart
was
176
Druid"
with hound and horn.

'
He
loved to halloo
far better than
the red rascal
'
over the rides
to
watch the 'Leger horses close up round
the Red-house turn.

lands
still
The men
of the Mid-
speak of him as quite a representawith Will Goodall and Sir
tive sportsman,
Harry Goodricke,
whom
they lost so early.

to see a
He
race
would hardly have stepped aside

;
but a scarcity of foxes in Charnwood
Forest, or finding himself
above twelve stone

his
on the scales would have sorely vexed

soul.
Still,
His son cared
for
none of these
things.
he could not bear to see the Quorn

breach
without a Master, and stepped boldly into

the
when Mr. Clowes

wore the horn
resigned
in
1866.
He
at his saddle
bow
it,
for conformity's sake, but
he never blew
bit of
sift
and
let
the field
go
its
own way,
hunting the a gallop, a a favourite
country on no system.
check, and then trotting off to
gorse for a fresh fox, jumped
much more
it
with his humour than an old-fashioned hunting run, where hounds had to puzzle
Often,
out.
when
his
hounds had reached the

on
wheels,'
meet, ten or twelve miles away, he was hardly
out of bed, and he would turn up
'
"
The Doncaster
from
Gazette."
lyy
and
train,
occasionally
London by special and give Wilson the word to draw

that
caricatures
had gone home. No were drawn, and squibs flew gaily about, and that even Leicestershire said it would rather be bled in
half the field
when
wonder
the purse-vein than have the country hunted

gratis in such fashion.
to sour him.
tail
Satirical verses failed
He
took the sting out of their

at his
by reprinting them
anid
last
own
private
press,
posted them far and wide.

his
On
the
day of
Mastership he slipped
quietly
away
to the station,
and when they
looked for him to give him a parting cheer he
had been gone well nigh an hour

"
The honour
jthe
'
of being
'
the
man who
be-
longs to
Duke,' or 'the Earl,' or
'little
He took was no burden to him. quite naturally to the Turf from the first, In enfolded under the wing of Danebury.
Lepturer
1862 not six people at

the slim lad
Newmarket knew who

;
was on the grey cob but the Ring soon saw that he was a veritable Hampshire ambassador when he put down the money so unflinchingly on a Danebury pot.
To John Day's
12
suggestion that in his posi-
178
tion
yearling or two of his
he was morally bound to have a nice own he lent no un-
gracious ear.
When
the rivalry round the

rings almost
Hampton Court and Middle Park

foamed
of one
into madness,
and 2,500 guineas and

the yearling prices
2,000 guineas were

afternoon,
among
for
he was never
tempted
beyond 1,650 guineas
King
Charles, and
1,500 guineas for Robespierre.
The
former
would have been dear

the latter
at fifty guineas,
and
won
well in the colours of another.
His two and the

cheapest
first
best horses, the
Duke (500 guineas) Earl (450 guineas) were among his purchases. The late Alfred Day
his
wore
colours
on Garotter
in
the
Althorp Park stakes at Northampton, and
Sam Rogers won

colt
a Maiden
Plate on that
a few weeks afterwards.

'
The
first
'
great
victory for the
red and white hoops was the

1
Cambridgeshire of
864, with Ackworth,
who
pur-
had been esteemed a dear 2,000 guinea

chase.
Gradually his stable swelled to upthirty,
wards of
and about ;^7o,ooo were the

Catalogue was one of
spoils of six seasons. his great pets,
and he did not care how much

for in
he backed her
a selling sweepstakes,
*^The Doncaster Gazette.^*
179
and how dearly he redeemed her.

of barrenness followed
cycle
one of profusion, and

in 1865,
Mr. Padwick graciously allowed him,

to
have Kangaroo
at 12,500 guineas, not

;
one
sixpence of which ever came back
while
till
The Duke was

the season
useless from influenza,

over.
half
was
In 1866, which pro-
duced him a
in
One Thousand Guineas winner Repulse and a Goodwood Cup one in The
at
Duke, the stable was once more

from the Sledmere
it
a dead-
lock for a Cesarewitch horse, but Lecturer, a

foal
sale, carried 7 st, 3 lb.,
and won,
"
was
said,
;^40,ooo for the Don-
nington party.
winter's reflection convinced his Lord-
Hermit could never win the Derby, and ;^ 1 03,000 was the price he paid for his People were once wont to tell, thoughts.
ship that
almost below their breath, that
'
Davies the
Leviathan' had been
known
to
pay away
as before
solici-
;^ 70,000 or more on the Derby.
The present
age
is
capable of greater
efforts,
Monday
tors
came, round, the bankers and

for him.
had consulted, and Marquis's losings were found

'
the whole of the
Thus
was panic averted from
The
Corner,' but,
i8p
Life
and T^me^ of
'
The Druid."
the fair lands of
Marquis's h^nd,
rose once more,
turer
Loudoun passed ffQin the At Asicot his lucky star Lady Elizabeth arid Lec-
were bqth in form, and his lordship kept backing them, and piling on the winnings
till
again by a sort of geometric progression,

garnbjing
again.'
he had won nearly half

for
'
his ain
It
was jiow the turn
reverses.
He
The
rather fancied
The
came
Earl, but the stable
overruled him in favour of

flying
filly
q,
Lady
Elizabeth.
back,
fifth for
with
sadly
chequpred fame,
bad
the Middle
Park
Plate,
and yet the
victress in one of
at
the most wonderful of
modern matches
lb.
with the three-year-Q}d Julius.
"
The Marquis had now fallen back again to

'
'
same when he saw the

nearly the the Derby.
agony point in finance as all-rose handed home for

' '
A weary yvinter followed, and was so driven from pillar to post by money be troubles g-i^d creditors th^t he lost his interest in Turf matters and his head for calculation
with
to a
it. The irritable Lgdy Elizabeth wasted shadow in her training and how The Earl was scratched, and then became the hero of the Grand Prix and of Ascot, and how
;
" The Doneaster Gazette.^* the few words that were dropped at
i8i
York
proved the precursor of

all
his 'Leger
doom, are
dark passages of Turf
politics,
and not
of
easily forgotten.
saw the Earl when he was bought ih,
We
last
The
as stout as a
burgomaster, for 3,900 guineas at Tattefsall's,
and then he departed to Findon with a

as to
leg,
whose chances of standing a pfeparation each man seemed to differ with his fellows. "The Marquis had been abroad all the summer in his yacht, but no northern breeze could fan him back to health. He came to Doneaster from Norway on crutches, looking
and nervous, and well he might, as, instead of having a St. Leger winner, he had
very
ill
only the lean comfort of a veterinary

cate from Mr. Mavor.
certifi-
At the First October he was on Newmarket heath in a basket

carriage,
which he only quitted

'
to
say a
word to the pretty Athena which once was mare of mine,' when she was led back a As at Doneaster, he did not go winner.
beyond
'
a pony
'
or two.
'
Mind,
I'm to
have this paid,' said one vulgar Ring man when he booked it to him and after that
;
week they saw him no more.
Nearly seven
82

first
seasons had passed by since he

lad
came, a
of nineteen, fresh from Eton to Newleft

it
market, and he
to die.
a shattered man, only

few days before he
Some
time he spent at Folkestone,

for a
set
and
visited
town
out for a winter sojourn with his wife on the

Nile.
A few
friends dared to
hope
that he
might come back a new

in his old
man and
It
live quietly
country home, and train foals by

Lecturer.
The Duke and

'
was not
to be.
All the wheels
were down,' and now the

Marquis of Hastings
lives
fourth and last
only in race-course story."
i83
CHAPTER
^ THE DRUID S
j>
VII.
ECCENTRICITIES AND ABSENCE
OF MIND.
the essay upon Dr. Johnson's

life
and character, contributed

to
by Lord Macaulay
Black's
Adam
Bri-
" Encyclopaedia
tannica" (which
article
is,
to
my
thinking, the best
of the kind that ever came from the

it is
great essayist's pen),

ties less
said that " eccentrici-
strange than those of Dr. Johnson

sufficient
have often been thought grounds

for
absolving felons, and for setting aside
wills.
His
grimaces,
his
gestures,
his
mutterings,
sometimes diverted and some-
times terrified people
who
did not
in
know
a
him.
of
At
a dinner-table
he
would,
fit
184
absence, stoop
shoe.
down and
twitch off a lady's
He
would amaze a drawing-room by

would conceive an
unintelligible
suddenly ejaculating a clause of the Lord's

Prayer.
He
aversion to a particular alley and perform a

great circuit rather than see the hateful place.
He
would
set his heart
on touching every
post in the streets through which he walked.

If by any chance he missed a post he would go back a hundred yards and repair the
omission."
Those who knew
"
The Druid "
best and
passed most time in his company were of

opinion that his eccentricities and oddities
were, to say the least, as strange and startling
as those of the great lexicographel" for
whom
As
he
entertained
settled
so great a
"
reverence.
years
down upon
The
it
Druid/' he
became so absent-minded
to
that
was
difficult
maintain a conversation with him upon

for
any subject
minutes.
He
more than two or three had lived so much in the

that
solitude of his
own thoughts
room and
he passed
half his
time in total unconsciousness that

trying to talk
others were in the
with him.
So
inattentive
and unobservant
Ecuntricities
and Absence of Mind.

towards the close bf
life
185
his
had he become
laborious
and self-denying
for
that
it
was
not
uncommon
him
to pass old frietids
in the
street without giving
them dhy sign
of recognition.
As he
stalked alongj taking
enormous
son,
strides, his gesticulations atld soli-
loquies resembled those in which Dr. John-
Charles
Laitibj
and
Thomas
Carlyle
habitually indulged;
"
The Rev.
R. F. Lynes,
The
Druid's
" still
surviving brother-in-law,
has been good enough to confide to
me
the
two following
anything that
ianfecdotes which,
I
better than
will
can myself write,

"
show
what "
of his
Thb Dfuid
first is
was
in the last
few years
life.
The
'
as follows
'
In September, 1865,
The Druid went

'
down
to Rushtoh, a counti'y village in North-
amptonshire,
not
I
far
ffOm
in
Market
Har-
borough, whefe
was
temporary charge
bf the parish, to spend a
Sunday with me.
had been told to get out of the train at Kettering, and to take the main rOad for a mile or so, until he came to a stile whence a
pleasant path through the fields would
birirlg
He
him
direct to the villagej atid be a considef-
86
able saving of distance.
He
decided to do
so,
and had walked
for nearly a mile
when he saw
some way ahead a labouring man engaged at work on the road. Feeling sure that this man
would be well acquainted with the neighbour-
hood he determined
to the path.
to ask
it
him
to direct
'
him
Then
occurred to him
What
can
give this fellow
He looks poor enough,

give him
and
ful.
should like to give him something use-
Ah
have
it,
I'll
my
hat."
He
took from his head the article so-named,
a very shiny and ill-favoured specimen, and
debated with himself

the
dilapidated
in
which of the two
hat just snatched from his
head or a decidedly battered wideawake he
was carrying
disreputable
in his
hand
he would look
least
as
he emerged next morning

to church.
from the Rectorial mansion to go
He came
would be
awake,
to the conclusion that his gentility sufficiently secure with

so,
the wide-
and
with a hat in each hand
stretched out before him, and with uncovered
head he moved swiftly on.
It
was
raining
smartly at the time, and his appearance and
manner seemed, to put it mildly, a At any rate the roadman thought
little
odd.
as
so,
and
Eccentricities
'
and Absence of Mind. 187

came
nearer and was seen
the
hat
in
The Druid
'
gesticulating
and flourishing
himself, the
and
wideawake, and muttering aloud

peculiar
to
a way
to feel
man began
more
Druid
self
and
more
uneasy
thoroughly frightened
'
and
in
fact
he was
'
wherever
The
might be going, he thought to himthere could be no doubt as to where he

this
had come from, and acting upon

pression he took to his heels.
'
im'
The Druid
all
shouted to him to stop, and kept calling out

'
have something
for
you
;'
but
in vain.
The man,
entertaining no doubt
now
but that
he was being chased by some

escaped lunatic, hurried on as
dangerous
fast as his legs

'
would
of the
carry
him.
'
The Druid
hotly
pursued him, and though running the faster
two half a mile had been covered Therebefore he overtook the fugitive.
upon he threw
'
his hat at the
man and
said,
There, you may take that and keep it, but come along with me, I want you particularly.
It
was
just
what the man
particularly did not

terri-
want, so he dashed off again, but was so

fied that
he tripped and
'
fell
to the ground,
shouting
Murder,' and no one being near.
88

fof
lost.
'
gave himself up
minutes before
'
It
took some
convince
befall
The Druid
fcoiild
the poor runaway that no
harm would
him
fully
but the gift of a
Shillilig
had A wonderStile
soothing
effect,
and when the
was
reached they
terms,
parted
on the moSt
frietidly'
the roadman exclaiming heartily,
'opes
I may soon meet yer hotiour agin.'" The second anecdote treats of an incident
which
produced
an
amazing
its
effefet
at
Penzance at the time of
occurrence, and
was narrated
paid
to
me
shortly after,
when
my
first
visit to Coi'nWall in
1868, not
long after the close of the American

It
Wah
rUnS as follows
"In the Winter of 1867, Henry Hall Dixon went to pass a few days with a friend at Penzance. There being a splendid reading room there, he at once asked to be introduced to it. Next day his friend took him into the room at an hour when it was
generally niuch frequented, and found most
of the chairs on either side of the long table

that ran
down
and
all
the centre of the room octhe
cupied,
newspapers engaged.
seat vacant towards
There was, however, one
Eccentricities
and Absence of Mind. 189
end farthest from the door, and this 'The Druid' at once appropriated but not a paper could he get hold of, which seemed
the
;
to aggravate
him not a
stick,
little.
He
had with
him a huge rough

and
this,
resembling a cudgel
such as an Irish cattle drover might carry, with a bang that startled everybody
in the
room, he allowed to drop upon the

Simultaneously
table just in front of him.

in
all
a hoarse whisper which was quite audible
over the room, he looked towards his
friend,
and muttered,
'
say.
Bob, do you
think
some of these
'
fellows will clear out
soon
He
then proceeded to divest him-
self of his collar
and
necktie,
and these also
he placed on the table before him.

people around began to smile, but
The
an
in-
when he
hands
commenced
coherent
soliloquising
aloud
in
fashion,
and rubbing
his
somewhat vehemently together and laughing

at intervals
very excitedly, their faces wore
a more serious aspect, and those nearest to

him, one by one, got up and
they wanted to speak to

for
made as though some one or look

end of the room.
something
at the other
In less than half an hour the whole
company
igo

'
had disappeared, and

in
The Druid
papers,
'
found
himself the sole occupant of the table, and

possession
of
all
the
to
the
exhaustive examination of which he devoted

himself to his heart's content."
"
The
Druid's
"
indifference to
money was
truly remarkable, considering the ever-grow-
ing demands and necessities of his family.
Very
and
early in his married
life,
he
insisted
that his wife should

in
become
his sole banker,
her rare absences from home, one of
his greatest anxieties

left
was caused by
His
eldest
his being
as
purse-bearer.
daughter
relates a
funny anecdote of her
father's con-
duct on
one of these occasions.
Entering
his study, she found
him surrounded by cups

sizes, all labelled,
of various shapes and

all
and
In
containing various sums of money.
answer to her eager questions, he explained

that
he was keeping the house money

she came home.
in
separate parcels for "mother," and that no
one must touch

child thought
its
it
it till
The
a strange
mode
of securing
safety,
but did not dare to remonstrate.
He
never carried money about him, and

himself reduced to great
frequently found
Eccentricities
straits
191
in
consequence.
Happily he had a
in
faithful
friend
ever near at hand,
the
person of an old woman,

stall in
the Strand,
who kept an apple From her he continually
borrowed small sums (seldom exceeding sixpence in amount), to be punctually repaid

the following day.
In another
little
way he
as
also
for
repaid
them
by
kindnesses,
example,
when he met her one evenng, wending her way home, in a pouring rain, without any umbrella. Forthwith he sheltered
her beneath his
own
till
she reached
full
the desired haven.

the
He
enjoyed to the
amazement of two or three fashionable friends whom they encountered by the way.
On
large
at
various occasions he sturdily refused sums of money (often sorely needed home), which were pressed upon him by
the owners of large herds in grateful recognition
of services rendered.
He
declared
calcu-
that such gifts

lated to
might be looked on as
warp his judgment, or fetter the uncompromising freedom of his decisions. Similarly, when he had given most valuable
help and support to
Mr.
Rarey, the
of the
horse-tamer, during the
many months
192
latter's
Life and Times of "The Druid"

stay in England, no entreaties covild
prevail
upon ''The Druid"

In
despair,
to
laccept
any
laid
rerrjuneration,
Mr. Rarey
a bag of gold at the

who,
return
feet of
Mrs. Dixon,
to
however,
it
was sternly commanded
without a moment's delay.

a story could be related illustrative
Many
of the
grand
sirpplicity
of
his
character.
When
in
in Scotland
he would be the honoured
guest of a nobleqian one night, fipd sleeping
a herdsman's hut the next, equally happy

at
and
ease with both, and
in
each case
received
with a hearty welcome and kegn
So many-sided was his character that there existed some secret bond of sympathy between him and "all sorts and
appreciation.
conditions
exist, in his
of
men."
Interesting
records
friend-
own
works, of his
warm
ships with the late Sir Charles Knightley,
with
Sir
Tatton Sykes
his
(both
the present
Baronet and
genial
father),
with
Mr.
George
treated
Moore, the philanthropist, and with
a hogt pf other great and good men, who
him with
marked
respect,
and
in
ome
cases with affection, and
this, in spite
of occasional grave differences, both in
re^
./
Eccentricities
ligious
and
A'bsence
opinions.
of Mind. 193
Sir
and
political
Charles
"
Knightley revelled
store of anecdotes
in
"
The
Druid's
rich
ring
and varied lore, conferupon him the rare privilege of being
admitted to the Baronet's
own sanctum
at
all
Fawsley Park
in
Northamptonshire, at
hours of the day and night.
During
he.
his
many
travels,
mostly on
foot,
he carried a heavy, rough cudgel, for which
sometimes found' good
use.
Passing one day through Brighton he encountered a fierce bull dog, long the terror of
the residents in that part of the
town through
which he was walking towards the Station.
Something aroused the animal's wrath, and

he sprang at " The Df uid's" throat.
battlfe
A terrible
ehsued, which was eagerly watched by
an excited crowd.
The
struggle terminated
eventually in the death of the dog, though

not
till
many
vigorous blows had been dealt
with the formidable bludgeon which, fortunately,
he carried
it
in his
hand.
His wife
still
preserves
among
other precious
relics.
Only a week or two before
his end. came,
when he was too

13
feeble to cross the room,
even with the assistance of his trusty stick,
194

it
he put
of
this,
;
into her hand, saying,
"
Take
care
dear,
and keep you

will
it
near you for

left
my
sake
it is all
have
ere long of
your poor old man."
He
had another very narrow escape when
inspecting a herd in the north of England.
Having wandered away from the herdsman,

he entered a building whose sole occupant
proved to be a surly
bull.
The savage
brute
made for him without an instant's delay. "The Druid," preserving complete presence
of
mind,
backed
against
rush.
the
wall
and
awaited the bull's

beast's horns
Fortunately the
to encircle
;
were wide enough

"
"The
Druid's
body without wounding him

the bull's keeper
and there he
uninjured,
stood, pinned to the wall, but

arrived,
until
and rescued him from
his perilous position.
At
all
times his mind seemed too absorbed

to
and preoccupied
matters.
have
leisure for ordinary
On
one
occasion he
slipped a
bottle of ink into his pocket

to visit a
and went out

into his
clergyman who took him
church.
The
chancel was paved with the

after
purest white marble, and

their
a while
to
dismay they saw a track of black spots
Eccentricities

in
195
momentarily increasing
Vicar,
number.
look,
The
with
it's
horrified
exclaimed,
"Why!
dropping from your pocket!"

forth steeped in ink,
"
Putting his hand into the pocket of his coat
and drawing
scious of
disaster,
it
The
Druid" confessed that he was quite unconhaving been the cause of such a
silently out of the church.
and slunk
In
in
more than one instance he went

a pair of carpet slippers.
at the
to church
to sleep
house of
Once he set out a friend who lived

his wife cross-
not far away, and
was seen by
ing the street with a brass candlestick in his
hand
It
in place
of his carpet-bag.
was
his habit to write verses or articles
when
travelling
on the railway, and twice
in
his life his
train
was shunted
for
into a siding,
and he continued his work

time
a considerable
before a porter
discovered him and
made him aware of

nate position.
his ludicrous
and unfortu-
The second time

where
this
happened
was at
on the
Derby,
he was
eventually
roused by the jeers of

line.
some navvies working
His utter indifference to meals arose, in in fact, he rarely part, from absence of mind
;
196

to
Druid"
or
seemed
not.
know whether he had dined

tells
sister-in-law, at
whose house he was
staying en route for Scotland,

family were
all
how
the
sitting
round the dinner
table,
after that meal was over, listening to his. varied anecdotes, when he suddenly pulled
out his watch and said, " Laura, do you
know
have
how
late
it is ?
When
are
we going
to
our dinner?"
Nevertheless, he always ex-
pected to find hot
meat,
vegetables,
and'
pudding
often
awaiting
late
him when he
it
reached,
it
home, however
after
might
be,
and
was
dish
midnight.
His favourite
was roly-poly jam pudding.

swallowed his food scalding
He
hot,
always
and one
evening after his meal was over, he complained of a very sore throat, and sending for
the family physician, declared himself to be
the victim of diphtheria
After a brief ex-
amination the doctor found he

a large
bit
had burnt
of
skin
it
off his
throat.
On
that
another occasion
was intimated
to
him
an unduly large amount of food was being
consumed
resolved,
five
habitually in the kitchen, and he
very reluctantly, to speak to
his
filed
maidservants in a body.
They-
Eccentricities
into his study,
and .(Absence of Mind.
197
and ranging themselves before

solemnly awaited the scold-
him and
clusion
forth
his wife,
ing they were about to receive.
At
its
con-
the
cook,
as
spokeswoman,
think
burst
as
follows.:
all
"
Missus
might
know where
the food goes, seeing as 'ow

in
Master goes a messing about the larder

the .middle of the night,
and yesterday night
ate the whole of a rolly-poUy pudden in a few
seconds."
After this crushing rejoinder the crestfallen

"
Druid
"
meekly dismissed the offending but

:
triumphant domestics
theyjfelt
triumphant because
in giving
fol-
more secure than before
tea
and supper parties to their several "
lowers."
198
CHAPTER
By
his Eldest Son,
VIII.
REMINISCENCES OF "THE DRUID."
Henry Sydenham
it
Dixon.
HOUGH
I
may seem
eldest
singular
parti-
that
his
children
his
and
son,
cularly
who
assohis
from 1866 to 1870, was
him newspaper work

ciated with
in
a certain amount of
contribute so
little
can
"
to
a biography of
The
Druid," the causes

first place,
are not far to seek.
In the
his
health was so bad during the last few years
of his
to his
life,
that he
for
was constantly confined

little
room
weeks together, during which

of
time
we saw very
him
in
the
second, during his rare periods of comparative convalescence,
he was generally
in
travel-
ling to collect materials for whatever book

\ie
happened
to
have
hand
at
the time
and, in the third, his absent-mindedness had
Reminiscences.
increased to
99
such
degree
that
it
was
Per-
almost impossible to carry on anything like

a
connected conversation
with him.
haps, after three or four attempts to attract

his attention, a start
would be
effected, but,
long before the subject was threshed out,

his
else,
mind would have wandered and he would be engaged

with
totally
to
in
something
an audible
and animated discussion
himself on
some
did a
different
topic.
Never was
there a
more
indefatigable worker, and never

tools.
That there should never, by any chance, have been a decent pen on the premises, is no novelty in the house of a literary man, but the entire absence of writing paper was a little strange.
workman use worse
The blank
circular,
sheet of a
letter,
the back of a
even an old envelope turned inside

be handy was promptly
finished
articles,
out,
or any other scrap of paper that hapto

utilised,
pened
and the
Druid's
books,
"
copy of
one
of
"
The
or a chapter of one of his
presented a remarkable and unmis-
takable appearance.
With
there
so
many
;
irons
always
in
the
in
fire,
could
be
but
no
he
regularity
his
hours of work
200
Life and Times
jcif
"
The Druid."
always appeared to regard rest or recreation

as totally unnecessary,
Sunday
would
begin
night
and, except upon a

press
ôn
which day no
put
of wock
to
induce him to
pen
all
paper,
to
at
though he was often waiting,
ready
when
I
the clock had struck twelve
can never remember seeing him
sitting in front of the fire with a
book
on
or
his
newspaper
wrote in the
in
his
hand.
When
he
numerous railway
journeys
invariably
train, and,
no matter how heavy
a day he might have
gone through,
the
moment he had swallowed a

work was resumed, and he
far into ithe night.
-hasty dinner
invariably wrote
In
fact,
he lived with a
pen or pencil
in
his hand,
and
can well
great
remember
annual
his
that,
on the occasions of our

to
in
treat,
when, each Christmas, he took

Astley's,
elder
children
we had
scarcely settled
down
our .places before
he was seated, right
at the
back of the box,

lieu of a
with a big book on his knees in
desk, and there he would remain, steadily

writing, until the
this
fall
of the curtain.
iknow
always produced a .profound impression

us,
on
for
we never
could understand how
Reminiscences.
to
201
resist
it
was possible for any /one thus
the absorbing attractions of
"The
Battle of
Waterloo,"
"
The
Siege of Delhi," or what-
ever equestrian drama happened to be in

the
bill.
Such incessant
and
it
application
would
;have been
constitution,
a terrible tax on the strongest

will readily
be imagined
will-
ihow marvellous must have been the
power
invalid,
ceaselessly
exercised by a chronic and kept up by him unflaggingLy
through a long series of years.
From
for
his early
boyhood
"
The Druid " was

his eyes
never free from
illness of
one kind or another

necessitat-
long 'together.
For many years
gave him an immensity of trouble,

ing constant
the iday,
'visits
to the leading oculists of

to
and often obliging him

of seclusion in
spend long
periods
a darkened room.
Then came a
these
veritable plague of boils, from
tortures, and him to be succeeded by asthma, from which he suffered so severely
which he must have endured

only
left
that for
weeks together he could never
lie
down, but passed night after night
in the. old
arm
chair in which he ultimately died.

to
all
Jn
ito
taddition
these
troubles
he ,had
202
Life and Times of " The Druid^'
undergo one or two operations every year

for polypus in
the
nose
disease which,
it
combined with asthma, made

possible for
ahnost im-
him
to breathe at times.
Yet no
he was
one ever heard him utter a word of complaint, and,
unless exceptionally
Still,
ill,
invariably very cheerful.
towards the
end, he undoubtedly
felt life
to
be a burden
almost too heavy to bear, and was ready and
eager to lay
last
it
down.
to me,
Indeed, almost the
words he said
when
broke down
on receiving some minute directions from him

as to his funeral, were, " Don't grieve, dear
boy
shall
be the happiest man
at
my
own
funeral."
Owing mainly to his incessant exertions at Rugby and Cambridge, to make up for the
time lost by enforced idleness through
illness,
"The Druid"
does not appear to have taken
part in any of the customary boyish games
yet never was there a
more
catholic lover
of almost every branch of sport.

cricket
Perhaps
was
his greatest favourite, and, though
he had never touched a bat or ball, he had a On fine theoretical knowledge of the game. a few never-to-be-forgotten occasions he took
Reminiscences.
203
one of
my
at
brothers and myself to a great

Lord's,
match
thirty years
and, though more than have passed, I can still recall
how we
or hastily
Parr's
all
three
lay
on the grass and

one of George
hits.
watched the elegant defence of Richard Daft,
dodged
to avoid
slashing square leg
In those
days county cricket was of

small importance, and
battles
it
comparatively
periodical
was the
between the All England and United All England Elevens that excited the greatest public interest.
This was the time when
the three Cambridgeshire cracks,
Hayward,
Carpenter, and Tarrant, were perhaps at their
when Cafifyn and Julius Caesar were doing yeoman service for Surrey v/hen H.
best
;
;
H. Stephenson was keeping himself in good

condition
as
all
through each winter by acting

to a
huntsman
pack of harriers
when
Jackson's deadly bowling was at
its fastest
and when
Tom
by
Lockyer's incessant clowning

the way,
that
clowning, had
was
to
never
allowed to interfere with business, as any

rash batsmen
who attempted
take the
smallest liberty
cost
promptly discovered to his

the most popular
made him about
204 Ltfe and Times of " The Druid"

wicket-keeper of
all time.
On
these halcyon
are ;no sucji
for
summer days now " The Druid" would

once
pencil,
days
and
am
sure
there
forget
to
produce
it
the
never-failing
or only use
to
to
keep our scoring

date,"
all
card religiously
"up
and would
the zest and
watch every
enjoyment
ball
bowled with
felt
by
either of his boys.
About the time

between
Sayers
that the ^memorable battle
and Heenan had
set
all
England talking on the subject of pugilism, he went to a few exhibitions of boxing but it was not a form of sport to which he took kindly, and I do not think that he ever
;
attended a prize
fight
in
his
life.
The
advent
of " Deerfoot,"
in
on the other hand,
awoke
him a very strong interest in pedestrianism, and he was constantly to be seen at Hackney Wick and the West London
grounds, both of which have long since been
swallowed up by bricks and mortar.
He
was
an
enthusiastic
believer
in
the
Indian's
powers, and witnessed nearly all his races " Young England," against the " Crowcatcher,"
the
"
Gateshead
.Boy,"
Clipper,"
the
"Norwich Milk
"Jenny
Jones," the
Remdniscences.
205
'"American Deer," and
many another bygone

was not very take me with: him
It
I
celebrity of the cinder path.

difficult to
persuade him to
on most' of these occasions, and:

the accumulation of a certain
then ac-
quired a taste for running which resulted in
number
to
of silver
cups
in
later years.
Needless
say
in
father always took the keenest interest
my my
performances.
dying,
for
I
At the time
in
that
he was
had won a
certain challenge cup
two years
victory
succession,
to
and only one
more
was needed
make
it
my
the
I
own
race,
property;
He knew
latest
that he could not

for
possibly live until
the day fixed
and
his
command- was
that
was on no account to resign the cup, under the idea of paying respect to his memory, by not running in public so soon after his deathjbut that'
I
was
to run
and win.
ran, as
I
he
ordered, and, undfer the circumstances,
don't
think
could have been beaten on that day.

in
Fancy a man
such a state
of suffering
trivial
Having a thought to spare for such- a

of his children was ever trivial
Butit
matter, though nothing which interested any
with him^
was so with
my
father
all
through his
2o6 Life and Times of " The Druid'*

life
every
thought was for others, never a
one
I
for himself.
do not suppose that " The Druid " ever

billiard
had a
for
cue in his hand, yet the meet-
ing of John Roberts, sen., and William Cook the
championship
the
first
match
for
the championship that had taken place for
upwards of twenty years

mensely.
to
his
It
excited
him imprior
was played only a month
death,
when he
his
would never leave

he had to send
that nothing
me
to
well knew that he room again alive, so represent him at St.

strictest
James's Hall, with the
injunctions
was
to prevent
me
from bring-
ing
him the
result
on
my way
first
home.
The
game
of 1,200 up, the
ever played on a
unusually pro-
small pocket table, was an
longed one, and

bitterly cold
it was morning when
after
I
two o'clock on a
stood under his
to
bed-room
window,
shouting
him
that
Cook had won.

leave his bed, nor
He
could not,
of course,
open the window, so com;
munication was
difficult
nevertheless,
until
I
was
not allowed to go
home
had
yelled
at the
out a complete epitome of the match

top of
my voice
a proceeding that must have

within a hundred yards.
woke up everyone
Reminiscences.
207
His love for racing and coursing needs

no comment
his
life,
here.
Towards the
for the
end
of
his fondness
horse was as
strong as ever, but his interest in the race

itself
I
had very much evaporated. Indeed, have been with him at Epsom on an
fillies
Oaks day when he has looked the

carefully
over in the paddock, just strolled
out to catch a glimpse of the start from a

distance,
and then made

station,
straight
tp
for
the
railway
placings
quite
content
read the
when he got back

rowing
to
to Fleet Street.
Perhaps
appealed
was
"
the
least
sport
which
pages of the "
him the Omnibus
of any.
The
contain
little refer-
ence to the Inter-University boat-race, though

it is
rowed
at
a time when matter
is
by no
means too
nalist
;
plentiful with the sporting jour-
nor was "
The Druid"
ever present
Henley Regatta, which one would have imagined likely to afford him congenial
at
material for an article or two.
Only on one occasion can

have seen
remember
to
my
father fairly lose his temper,
sadly as our false quantities tried
him when
he assisted us
in
preparing our lessons for
2o8
Life and- Times of " The Druid"

I
the following day, and

tion
think the provoca-
he received
fully justified his
doing
so.
He
had taken
my
mother and three or
four
of us
children to a firework
night at the
usual crush
Crystal Palace.
There was the
on the way
this
to the railway station
when
the
time came to return home, and, at one
point,
was made worse by the
foolish action of
his
little
man, who placed one of
arms
right across a narrow door-way.
Seeing- that
ray mother,
who
was- just in front of him*

hurt,
was
in
danger of getting
my
father
reached over her shoulder and quietly moved'

the man's
arm
in
order to let her pass.
The
obstructionist took
no notice
at the.
moment,
but just as
my
father
had begun
to descendi
a^
the long' flight of steps to the. platform,
violent kick from behind nearly precipitatedr
him and the youngest

ever, he
child,
who was
in his
arms, from the top to the bottom.
HowI
managed
to
keep
his
balance, and
reach level ground in safety, and: then
have
a vivid remembrance of his giving a very

pretty
exhibition
of
Association
football,
from one end of that long platform

other, his cowardly
little
to the
assailant enacting
Reminiscences.
the thankless
success.
209
with great
part
of the ball
The whole
as
if
it
scene
is
as fresh in
my
memory
still
had
occurred
yesterday,
;
instead of nearly forty years

to hear the delighted
in
ago
seem
who was
that
my
father's
crow of the baby, arms throughout the
entire episode,
and who evidently considered

beautiful
some new and
played for his special benefit.
game was being " The Druid "
was himself again almost immediately, and

our train started as he was leaning out of the
carriage window,
and blandly assuring the

" a
little
outraged wife of his victim that
brown paper and vinegar, my dear madam, will make your husband as good as new
again."
No
man
ever
scorned
lie
more
for
thoroughly, or had a deeper contempt
anything like a
for the perfect
mean
action,
and
his jealousy
independence of the Press was
possibly carried to extremes at times.

first
He
took
i860,
me and we
to a sale of blood stock about
arrived early, in order that he
might have plenty of time to look over the yearlings in their boxes before the sale
opened.
When
this
proceeding was over,
2IO

to anticipate
began somewhat eagerly
mak-
ing use of the two luncheon tickets that had
been presented to us on our
arrival,
and was
pro-
much disappointed when my

ceeded to a small public house
bourhood,
fathei'
in the neigh-
and
bought
of
some
this
bread
and
I
cheese, which he shared with me.
When
Gods
asked
the
reason
extraordinary
pro-
neglect to "take the goods the

vide,"
I
was
told that
he could not conscienaccept the hospitality

it is
tiously write favourably of the yearlings, and
would
this
not,
therefore,
of their owner.
Perhaps
excusable that
motive was quite above the head of a

I
boy of twelve, and that

inferior cheese with
for the flesh-pots of
munched my
very
many
Egypt.
regretful longings
Never anything of a "ladies' man," his love for his wife was very deep and touching. Towards the end, when he was still struggling to town each day, she would walk with him, to help him to the top of the street, where he used to catch an omnibus. Occasionally, when she was dressed, he would send her back to her room to put on a smarter pair of boots, or some new gloves,
Reminiscences.
and then would wait
for
her on the pave-
ment
out."
" to see
how nice you look as you come How many men have so much loverwhen
within measurable dis?
like feeling left
tance of their silver wedding day

too early for
He
left
died
most of
lost
;
his children to realise
what they had
but
if
he has
his
sons an example that they cannot hope to emula'te, he has bequeathed them a memory
that
one and
all
of
them have ever regarded
with the deepest reverence.
212
CHAPTER
T
IX.
THE DECLINE OF CUMBERLAND WRESTLING.

is
a matter of almost universal
regret that
many
of the manly
exercises which
in
found favour
last
the eyes of the
two
generations are beginning to pass away, and

in
some
cases,
have
already disappeared.
The
great philanthropist, Mr. George Moore,
for instance,
who was born

life
in
1806 and died
in 1876, used to attribute no small portion of
his success in
to the initiation into
Cum-
berland wrestling which he received at a
very early age.
When
eight years old he
was
gate,
sent to a day school at a place called
Bolton-Gate, about two miles from Mealsin
Cumberland, where he was
born.
At
that time schools

in
were very much
rougher,
especially
the North of England, than
Decline of Cumberland Wrestling.

they are now,
213
and the account given by George Moore of "Blackbird" Wilson, his schoolmaster, would appal many a tenderhearted mother if she thought that her little son was about to undergo such horrors as
the hero of Dr. Smiles' best biography en-
countered between 1814 and 18 18.
was called 'Blackbird' Wilson," George Moore, "because he could imitate the song of any bird, and especially He was an old man and fond the blackbird. drink. His scholars were sent out to of fetch it for him three or four times a day. With a thick ruler, which he brought down sharply upon our backs, he used to drive
writes
"He
learning into us.

flying
He
often sent the ruler
among our
heads, and the

skulls.
he did not break our
wonder is His rule was

into
to drive reading, writing,
and arithmetic
us
by
brute force.
He
never attempted to
make learning attractive. case, I was never fond of

played the truant.
Such being the school and often Indeed, I should have
been
much
oftener absent but for the dread
of the
terrible
floggings which were then
common.
My
determination not to
study
214
-^^
^^"^
Times of " The Druid"
followed
faults
me
through
my
school days.
My
were those of an energetic and wayward disposition, unhelped by a mother's
sympathy and
solace."
The amusements
or as
lar,
it it
of the boys were in some

Wrestling,
respects peculiar to the district.
was
called in the
Cumbrian vernacusport.
" worsling,"
was the favourite
At
the boys tried their strength with each
other on every possible occasion.

to
They
got
know
the best
way
of " takin' baud," and
became
hypes
familiar with
all
the technical terms

chips and
;
and phrases of the game, such as

;
buttocks
and
crossbuttocks
the
back-heeling, the hank, and the click
inside.
The
wrestling of
is
Cumberland and West-
moreland
well
known
to be less savage
than that of Cornwall.
There
is
no hard
kicking of the shins or legs, and the combatants,

to
whether men or boys, never

friends.
cease
classes
be good
"
Men
of
all
wrestle,"
says
George Moore,
labourers,
"statesmen,
ploughmen,
clergymen.
in
cobblers,
and even
Rev.
One
of the most noted wrestlers
Cumberland was
a curate
the
Abraham Brown."
The boys began
to test
Decline of Cumberland Wrestling. 215

their
physical
pov/ers
early
on the
village
late
greens.
George Moore, whom

Tait,
the
Archbishop
sequently
also
Cumbrian,
that
sub-
pronounced to be the best and
largest-hearted Christian
he had ever
his school-
known,
fellows
tried his strength
upon
by
" takin'
haud
"
of them.
Strong
and wiry, persevering and tenacious, he soon

learnt all the tricks of the art,
left
and before he
school few
boys could cope with him.
It
was hardly to be expected that he should
receive a very learned education at " Blackbird " Wilson's school, seeing that his father
paid but six shillings and sixpence a quarter
His next move was to a finishing school at Blennerhasset, where he remained only for one quarter, at the cost of " Here," he says, " for the eight shillings.
for his tuition.
some use in learning and began to be ashamed of my own ignorThe master was a very superior man, ance. However, I had in fact a sort of genius. thirteen years old, made up my mind, when to go away from home and fight the battle of
first
time
felt
there was
life
for myself."
"
The
Druid's
"
regard and admiration for
2i6

that
I
George Moore were so pronounced
am tempted
to linger a
little
longer among
the thick coming memories which the name

of that generous-hearted
Cumbrian
recalls.
Nearly seventy years have now elapsed

as a youth of nineteen,
since,
George Moore
first
set
eyes upon London for the
time.
Dr.
in-
Smiles
presents
his
readers
with an
teresting sketch of the journey from Carlisle

to
London, performed by
his
young hero on
It
the top of a coach in the spring of 1825.
might have been of him that Tennyson wrote

his
famous
lines
Make me
strife,
feel the
wild pulsation that
I felt before the
When I heard my my life
days before me, and the tumult
of
Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield, Eager hearted as a boy when first he leaves his
father's field,
And
at night
along the dusky highway near and
nearer drawn,
Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn And his spirit leaps within him to be gone before him then Underneath the light he looks at, in among the throngs
;
of
men

Men,
217
my
brothers,
men
the workers, ever reaping
something new, That which they have done but earnest of the things
that they shall do.
Sixty-five or seventy years
ago
it
took two
road lay
and a-half days and two nights to travel from

Carlisle to
London by
coach.
The
through Lancaster and Manchester, whence

it
made
its
way
across the pleasant midland

last," writes
counties.
"At
Dr. Smiles,
"on
the
evening of the third
day the
coach
reached Highgate Hill, from v/hich George
Moore looked down on the

the scene the
city of
London,
Already
place
of
his
future
labours.
prodigious
magnitude
of
the
astonished the young traveller.
The
coach
traversed street after street, going

Street
down Old
and Pancras Road, down Gray's Inn Lane, along Holborn and Newgate Street,
finally
it
until
stopped
at the
Swan
with
Two Necks
It
in
arrived in Friday,
Good
Lad Lane, Wood Street." London on the night before Next morning all the 1825.
shops were shut.
What was he
to
do on
Good Friday ? He knew that all the Cumberland men in London were accustomed to
2i8

their annual wrestling match on that and accordingly he repaired to Chelsea
have
day,
to observe their sports.
When
he reached
the trysting place, he found
the wrestling
;
green crowded with north country folk
big,
brawny men, with broad shoulders and

girth,
great
professional
wrestlers
and
amateur
wrestlers, intermingled with groups of sport-
ing and betting spectators.
Among
them
is
were many life-guardsmen, as there
no
more
favourite recruiting ground for troopers
for the
Household Brigade than the border
counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland and
Northumberland.
Among
the
throngs
collected
together,
George Moore found a young Quaker from Torpenhow, in Cumberland, who had won
the wrestling belt at Keswick a few years
before.
The two young men had
already
met and
tried their strength as wrestlers in
the north country, and
now renewed
their
acquaintance in the south.
Inspired by his
rencontre with an old friend, George Moore
put
down
his
name
as
as a competitor.
Some
strong
who were
scribed
present on the occasion have demiddle-sized,
him
very

looking, with a broad chest
fined muscles.
his
219
and clearly deHis hair was dark and curly, eyes brown and glowing with excitement.
health,
His face beamed with good humour and and his bearing was free and inde"
pendent to the verge of abruptness.
To
those
who do
not
know
the rules of
Cumberland wrestling," writes Dr. Smiles, "it may be mentioned that, although an
athletic
sport,
it
is
always conducted with

loser invariably
It
is
perfectly
good temper, the

fall
taking his
as
a joke.
practised
by boys and men on the

and
in
village greens,
the north
or
is
never mixed up with

although
it it
betting
drinking,
must be
elements.
to
chest,
confessed that in
free
London
is
not always
from
these
objectionable
chest
The
each
wrestlers
stand up
placing his chin
on the other's right
shoulder,
and
his
his
left
arm above the
right
arm
of
opponent.
Then
they
is
grasp
often
each other round the body.
There
a delay and
tries to
difficulty in 'takin' baud.'
Each
get an advantage in seizing the under
grip.
When
both have got firm hold, the
sport begins in earnest, and each endeavours
220
to
Life and Times of

rival.
first
"
The Druid"
touches
is
throw his
The one who

is
the ground
loser.
and
force
undermost,
the
for
Though
and strength go
indispensable.
much,
'
skill is still
more
The
chips,' or
dexterous strokes, are numerous,
including the hype, the swinging hype, the

buttock, the cross-buttock, the back-heel, the
click inside.
These would
afford
ample sub-
jects for the pictorial illustrator of a beautiful athletic art.
For example, English
sculp-
tors
have already imitated the Greek
athlete
to
death.
Why
should they not give us a

?
taste of
English art
elegant,
Nothing can be seen

and vigorous, than the
more
lithe,
on an English village more interest would attach to a green, and good statue of a Cumbrian proficient than to one of Automedon, or Castor and Pollux." In due course George Moore's name was called out, and divesting himself of his shirt and jersey, he stepped into the ring. The
trained wrestlers
first
-
man he
cleverly
encountered was a
little
bigger
than himself, but

so
that
George Moore threw him the question was asked
on every
'e
side,
"
Wha's
yon."*
'is
Whar
"
does
coom
frae
.''
What'-s
naam ?
The
221
next
name was soon known, and when,

wrestling
bout,
in the
he
again
threw his man,
applause rang round the ring, and

doon, George
sides.
!
"Weel
As
the
Moore " was echoed on all game proceeds, the difficulties

greater.
encountered by the victorious wrestlers be-
come greater and

inexpert
of,
All the
weak and
men have been thrown and got rid and when the strong have only the strong
becomes
intensified
to meet, the excitement to a painful degree.
On
these thrilling occais
sions the greatest vigilance
shown by the
in
champions as regards the way

clutch or " tak'
which they
advantage,
baud
"
of their antagonists.
initial
Each
strives to get
some
and for some minutes they duck and dodge

round the
that "
ring, until
a loud shout proclaims

!
They've baud
as in
they've baud
;
"
The
is
men
are locked
a vice
every muscle
a
taut
straining
string.
scientific
and
quivering
all
like
harp
Then
the
subtlest
and
most
tricks of
an art which has been

ever since wrestling
practised
among men
formed one of the prizes of the Greek " pancratium," are resorted to on both sides.
They
are so neatly executed that the "chip"
2 22
can only be perceived by the most experi-
enced eyes, and down goes one of the men

with the other on the top of him.
As
the struggle proceeded our hero had
each time a more formidable opponent to encounter.
At
length he found himself face to
Cumberland champion, named Byers, who had already grassed "a

face with a celebrated
vast
o'
min."
The two
antagonists walked
for a long time
grip.
round and round each other

in their
eager anxiety to get a good

taller
Byers was the
and heavier of the
two,
and no more accomplished executant of the " right leg hype " ever entered a ring. He
very nearly succeeded in throwing George
Moore by
recourse to this familiar
trick,
but
before long the latter grasped Byers firmly

in his arms,
and threw him bodily over

but in the
his
head.
Again a chorus of approving

;
shouts
greeted the victor

the day
it
last tussle of
than his
was fated that he should meet more match. His ultimate antagonist was
and
for click-
a noted wrestler from Cumberland, who was

famous
for his left leg striking
ing inside the heel.
After a long struggle,

this
George Moore went down under
brawny

gladiator's
223
judication of the prizes of the day,
Yet on the adGeorge Moore came out third best. Everyone knew that he was a Coomberland laddie, for his
favourite chip.
strong
Carlisle
accent told
its
After the sports were over, hardly a
own tale. man or
boy on the ground

to grasp
failed to declare himself
George's Moore's well-wisher and friend, and
him by the hand.

have
for
The
incidents of
the day could hardly

lad,
failed to elate the
and nerve him

still
the battle of
life
which
lay before him.
He
in
retraced his
way
to
the heart of the
city,
with which he
was then so unfamiliar, but
which he was
one day to hold up his head as a merchant

prince.
In the course of the afternoon he
learnt that the inn in
which he was lodging

because
it
had
fallen into disrepute
had long
been frequented by Thurtell, the notorious
murderer of Mr. Weare.
In the morning
George Moore discovered that he had slept on the very bed which Thurtell habitually This gave him such a shock that occupied. he felt obliged to seek other lodgings, and
he was fortunate
in finding shelter in
Wood
Street, at a humble boarding house kept by
2 24
L-if^ <^^d
Times of " The Druid."
a'
motherly body from the north of England,
whose kindness and sympathy helped to give him that lasting belief in the goodness of woman which throughout life was one of his most deeply-seated characteristics. His determination and pertinacity valu-
able qualities to the promotion of which wrestling

to
had not a
little
conduced
were
about
the
be subjected to a severe
test.
For
next week he passed every available hour of

his time in v/alking about
London, seeking
draper's
shop.
of
an
engagement
in
some
Referring afterwards to the early

his
trials
young life, he said, " I had no one to take me by the hand, and my appearance was against me, as the Cumberland tailors were not so good then as they are now, so that when 1 applied for a situation it was difificult to convince them that I wanted a place behind the counter, and not some meaner post. My dialect, too, was no
recommendation to me,
pretty broad now,
it
for
although
it
is
was much broader
then.
I
After beating about London for a week
began
to think myself a not very marketable

in that great
city.
Still
I
commodity
per-
f)clitie
of Cuf^berlatid Wrestling.
225
severed,
going over the whole surface of London on foot, and entering as many as
shops in a day, always with
thirty drapers'
same result. My second Sunday in London now came round, and I began to realise its loneliness and solitude,. Every hoyse lopked black at me, and every door was closed. I thought it almost heartless
the
that
multitudes should
be going about on
their errands of
worship or enjoyment with-
out taking any notice of me.

are friendless,
To
those
who
place in the
London is world. Soon

in despair,
I
the most solitary

I
began the next

to
week, but no better success attended me.
At
out
last
was
and resolved
at
go
to
America.
called
Edgar's, in Piccadilly,
there,
5vas
and
told
Swan and a young man

I
whom
me
to
had spoken
to before, that
going to take
my
passage.
He
then
informed
jRay
that Mr. Ray, of Messrs. Flint,
&
Co., of Grafton
House, Soho Square,

if
had sent
,address.
inquire
anyone knew
himself
my
Mr.
Ray had
Cumberland, and was the son of

land
'
come from a Cumberfather's

I
flr^>='
statesman.'
He knew my
farnily,
and wished to befriend me.
15
26
to see him,
pity than from
and he engaged me, more from any likelihood that I should
shine in the service.

;i^30
My
salary
was
I
to be
a year, and joyfully indeed did
accept
his offer."
Next day he entered the warehouse in Soho Square for the first time. One who was long employed there remembers his first
appearance.
He
writes,
"
On
incidentally
I
looking across the haberdashery counter,
saw an uncouth,
thick-set country lad, stand-
ing there with tears in his eyes.
In a minute
or two a large deal chest, such as Scottish
servant wenches use for their clothes, was
brought
in
by a man and
set
on the
floor.
When
was
the lad had dried his tears he carried
the box upstairs to the bedroom where he

to sleep.
After he had come downstairs

^.isntinued to
again he began working, and
be the hardest worker

until
in the establishment
he
left.
Had you
to
seen him then, you

unlikely
would have said he was the most

lad in
England
make
the great future that
he
did."
Let us now turn onwards from page 57 to page 80 of Dr. Smiles' admirable " Life

of
227
George Moore,
thropist."
Merchant and PhilanIn the first of these two pages,

Flint,
we
see the country boy, " uncouth and thick-
set,"
entering the service of Messrs.

Co., in the April of 1825.
Ray and
At
the
second page
we
find him, in
the June of
1830, inducted as a partner into the firm of
Messrs. Groucock and Copestake, long after-
wards known as Messrs. Groucock, Copestake,
and Moore.
In April
of that year
George Moore celebrated his twenty-fourth His rapid success was due to his birthday.
extraordinary energy as a commercial traveller
n the service
of Messrs. Fisher, Stroud and
Robinson, of Watling Street, City, then the

first
lace
house
good
luck, in
Again his Cumberland man, was being a

in the
East End.
of essential
service to him, as
Mr. Fisher
came from the same part of England. His salary was ^^"40 a year, and he found that he had still much to learn. Soon Mr. Fisher began to blame him for his slowness and
stupidity.
"
'
have
had many a stupid
blockhead from Cumberland,' he exclaimed, He 'but you are the worst of them all.'
kept on repeating this two or three times
28
Life and Times of " Th Druid!'

for
week
some months,
until
the conceit
was
entirely taken out of
me
very good
riddance for a lad of nineteen."
Among
;
other defects, he became conscious that his
education
left
much
to
be desired
so he
sat
went
the
to a night-school,
and frequently
he
continued
up
studying his lessons until the small hours of
morning.
This
to
do
during the next eighteen months, and
learnt
more than he ever did

of his industrious
life.
at
any other
portion
But the
quality to
rise,
which he mainly owed his subsequent
was had
his indomitable perseverance, which he

first
acquired
when
pitted in the wrest-
ling ring against a stronger opponent.
About
that time his friendship with Mr. Crampton,
a fellow-worker at Fisher's drapery
store,
commenced, continuing without intermission until they became partners in Cheapside. Writing in 1827, Mr. Crampton says of him: " I found George Moore at Fisher's, and we became close companions. His friends were my friends, and so intimate were we that,
although myself a Yorkshireman,
to
I
seemed
merge
into a
Cumberland
laddie.
George
I
was very clannish and
patriotic,
but
was
229
gayer and More frivolous thdh he, aiid he

never failed to
tell
me
of
my
faults,
He
was a strong, round-shouldered young fellow, very cheerful and willing. Among
we attended the wrestling John's Wood. The principal match was always on Good Friday. One day we went to the appointed tryst, and George Moore entered his name as a wrestler. The competitors drew lots, and
our amusements
matches at
St.
George's
antagonist
I
was
lifeguardsman
I
over six feet high.
think
see George
Moore smile now

the giant,
at
it
as
he stood opposite to
also.
who
smiled
'
Then they went
in earnest,
got haud,' and George was
gently laid upon his back.
By
this
time he
was out of practice, and

he ever wrestled again.
do not think that
Moreover, his work
soon became so hard that he had no time

for
amusement."
eighteen months in their service,
After
Messrs. Fisher and Co. found George

too
Moore
circuit.
good
for
town
travelling,
and sent him

northern
on the
Liverpool
and Manchester
in the
He was
districts
then twenty-two, and
Messrs. Fisher's business had been
230

fallen
off.
badly worked, and had greatly
There was only one way to restore it work, He was at it early in the work, work. morning, and late at night. He lost not a moment, and in American phrase, " was no slouch." Meantime he claimed credit for nothing except zeal and perseverance. His
opponents, on the other hand, attributed
success
his
more
to his courteous persuasiveness
for work than to the qualities of At the inns which he frequented he soon became a general favourite. Other
and capacity
his wares.
commercial travellers used to pack up

themselves
his
goods, and help him on the way, although

his
rivals.
One day
just
a young
commis voyageur, who had
embarked
upon the
travellers
northern
circuit,
arrived at the
Star Hotel, Manchester, and found a dozen
hard
at
work helping
"
George
is
Moore young
about
only
"
to
pack up
his goods.
Who
"
that
fuss
it is
fellow they are
making such a
" ?
asked the new-comer.

"
Oh
George."
"
And who may

?
George
be
What, don't you know the NapoLet
leon of Watling Street
me
introduce
you
to
George Moore."
Decline of Cumberland Wrestling. 231
His next move was

the
first
to Ireland, where, for
time, he encountered Groucock, the
traveller
who had
so greatly interfered with
Fisher's
Irish business.
He
was a young
in
man, although some years older than Moore.

Before
the latter's
appearance
lion's
Ireland
Groucock had taken the

lace trade
;
share of the
but
of his steel. so keen that
now he had a foeman worthy The struggle between them was

Groucock's physical strength
to the
was not equal

the time
ever,
tremendous
strain.
All
George Moore worked harder than

at last
and
succeeded
in getting
back
all
the best Irish customers for his employers.
Groucock soon found

terms
it
necessary to come to
competitor.
with
his
indefatigable
friend he
Through a mutual to George Moore,

if
made
overtures
offering
him ;^5oo a year

offer,
he would travel for his house instead of for

It
Fisher's.
for
of
was, indeed, a tempting
Moore's salary was only ;î5o a year, out
which he could barely contrive to
live.
Considering the enormous business that he
brought to their firm,
it
was
selfish
short-
signtedness on the part of Messrs. Fisher and
Co. not to have increased his salary.
But
232
Life and Times of ''The Druid"
his answer to Groucock's overture was firm and emphatic. " I will be a servant for no other house than Fisher's. The only condi-
tion
on which
will
leave
him
is
a partner-
ship." In this way George Moore embarked upon the small business at No. 7, Cheapside, which he afterwards converted into one of
the most stupendous and successful establish-
ments
is
in the world.
The
rest of his career
well
known, and
my only
excuse for devot-
ing these few pages to the commemoration

of his name,
is
that he was, throughout

"
life,
an attached friend of
The
Druid," his Cumat-
brian compatriot, and that he frequendy

tributed
no small portion of
his
own
success to
the valuable attributes implanted in him by

his
love
and practice of what

call
his
fellow
Cumbrians
"worsling."
It
taught him
air
the manliness, courage, and love of open
sports which subsequently culminated in his
devotion to fox-hunting, and sent him out

18
1
in
6,
as a
boy of
ten, to ride
a barebacked
horse with John

Sir Wilfred
Peel's hounds, over which
Lawson now holds sway. Many years later, when in 1854 Mr. Alderman Sydney was Lord Mayor of London, he and
Decline of Cumberland WresiltHg.

the
233
Lady Mayoress accompanied Mr. and MfSi George Moore down to Cumberland on
to
a visit
that
picturesque
first
and
act
romantic
county.
wrestler
Almost the
of the old
was to take his distinguished guests some Cumberland wrestling on the island near Low Wood, Windermere. He told them that he owed it to wrestling that he
to see
was so hardy and strong at the age of 48, and when he paid his next
fred
visit to
Cumber-
land he distinguished himself with Sir Wil-
Lawson's hounds, exclaiming to those
around him at the end of the run, that he had

never hunted in that country since he rode his
father's
bare-backed
harriers
to
old
mare
world
after
John
best
Peel's
the refrain of
iri
the
known hunting song

" D'ye ken
tlie
John Peel with his coat so grey ? D'ye ken John Peel at the break of day ? D'ye ken John Peel when he's far far away, With his hounds and his horn in the morning ? 'Twas the sound of his horn brought me from my
And
bed, the cry of his hounds has me oftimes led. For Peel's view-holloa would waken the dead. Or a fox from his lair in the morning."
'Perhaps there never was a truer aphorism
known than
that uttered
by Judge Talfourd
234
Life
and Times of
"
The Druid"
"If
is
from the Bench with his dying breath,

I
were
to
be asked," said
he, "
I
what
the
in
great fault of English society,
would say
one word that
it
is
the want of sympathy
between
class
and
class."
In like manner,
no words were more frequently upon George Moore's lips than these " Sympathy is the
:
grandest word
contains
in
the English language.

it
It
within
a gospel
sufficient
to
renovate the world."

in his case
it
Who
can doubt that
was
largely promoted and en-
couraged by the ardour and heart with which
he threw himself
well met," with
all
into
manly
sports and
amusements, which made him

sorts
" hail fellow, of
and conditions
to the
full
men
trait
which he shared
with
his friend
and admirer, the hero of
this book.
235
CHAPTER
X.
THE Druid's versatility.

I
HE
memory
of racing
men
is
so short, and their knowledge

of the performances of great
horses which flourished before

their
time so scanty, that "
The
Druid's
comments upon the sporting career of one of the greatest pillars of the Turf that the
nineteenth
century has produced, will per-
haps
be
read with
interest
by some
is
to
whom
the late Earl of Eglinton
no more
than a name.
The
following article
was
contributed to the Doncaster Gazette shortly

after
Lord Eglinton had

to
sold the whole of
his stud, including

in
brood mares and horses
training,
the late Mr. John Massey
Stanley,
who
subsequently became Sir John

at
Massey Stanley Errington, and died

advanced age
in 1892.
an
236
Life and Times of " The Druid.
From Doncaster
"
March, 1855. Lord Eglinton's Turf Career.

Gazette^
"In these when credit

at
troublous times for the Turf,

is
low and bidding
still
lower
left
Tattersall's,
and when those now
of
the gallant red-coated Race Brigade are
fain
to content themselves with meetings before
Sebastopol amid the loud-mouthed diapason of

the cannon, in the place of nigger minstrels
and of
'
Donkey Jimmy
It is
'
in
the
distance,
we
bitterly
grudge the retirement of Lord

harder
still
Eglinton.
that the tartan

after
banner should be hauled down so soon

the narrow blue and
white stripes of the
Marquis of Exeter, and thus that the Northern and Southern Turf should be bereft within the
same season of two noblemen who

but went straight
knew no croooked ways,
as Mini6 ball to the winning chair.
Lord
early,
Eglinton was entered to the sport very
and
in
1831,
two years before he

he
first
attained
his majority,
brought out the family

Turf.
;
colours
on
the
Scottish
Ayr was
at
then his favourite course

fortune,
but in later years
which invariably deserted him
York, smiled on him at Doncaster, and he
The
gracefully
DrtticTs
his
Versatility,
237
marked
sense of her favours
by the presentation of a ^200 Plate to its races, which was won by the Black Doctor
in
1850.
One
first
of his earliest racers was a
very elegant grey mare,
who drew
at
blood for
1831, his
Queen Bathsheba, him in a jCyo Plate

stud
Ayr.
In
only consisted
was trebled before three more seasons were out. At that time George Dawson, father to Thomas, Matthew, Joseph and John Dawson, trained for him at Bog
of three, but
Side,
Castle,
scale.
in
Ayrshire,
not far
from Eglinton
to
and led not a few winners back

His and
lordship
often
rode his
in the
own
horses,
Tommy Lye
was
saddle
when
professional weights
were necessary.
seldom de-
Matches, in which
his lordship
st.
clared to ride under 12
lbs.,
were
his
James Boswell and Sir David Baird were like-minded, the good people of Ayr found those three names perpetually figuring
in
great delight, and as Sir
the
'
correct
race-lists
Lord Eglinton got the better of the Baronets, and the same success attended him in his more recent match mounts at the Eglinton Park
of that
day.
As
general
rule,
238
Meeting, where he
in
won
three Steeplechases
his earliest
one day.
Butterfly
was one of
winners in England, while his colours were

successfully carried also
by Black Diamond,
Potentate, and Bellona.
Of these,
Potentate
old,
ran
till
he was about fourteen years
and
won
forty-two races out of ninety-nine starts

feat
ranking him with those everlasting

Zohrab,
Isaac,
geldings,
Naworth,
Radul-
phus,
and
Cloth worker.
From
1838
to
1840 the
fact,
Eglinton
stud
became a
great
the two best horses being St. Bennett

St.
and
Martin,
who would have won much

had
not
more
frequently
Lanercost
per-
petually stopped the
way.
The
former of
these Saints
commenced
well by winning the

in
Northumberland Plate
1838 and
1839,
and one of Lord Eglinton's most dashing victories with this horse was in the Liverpool
Cup
of
1838,
when
Harkaway
first
carried the
white jacket and black cap of

raceIrish
Mr. Thomas Ferguson on an English

course.
His adherents
live with
crossed the
Channel, big with the belief that no English
nag could
Bennett
him
but 15
lb.
to St.
was beyond
his
powers,
and he
was cleverly defeated by a neck.
The DruicTs
Versatility.
239
"After 1840 Lord EgHnton's Stud never numbered more than fifteen, which was
aoout
its
strength in 1842,
-
when
at
the some-
what
with
caster
mean
such
looking
Blue
rush
Bonnet
a feverish
came the Don-
betting
rooms
before
about 8 o'clock on
the
St.
the
evening
carried out
Tom
and Dawson's anticipations so

Leger,
cleverly
on the morrow.
The
St.
Leger
was Blue Bonnet's maiden performance, as

she had gone dead amiss on the eve of other
Goodwood, Liverpool and elsewhere, and in fact had travelled hundreds of miles for nothing. With this St. Leger, Lord EgHnton's especial luck commenced, and between 1842 and 1851 he won nearly ;^ 18,000 in stakes over its Town Moor. Pompey, who was always an especial
great
engagements
at
favourite
of his lordship,
won
the
Great
Yorkshire Handicap here in 1843 and 1844, and the pretty white-legged Aristides, after
showing temper
tage in 1843.
consisted
stable,
in
the
St.
Leger,
won a
;^45o stake against Colonel Anson's ArmiIn 1844, the stud, which then
ten,
left
of
Thomas Dawson's
was anxious
to
as his lordship
have
240
Lif^ and Times of " The Druid'

trained
in
them
Fobert,
private.
Consequently
who had
not been
much
was
heard of
since General Chassd's time,
installed at
Spigot Lodge.
Tommy
Lye,
whose
coiir
nection with them had ceased after the
last
Doncaster Meeting, handed over

to
his jacket
Job Marson,
who had worn

to
for
it
a few times
con-
previously,
and continued
success
do so with
seasons.
siderable
four
Van
batch
Tromp was
foal at the foot of Barbelle, his
dam, when Fobert brought out
his
first
;
of Eglinton two-year-olds in 1845

great Eglinton winning cycle.
but the
season of 1846 was the beginning of the

In that year
;
Nerisaa
won
the Chesterfield Stakes
Dolo,
thanks to Job Marson's powerful handling,

kept his legs
in the
castle-on-Tyne,
Tatton Sykes
for the
left
North Derby at Newwhen Fancy Boy and Sir both of them great favourites
St.
coming Doncaster
Leger
were
the
sprawling on the glassy surface of New-
castle
Moor
and next day Dolo won

well.
Northumberland Plate as
struggles at
Van Tromp
pulled gallantly through his three two-ye^^r

>iU
Liverpool,
Goodwood and
Doncaster, but his defeat for the Derby next
The Druid's
year, for
Versatility.
241
at
which he started third favourite

to
7 to
I,
was a great disappointment

set rnatters
Lord
Eglinton.
At Goodwood next year Van

straight
Tromp
by defeating
return
for
Chanticleer for the Cup, but in his
match with the gallant grey

caster
the Don-
Cup he stripped with a carcase like a Durham ox, and quite failed to do himself
justice.
He
game
dilate
only appeared
in
public once
more, to meet the Scotch grey for the deciding

at Ascot,
which he won,
after
making steady running throughout.
"To
on the deeds of the Flying

his tilts with Voltigeur
tale.
Dutchman and upon

that
would be a thrice-told
Suffice
it
to say
in
he swelled his lordship's winnings
1849 to a net value of ;^ 19,500, and that both

his trainer
stand that the stud

the
and jockey were given would be sold
to underif
he
lost
Derby
St.
that year, and that they received
;î,ooo each for the
double event (Derby
and
Leger).
Spigot
Lodge never had
reason to rejoice
their best
over a Chester Cup, and
handicap win was the Great Metropolitan at Epsom in 1848, when Glen Saddel only beat old Inheritress by a head
16
242 Life
for
and Times of
"
The Druid"
Elthiron was
the
1,500 guinea
stake.
quite
overshadowed by
his stable-companion,
the Dutchman, but a
animal never wore a
bridle,
gamer and more useful and now that old

will
Pantaloon has gone, Phryne, his dam,
be
to
puzzled to produce an equal to him and
Hobbie Noble.
" Mr. Bowes' luck in breeding four Derby
winners
not
fall
from
three
different
mares
does
to ordinary mortals,
and we cannot
Barbelle,
remember any mare, except

produced two
foals
who
of
the stamp of Van
Tromp and
* "
the Dutchman.*
"
Her
appearmares
The
Druid
evidently
forgot
three
which, previous to Barbelle, had records as distinguished as hers. The first is the third Duke of Grafton's Penelope, who produced Whalebone and Whisker both by Waxy, and both Derby winners. The second is Lord Egremont's Canopus mare, who produced Lapdog and Spaniel, both by Whalebone, and both Derby winners. The third is Mr. Bowes' Emma by Whisker, who produced Miindig by Catton, and Cotherstone by Touchstone, both Derby winners. In addition, Emma produced Mowerina, the dam of West Australian, At a later date Mr. Theobald's (afterwards Mr. Thelluson's) Pocahontas by Glencoe, surpassed all previous records by producing, in three consecutive ypars, Stockwell by The Baron, Rataplan by The Baron,
and King
Tom
by Harkaway.
(F. L.)
The Drtdd's
ance
is
Versatility.
243
nothing very great, and although she slightly resembles old Beeswing she has by
no means so good a back, and only contrived
win two races out of ten starts. Still, she is a mare who would always attract attention in a field, even by the side of
to
Easter,
Ellerdale,
Alice
Barbelle
Hawthorn
is
and
rising
Mountain
twenty,
singularly
1842,
Sylph.
now
and her
breeding
luck has
first
been
in
chequered.
filly
Her
foal,
was a brown
and
in
by Muley Moloch,
In 1843 she missed
which was not trained.

to the Bard,
1844, '45
and
'46
came
Van Tromp by
Provost,
Lanercost, De Witt by the and the Flying Dutchman by Bay
Middleton.
haps.
Then began
Dr.
a series
of misr
died,
his
In 1847, sister to
his
Van Tromp
1849 she
and
back
to
brother.
Ruyter,
ruined
when a
Lanercost
;
foal.
In
missed
Vanderdecken
in
by
in
Bay
185
Middleton
arrived
1850,
to
and
and
ton.
1852
In
she
missed
Bay
Middlecolt
by Orlando, named Zuyder Zee, was born, and Melbourne was next thought of, but Lord
1853 a fine
racing-like
Eglinton decided to send her to his especial
244
favourite,
Pompey, and a
fine
filly
with a
large blaze to her face
was the
result.
The
four of her progeny that Fobert has trained
have won no
that he cut
after the
less
than ;^33,300, and the
only blot on his lordship's racing escutcheon

is
up the Flying Dutchman

Doncaster meeting of
into
lots
1855,
was ;^5,ooo, divided into ten ;^5oo shares, two of which were taken by Lord Eglinton, two by Lord Strathmore, one by Lord Airlie, one by Sir George Armytage, one by Sir H. Hume Campbell, one by Captain Archdall, one by Mr Henry S. Thompson and one by Captain Hamilton. " The history of Lord Eglinton's racing
price
The
of late years
is
virtually the history of the
progeny of Barbelle, and of her two paddock

rivals,
Blue Bonnet and Bellona.
His
last
good horse was Coroebus, who proved, however,

to
be a very unlucky performer, and

for the
broke down
Hargreaves.
his
Doncaster
St.
Leger,
when he had passed
into the hands of Mr.
In the end his lordship sold

in
brood-mares and horses
training to
ridicu-
Mr.
John Massey Stanley,

small
for the
lously
sum of
twenty-five
hundred
The Druids
guineas.
Versatility.
245
Luck seems
to
have deserted the

in
popular tartan jacket after the Dutchman's
famous
match against Voltigeur
185
1.
who was so lucky when Mr. A. Nichol farmed her stock, never
Beeswing, for instance,
produced
anything
worth
leased
training
her.
after
Lord
there
Eglinton
had
Under
such an
is
accumulation
of
disappointments,
no wonder that
his lordship should

Still
have thrown up the sponge.

of the fact that during his
in
face
Turf career he
has averaged about \,Q>oo per
annum
in
winnings, he can hardly be called unlucky.

In conclusion,
will
still
we
trust that
Spigot Lodge
send forth
many a winner under

have
few years."
more favourable
attended
it
circumstances than
for the last
As a supplement
cannot
to the
above
article,
do
better
than quote
the
words
and Paddock," when their author was fresh from what I myself am
disposed to regard as the most thrilling and
exciting
written in " Post
scene that
"
ever witnessed on a
writes
:
racecourse.
"
The Druid "
For actual excitement during a
race,
we
never saw anything equal to the deciding
246
Life tmd Times of " The Druid"

Voltigeur's
St.
heat in
Leger,
when
the
crowd pressed on to the course from the Red House bend, and left to all appearance
scarcely
horses.
four
yards
space
for
the two
Poor Bobby
to
Hill's state of
mind
been
the
was wondrous
dreadfully
mark.
He
had
of
to
put out,
ironically
because some
advised
crowd had
him
put
brandy into the water which he had brought for his horse from Richmond, and had even
gone so
far as to allude to the
honoured cow
into the Turf
which ha3 been specially put
Tavern bdx
to air
it
overnight.
Burning
with revenge, he had stationed himself close
by the Judge's chair to hear his doom, and even then his admiring friends would not
let
him
alone,
'He's beat, Mr.

them,
as
Hill,'
ex-
claimed one of
the
vast
crowd
closed in behind the competing twain below
the distance, and the roar of a hundred and

fifty
thousand iron lungs rent the

?
'
air.
'
Is
'er
beat
retorted the
little
man, skipping
sight
me
!
frantically
'
upwards
maun't
to obtain
tell
a good
line of
tell
Ye
me
ye maun't
knaws 'im better Job's a coming.' Sure enough Job was coming with a venI
The Druid's
geance
;
Versatility.
247
and Bobby's
tauld ye
yell
!
of
'
Which wins
noo
Ar
so
'
might have beenlike
heard at Bawtry as he dashed through the

crowd, butting his
to his favourite's
way
bull,
to get
geur-spotted
aloft
;
Everywhere Voltihandkerchiefs were waving

head.
hats were recklessly flung
away
life
into
trust
mid-air, as if their
to
it
owners intended to
;
a natural growth or a wig for
and
was
all
poor Leadbitter could do to keep

countless
enthusiasts,
order
among
who
would
persist in trying to
wipe some of the
sweat off the winner with their handkerchiefs,
and keep
" After
it
as a toilet
the
memento, Dutchman's defeat

the
on the
quite
subsequent
different.
Friday,
scene
was
to
The crowd seemed

and
last.
be quite
paralysed,
utterly unable to believe that
such a giant had fallen at
His backers
marble
wandered about pale and

statues,
silent as
and Marlow stood near the weighing house in a flood of tears, with Lord Eglinton,
himself as
pale as ashes, kindly trying to
soothe him.
The
pace at which the Dutchhill
man
flew over the
was such
as
we have
never seen, and the only animal that ever
?48
Life and Times of

to us to
"
The Druid.'
was the Duke
seemed
go as
fast
of Richmond's Officious, in the early part of
an Ascot Vase
race.
The Richmond men

drew
on, to
became
quite alive, as evening
the greatness of their victory.
Such a
night
of jollity was never witnessed in Doncaster

before,
and the inns were overflowing

Strolling
into
to the
very kitchens.
latter
one of
the
about
midnight,
we
;
espied a large
group of grave
clothiers
one or two
of
them smoking
cigar at the
pipes,
to
which the monster
exhibition
others,
seemed a
with
trifle
in
length
while
eyes solemnly
fixed ceiling-wards, insisted on waltzing with
the cook and other female domestics.

are
We
bound
to state
that the former seemed
by no means
you going
siastic
to dislike this pleasing recog'
nition of the close of her labours.

to
Aren't
bed
'
we asked
aren't
of an enthu'
double event Richmond man.

indeed
to
t'
!
Gor
to bed,
You
?
'
'alf
Wha'd gor
Leger and
bed when Voltigeur's
mon woon
t'
was the scornful reply. Much as has been said and written about the Dutchman and Voltigeur, we are inclined
to fancy that neither of
Coop
them were such
high
The Druid's
class
Versatility.
249
animals as
;
West
Australian and Ted-
dington
four,
but
it is
worthy of notice that these
and Virago, and Stockwell, who was

wane, were
foaled
in
taken out of training long before he was on

the
six
successive
seasons."
In
addition
to the
for the
I
articles
which
"
The
Druid " wrote
Doncaster
Gazette and
the Sporting Life,
am
indebted to a
list
memof his
the
ber of his family for the following

contributions
sent
for
many
years to
in
Sporting Magazine, which are given
the
very language employed by their industrious

compiler.
best
It will
be seen that three of his

their first appear-
known works made

"
ance in that once famous periodical, as " Post
and Paddock
commenced on January
i,
i,
1856, "Silk and Scarlet" upon August 1859,

I,
and " Scott and Sebright," upon July
1862.
this
The
vast variety of topics handled

will
by
accomplished writer
give a
fitting
idea of his many-sided versatility.
"The Druid's" Contributions

"
to the
Pencil-
Sporting Magazine."
In
1850 he
commenced "Turf
250 Life and Times

lings,"
of.
"
The Dniid.'^
of
Chasse
"
"
under the signature and " The Druid."
"General
The following contributions are signed The Druid " : " My Trip to the Match," June, 1851, a poem (154 lines) on "Great Northern Posters The Start The Can tabs
Lincolnshire Doncaster Lord George Bentinck The Express Time Road Course The Parade The Match After Reflections A Benediction."
" Voltigeur
to the
the Flying Dutchman," v. January, 1851, a poem (72 lines). " The Lay of the Horse-Marine " (after the model of Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner "),
August, 185 1 (32 stanzas, 4 lines each). " Review of the Steeplechase and Coursing Season," 1850-51. " Parodies for the Times the Peer, the Prophet and the Purser," July, 1852. " The Close of the Racing Season,"
December, 1852. " Country Crayons," March, August and December, 1853. "My Turf Wallet," January, 1854. "A Week in Westminster Hall," March,
1854.
"
The
Post and the Paddock," January
to
May, 1856. "English
Horse-dealers,"
September,
1856. " Silk and Scarlet," August, 1859, " Exmoor Ponies," October, i860, "Scott and Sebright," July, 1862.
The Druid's
Versatility.
251
" Scribble."
"Opening
January, 1852.
of
the
Winter
Winter
Exhibition," Exhibition,"
" Progress of February, 1852.
the
"What we saw in the Great Winter Exhibition of 1851-52," March, 1852. " The Beginning of the End of the Great Winter Exhibition," April, 1852. " Last Words on the Great Winter Exhibition," May, 1852. "A Word to the Ignorant," June, 1853. " More Words to the Ignorant," July,
1853"
few more
1853. Rupert's
Words from
Day,"
'
Scribble,'
August,
" St.
September
Its
and
November, 1853.
"The
"
Pytchley
and
Neighbours,"
January, 1854.
The Frozen-out
Fox-hunters," February,
1854.
"
What
the Fox-hunters did in the Thaw,"

Venaticae,"
March, 1854.
"Noctes
1854.
May
to
November,
"Nulli Secundus," January, 1855.

" Confessions of a Sporting
Man," edited
September,
by
"Scribble,"' July,
August,
1855.
November and December,
252
Life and Times of " The Druid.*'
"Uncle
" Letters from my 1852, to April, 1853.
Scribble."
Uncle Scribble," June,
"A
"
Country Christmas," January, 1857.

the
The Right and
Wrong," January,
Examination," De-
i860.
"Our Next
Military
cember, i860. " Sketches from the
Gorsehamptonshire
Gallery," January, 1861. " The Portrait Gallery,"
February
to
August,
86 1.
Hall," August,
" Bachelor's
1862, to De-
cember, 1863, " The Last of the

ents,"
Foreign Correspond-
November, 1865.
"
Gayhurst."
"York
"011a Podrida," 1851. Realities and Doncaster Shadows,"
September, 1852. " Doncaster Doings," October, 1852. "A Card of the Races, yer Honour?" September, 1854.
With
Druid
his life
"
characteristic
modesty,
"
The
never claimed to be a good judge
of horseflesh,
was known that never in had he been on the back of a hunter. and
it
^/^ .r^^.
-V ^^îZ-^-
The Druid's
or followed
Versatility.
253
the hounds across country on

It
horseback.
was
universally
admitted,
best, that
however, by those
who knew him
no
man had a keener eye
for a well-trained
racehorse, as
the
he showed when, just before

that
Two Thousand
he
pronounced
Guineas of 1855, he had never seen an
animal sent to the post in better condition

than Mr. Merry's Lord of the Isles was by
William
law,
Day.
His
still
living
brother-in-
Mr. George B. Lynes (brother to Mrs.
Dixon),
was
formerly
very
successful
breeder of hunters and hacks upon his property

in
Northamptonshire,
Park.
not
far
from
Althorp
Mr.
Lynes
attributes
no
small portion of the success

his efforts to raise
which attended
thoroughbred hunters and
hacks to the advice given him by

Druid,"
"
I
"The
when he
~
first
started in that line.

writes,
well
remember," he
" that
my
first mare for breeding purposes was a rather small animal, sired by Skiff, a son of Parti-
san,
'
The Druid
'
advised
me
to put her to
the King of Oude, a powerful sire
owned
for
some time by the celebrated
Tom
Parr.
The Druid'
said,
laughingly, that one of
254
her produce might one day be good enough

to carry Royalty,
foals as well
if
I
took care to have her

it
broken as
was
my
custom
to
do.
King of Oude was a horse of immense
bone, with large lop ears of the Melbourne

type.
He
had won many Queen's
Plates,
but through bad treatment on going to the

stud he had turned a perfect savage, so that
his food
and water were frequently lowered
into his
box from the
loft
above by
his then
owner, a distant relative of

with the same name,
Tom
Parr,
and
who was a
foal
tenant of
my
'
father.
My
first
Rural Dean.'
He
by him I named began by winning the
first
prize in the lighter class of hunters at
Islington,
but he was quite able, although
called a light horse, to carry thirteen stone.
He won
ridden
the open
Brigstock
Steeplechase,
by
the
eccentric
Dick
Webster,
who caused great amusement when Rural Dean was shown at Islington, by jumping
him into the ring over the boundary fence, and going out in the same way. The attention of the Prince of Wales was called to this horse by Dick Webster, and His Royal Highness ended by buying Rural Dean
The Drui(fs
from the
late
Versatility.
255
of
Mr. Spencer Lucy,
Maêr
the Warwickshire
Hounds.
have been
best
told that the Prince considered

all
him the
round horse that he ever possessed.

brother, the next year's produce,
feet
His
own
six
over
the
bar at
;
jumped Islington, and

Sporting
'
fetched a high
pi-ice
and
'
in the
Magazine
an
evil
'
The Druid
wrote that
it
was
hour for Mr. Lynes when, in search
Rarey bought King of Oude, who showed much more temper and took a great deaJ more subduing thar^ Lord Dorof savages, Mr.
chester's Cruiser.'
"
Rarey
America,
then
took
King
of
Oude
to
to
which was a great
loss
Mr.
Lynes, as he had a standing offer of 200

guineas, for every colt or
filly
by King of
Altogether
in
Oude, out of the same mare.

the
mare had thirteen

sire
foals
succession
without one barren year.

likely
Although every
foal of
that
could be got at was emas
ployed,
she never had a
much
substance as the two which she threw to
King of Oude.
Nevertheless,
she never
bred a bad one, and nearly all her stock took prizes at the Royal and at other shows,
256
either

as
hunters or hacks.
It
was Mr.
all
Lynes's practice to handle them

teaching them
himself
to
from a very early age, and in addition

all
to
jump, he accustomed
close
them
that
to
all
kinds of sights and noises, so stand

fear.
they would
to
a steam
got
engine
without
For
one,
by
Lord Penrhyn gave Mr. Lynes a good price. For many years Mr. Lynes took up his abode in
Vortex, a son of Voltigeur,
Virginia,
not
far
from
Charlottesville
country which he considers to be wonderfully well

It
adapted for breeding blood stock.
was Mr. Lynes who sent Grand Master

to
(own brother
Dame
President),
over to
the United States.
The
of
horse has given
great satisfaction to the Virginians,

excellent
who
are
judges
thoroughbred
stock.
The
that
late
Mr. Ten. Broeck was of opinion
he had never encountered in this country so fine a judge of horseflesh and of racing as
Colonel Johnson, of Virginia, about
whom
he had any number of interesting stories to It is to be regretted that young relate.

married couples of small means do not take
counsel with gentlemen of high honour and
The Druid's
Versatility.
257
in-
large experience, like Mr. G. B.
Lynes,
life
stead of plunging into
American
than
the
without
any other
fraudulent
guidance
generally
representations
of
native
land
agents
who conform
to the type of Charles

I
Dickens's "Scadder."
have Mr. Lynes's
authority for saying that under his advice
young English couples have settled in where they are able to make ;^4CX3 a year go farther and afford them more enjoyment than four times that sum would yield in
several
Virginia,
this country.
The
climate
is
delicious,
the
grass equal to that of the Curragh.
Excellent
servants of both sexes can be found

the black race, and there
is
among
colony
little
of English subjects in the neighbourhood of

Charlottesville,
who, without renouncing their
allegiance to the British

life
Crown, are enjoying
to an extent
before,
which they never experiin
enced
and
some
cases
saving
money
into the bargain.
258
CHAPTER
"
XI.
THE DRUID's
"
MANY-SIDED SYMPATHIES,
is
difficult in
a few words to
analyse the causes which

"
made
still
The Druid
his
"
so popular as a
public writer while he was

alive,
and have kept

he has been
memory
so fresh,
now
his
that
for nearly a quarter of
a century
work
tion of
flesh.
a new edition of demanded by a younger generaadmirers who never saw him in the
in the grave, that
is
Briefly
comprehended,
should say
universality
that his greatest
charm was the

I
of his sympathies.
Homo sum ; humani nihil

am
a man, and con-
me
alienum, puto: "
sider nothing that touches or affects
my
fellow
creatures to be a matter of unconcern to

self,"
my-
was the motto which he might have
prefixed to every chapter that he ever wrote.
His many-sided Sympathies.
259
Two
instances
article
may be adduced
writers,
of eminent
leading
each of
whom
was
superior to "
ledge
The Druid " in culture and knowmean the Reverend John Sterling
and James Macdonell

is
of whom
little
more
now remembered than
that their Lives were
written, in
Julius
John Sterling's case, by Archdeacon Hare and Thomas Carlyle, and in

.
died
his
James Macdonell's by W. R Nicoll. Sterling at Bonchurch in 1 844 Macdonell at

;
home
in
Gower
Street
in
1879
and
except to a few scholars and, in the latter

instance, to his surviving relatives
and perare
sonal
friends,
their very
names
now
them
In
almost unknown.
What
differentiated
both from
of interest
"
The Druid" was that their spheres

restricted than his.
I
were more
previous chapters of this Biography

already stated that "
absolutely unrivalled
The Druid
capacity children
"
have had an
getting
for
men, women, and even

to all classes
belonging
to
and conditions of humanity

instruction.
unbosom themselves of their closest

his benefit
secrets for
His sympathies one that he approached or were with every Leaning with whom he came in contact
and
26o
Life and Times of " The Di'uid"
always to the kindly side of
human
nature
and attracted by it alone, he never wrote a word about anyone which could give him or
his nearest relatives pain.
easily
Many pages might

style of his
be devoted to an analytical study of
his character
positions.
and of the
serve
com-
It will
my
purpose
better,
in-
however, and make

telligible if
I
my
meaning more
It
insert in extenso the following

his
article
from
pen.
should be
pre-
mised that the year

for the
1859 was remarkable

it
number of deaths
life.
produced
in
every
rank of
beautiful
since,
The French
poet Maleherbe's
lines,
written just three centuries

it
are
so applicable to
that
cannot
:
refrain
from quoting some of them here
La mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles, On a beau la prier La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles,
:
Et nous
laisse crier.
sa cabane oft la chaume le couvre Est sujet a ses lois Et la garde qui veille aux barriSres du Louvre N'en defend point nos rois.
:
Le pauvre en
year which saw the deaths of
Lord
Macaulay and the fifth Earl of Jersey, of Hallam, De Quincey and Washington Irving,
His many-sided
of
Sympathies.
261
of
Bishop Maltby and Dean ErskinCj

brilliant
George Peacock, most

brigian
of Canta-
men
of science, and Alexander von
Humboldt,
General
the
of
General
Thackwell
and
Eyre, of old Dick Tattersall and

of Waterford, of Phillips
the
mad Marquis
Lord William
professional
(who defended
of
Courvoisier,
Russell,
murderer
ruined
his
and
own
career
by imputing
the
crime to two innocent maid-servants when

his client
had secretly confessed
his guilt to
his advocate),
and of Poor
Law
Pashley, of
Will Goodall and Adelphi Wright, was well
worthy to be treated by
coloured pen
characteristic
;
"The
is
Druid's" many-
and there
perhaps no more
specimen of his handiwork than

:
the following prolusion
"The Dead
on even more than
its
of Fifty-nine.
its
" Death last year laid
remorseless hand
share of distinguished
men
the
and other lands. Until almost very last we might have said that it had
in this
'
spared our statesmen, as

son,'
Prosperity Robin-
the
had well
whose brief Premiership nigh perished, and Henry FitzRoy,
memory
of
262
a useful social reformer in his
way (thdugh
notSt>
too,
cabmen
will
never allow
it),
were the only
able vacancies created by pallida mors at
Stephen's.
will
Whigs, however, and Tories,
long miss that small, shambling, ungainly
thick-set figure, clad in a snuff-coloured frock
coat with velvet collar, which might always be
seen close behind the Government bench when

the
Whigs were
in office
with hat set deep on
the back of the head, and pointed out to stran-
gers by the doorkeepers as 'Mister Macaulay.'
On him young
authors looked with awe as
upon one who wrote the greatest article extant on Milton when he was only twenty -five^ and
who,
when
barely thirty, hurled
back the
at
poisoned arrows of John Wilson Croker

that
bitterest
of
critics.
Genius
gave
Macaulay confidence
to
meet the man before
whom
truer
others quailed, and there was never a
remark made when Crokef endeavoured

compliments paid
'^
to return the equivocal

his
to
edition
of
'
Boswell
by
attacki4*ig
the
'History of England,' than

"
'that
he had
attempted murder and committed
suicide.'
The
letters of
Dean Milner throw most

;
light
upon Lord Macaulay's early days
and

it is
263
amusing
Lodge,
to find that
he speaks of him,
his first visit
when a mere boy of twelve on

to the
at
Queen's College, Cambridge,

In the Dean's
as exceedingly disputatious.
'
Life,'
the future historian pays the highest

to
tribute
one
of
the
most
robust
and
universal geniuses that Granta ever sent to
maintain her fame.

'
Says the Dean

I
to him,
You
are so correct that
don't
mind showin a
ing you a few squibs upon heads of houses,
some
thirty years ago,

;
'
which
have got
portfolio
and
anon,
the lad
who hated
him
mathematics so much that he never entered

the Mathematical Tripos, even to entitle
to
contend for the Chancellor's Medal, conexperiments

in physics
fesses that the
which
the
Dean showed him made

fairy tale.
the subject as
agreeable as a
"
Edinburgh Review, The Battle of Ivry,' and his speeches on the floor of the House had shown him his power,
When
the
'
Macauky soon
acquired a very great con-
In tempt for the opinions of constituencies. fact he thought, with Burke, that they were simply the rungs of the ladder, and ought
humbly
to wait
till
they found a man, and
264
then elect him without asking his opinions on
any
point.
No
wonder, then, that Macaulay's

his
friends
spoke with affected horror of
having to face 'the coarse
realities of Leeds,'
coming back from India, he remarked that he thought his speaking had rather left him, and that he
seat.
when he wanted a
On
had resolved
it's
to
speak on every subject,

to get into
'
if
only soap,
that
practice
again.'
The news
tive
he was
'up,' or
intended to
speak, always drew a very large and atten-
House
but even on the India Charter

his
he was not so great as was expected, and

galee enough in them to
remarks upon gentlemen who had just Bencall for
Bass's Pale
more violent motion on the part of the punkah, was the only much enjoyed
Ale or
for
sally that fell
from his mouth.

in debate,
Latterly, he
and with the exception of saying a few words when he

presented a petition, he never once spoke
in
'
seldom took any part
The
Scarlet
Chamber.'
His
last great
Speech in the
Commons was
against Lord
Hotham's motion for excluding Judges (it was aimed at Sir John Romilly) from the House, and in that he fairly exhausted and

settled
artificial
265
a
stiff
the question.
He
spoke
in
position, with his
hand behind
a
his
back,
tattoo
and
on
occasionally
beating
devil's
his hat.
With
respect to India, he
had a signal advantage over Burke.

seen with his
to
He had
own eyes what was
only pictured
Burke's rich
imagination and splendid

in his conceptions
fancy.
The one seemed

by the very
rose
to
to stand
rice field
and the tank,

in the hall
when he
Ciceronian magnificence,
of
and from the Manager's box

as the oppressor of India
William Rufus, denounced Warren Hastings

;
while the other
wondrous pen dipped deep into Indian life itself, and made us hear the very cymbals of the Nabob in the grove of mangowith his
trees
on the
all
fatal
night before Plassy.
"Of
Macaulay's reviews, the one on
Warren Hastings was considered

public to be his best
ferred the earlier
;
by
the
but he, himself, preClive.
one on Lord
his
first
The
Hall scene in the former, and the description

of
'
the Jesuits
in
volume of the
History of England,' have been committed to memory by thousands of students, and

turned over and over again into Latin prose,
265

'
as the
into
Lays of Ancient Rome,' have been

in
Alcaics,
nearly every
college
and
school in the
there
is
Kingdom.
But
to our minds,
a passage in his review on Milton,
touching the influence of our Saviour when
He
its
appeared
in
man's form, which

all its
is
finer in
grand simplicity than

rivals.
It is
more elaborate
'
and ornate
said that the
Lays'
had been prepared

repeat
rides.
in great
measure before
to
he went to India, and that he was wont
them to
Still
his sister in
their tafriage
he had never committed them
fully to paper,
and
it
was
'
at her request
when
after
'
he returned, and
'
she
made
Black
inquiry
Lars
Porsena
'
and
Auster
as
dear old friends, that he was induced to write
them out and give them

with
only
the
to the world.
He
Hill,
lived latterly at Holly Lodge,
Campden
Duke
of
Argyll's
terrain
separating
him from Holland House, in whose library many an aspiring young Whig had been nursed on old traditions or artistic
treasures into real or
ness.
mere red tape
great-
Macaulay's recollections of that library

'
comrade of Fox and friend of Grey,' who gladdened it with his presence,
and of the
His many-sided
were hastily thrown off
Sympathies.
in
267
a small article of
hot more than seven or eight pages, which
was given almost as a postscript to the Edinburgh Review when the late Lord
Holland died.
that the
It
was somewhat remarkable

for the
hatchment should hardly have been

of
Hne, before the pulse of the
essayist,
put up
above that ancient mansion,

its
very
last
great historian, statesman,
orator,
frail
and poet also ceased to beat, and 'the

enfeebled form
'
was missed from
its
wonted
fifth
seat in the old parish church of Kensington. "
He
died just before completing his

;
volume of English History

decessors will be
but
its
pre-
much more than a
brilliant
fragment, for in thern the light of his genius

will
shine
for
future
ages upon some
of
the stormiest
and most eventful periods of

In like manner the great
at the
English history.
Dr.
Arnold died
age of forty-seven,
when
he was within three chapters of the end
of his third
'thirsted for
volume of Roman History, and

Zama.'
Independently of the
the Peerage has had
its
two
full
we have named,
who
share of mortality.
Henry, Marquis of
Waterford,
did tnore'-by his charitable
268
employment of countless Irish peasants on his Curraghmore estate to put absentee landlords to shame than any man that Ireland
ever reared, died in the very prime of manhood, through a
fall
from his crack hunter

This, too, was
over a
wall,
which a child on a pony might

safety.
have negotiated with

the
man who
would
twenty years before his hapless

deliberately
sacrifice
all
death
his
chances of winning a Steeple-chase for the

pleasure of leaping an extra gate.
Together
with the
mad Marquis,
;
the
fifth
Earl of Jersey
has also passed away
the handsomest young
man
of his time, and formerly one of the gay
companions of
George Guelph,
Charles
Prince
of
Wales, on the Steyne at Brighton, when the
Duke
John
all
of
Bedford,
Wyndham,
Churchill,
Sir
Shelley,
Brummell,
the
and
'strange
anomaly,
little
Jew
;
Travis,'
followed in the train of Royalty

in the
and Sir
John Lade drove them
green German
waggon with the
six bays, to see
Sancho and
Later
Pavilion run their
match
at
Lewes.
years found Lord Jersey the arbiter of fashion
and the mould of form,
until
wearying of
racing and of those hunting scenes where as

'
269
such
George
Villiers
'
he had
built himself
name over
Leicestershire
and
at
Newat
market, he shrank into the aged octogenarian,
worn down with

the
illness
and heartbroken
death of his most cherished daughter,

season the reigning toast of the
whose proud beauty had made her season

after
West
End.
Sporting has also

'
lost
Mr. Tattersall,
advised
that quaint
Bluff
Hal
'
who always
young men never to bet and never to join his own rooms, and told a Peer who did not care
go straight his opinion of him as openly as he would have spoken to the humblest stable Hunting, too, mourns its greatest helper.
to
official in
Will Goodall
man without a peer

in
in his profession,
and as gentle
speech as
he was gallant
will
'
in action.
No
ribald songs
ever elevate him to the pedestal of a

;
'
memory will rest in the hearts of sportsmen who recall his prowess
but his
Tom Moody
'
over
Belvoir's sweet vale
enduring significance.
with a far more Save and except one

'
very old Bishop, the Mitre has fallen in 1859
from no episcopal head.

pupil of
Bishop Maltby, the
Samuel
Parr, to
whom
the sight of
fire,
anyone eating fish
or poking the
was
270

hateful,
equally
had abdicated
his
Durham
and had
his
See many months before

Lexicons to the
has gone as well
his death,
continued to dig up Greek roots from

last.
Dean
Erskine, the
Institutes,
devoted admirer of
;
Mechanics'
and so too has Angell
James, the light of the Independents,
who
preached the funeral sermon over Jay, as Jay in his turn had done over Rowland Hill.
No
and,
great light has fallen in the surgical or
medical world, save Alexander, the oculist
wondrous as he was
in his
couching
as
sleight-of-hand,
he was quite below par

Thackwell,
a constitutional physician.
brilliant cavalry officer of
the
Sikh warfare has

in
gone
to his rest,
and reposes
his
Kensal Green
Gilbert,
;
Cemetery, where Tredway Clarke,
and so many of
has Eyre,
the
comrades sleep
and
so
man
of the eagle eye, who
exercised his troops before Sebastopol, and
had them
in
greyhound condition, such

the
as no
other Brigade could hope to show.

" Phillips,
biographer
;
of
Curran,
and defender of Courvoisier

police magistrate
Broderip, the
;
and
naturalist
;
Stephens,
the
accomplished
jurist
Pashley,
whose
His many-sided Sympathies,

pertinacity in arguing Poor
271
Law appeals before

Bill to
the Queen's
christened,
;
Bench caused a new

Bill for the better
be
'A
'
suppression
of Pashley
blind old
and Baron Pennefather, the

in order that the
Judge who,
Whigs
might not appoint his successor, stuck to his

ermine when the fact of his not being able to
scan the features of a witness was a public
scandal, are the only lawyers
who have
fallen
lost
by the way-side.
in
Science has, however,

brilliant analyst
George Peacock a
Senate
first
and one
the
of the finest examiners that ever entered the
Cambridge
merits of the
Prize.
House,
or
tested
six
Wranglers for a Smith's

for
Humboldt has gone to his rest at

and
left
ninety,
tied
behind him a name

all scientific
having
of one
up the fasces of
all its
knowledge,
and treated
great
lovers as
members
family.
The
cautious,
calculating
Stephenson died within a few days of his

rival,
the
dashing,
reckless
Brunei,
who
all
leaves the Great Eastern steamship, to
present seeming the

that
same useless monument the Thames Tunnel proved to his father.

its
Painting has lost

Leslie, its lighter
discriminating,, careful
and more
airy Stone,
and
272
that once great master of
Horse Anatomy,
James Ward. Hallam is buried on the same headland where Tennyson sat when Arthur Hallam died, with the wild waves murmurand the dreamed of
ing,
'
stately ships at his feet, as he
The touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still.'
"Washington
Irving,
whose works Dickens

his pillow, and
delicate
used as a boy to place under

wit the author of
from whose glorious simplicity and

'
Pickwick
'
has too often
wandered away, can come
to
England no
'
more
to
revisit
the
scenes of his
Brace-
bridge Hall,' and to wield the poker which
he dubbed his 'sceptre'

Hotel, Stratford-on-Avon
at the
;
Red Horse
too,
De
Quincey,
with
all
his strange feverish
dreams has gone

Southey,
erst
to join the Coleridges,

(father
Samuel and Hartley

band which
and
"
son),
all
Wordsworth,
Arnold, and
that brilliant
made the Lake country" something far more than a pleasant summer resort Leigh Hunt will gladden us no more with his
;
quaint old stories, running back to the very
Mis
days
^ftainy-^ded Sympathies.
273
when
fitt
was seen
walkings
Street
wkh
his nose in the air.;

'
up Regent and- Lady
Morgan, the Wild

turban, can
glories
Irish Girl,^ in her yellow
no longer .seek
to
emulate the
and the sprightly
wit
which flashed
in
upoji tlie outer world
from beneath the peaPort-
cock hangings of Mrs. Montague,
man Square.
"
'Adelphi
Wright,' as
still
the
galleries
of
every theatre
fondly
call
him, will never

his
agatin display his jolly face
and
immortal
blue coat, white trousers, pumps,

at th-e side scenes,
rat'tliiig
and straps
and
get, like Liston, three
rounds of applause without uttering

'
a word in the character of
Billy Leck-a-day,'
'
'John Grumley,' 'Jack Grinnidge,' or

mons, the Weaver.'
Sim-
With him
to
old
'
Marmaduke
the
pit
Magog,' whose pomposities once lured us

three
nights
that
in
succession
(a
thing
nothing
save
Farren and
Mrs. Gloyer in
'The Vicar
of Wakefield,'
ever did before), and those inimitkble scenes

with
the
property baby,
have
all
passed
away.
Let us not think of
him as he apdaily gain-
peared after being wheeled about a whole
summer
18
at
Margate with dropsy
274
Lif^
"'''^^
Times of " The Druid"

last
ing ground.
At
he got a
alas
little
relief,
and straightway
for
visited his Adelphi

;
haunts
a brief space
but,
how changed
self.
It
is
from his old roaring, gagging

pleasanter only to
remember the days when

plays
at
he could carry through the dullest of

Windsor, when he played up
alone and unassisted before her Majesty

to
Miss Murray
or Miss Woolgar, scrutinising in detail the
whole of the grinning dramatis persona

'
to
try
and
receiving
among 'em or from Paul Bedford when about to

find
a father
'
engage with him
in mortal
combat, the com-
forting assurance that he, Paul,
was
'seven-
teen stun, four pounds and a bounce.'
Well
in
might we
feel that
the gaiety of thousands
town and country had been eclipsed as we stood by his open grave in the very Brompton Cemetery where, eight years before, we
had seen him bathed

at
'
in tears as chief
little
mourner
alias
the
funeral
of
Munyard,
Jemmy
Starlight.'
275
CHAPTER
XII.
HIS LOVE OF CHILDREN.
Written mainly by his Widow.
MONGST
the
many
"
traits
in
character was one that his family must ever
" Tlie Druid's
remember with
great
gratitude
his
his
love
for
children
and
intense
pleasure in having his sons
and daughters
around him in spare moments snatched from

almost incessant labour with the pen. matter
No
hard day's work, or

ject that
how wearied he might be after a how difficult the subhe had

in
hand,
he was always
ready to listen to their artless prattle and

to
sympathise with the childish joys and

little
troubles of his
infant,
ones.
into
Each new-born
his
as
it
was put
an
arms,
was
hailed
with
ever growing
tenderness.
276

to its
and he would confide

really
mother
that he
thought the new treasure was "just a

bit
wee
nicer
and
prettier
than the
last."
He
would nurse an
skilfully
infant in long
;
clothes
most
and
scientifically
his
first visit
on returning,
home from
longingly
his daily duties in
town being ever

little
to the nursery,
where
the
group
awaited the
rarely
omitted half hour of games with "Father."
Then he would
rush off to the poultry yard,

all
the habitation of
the children's pets,
in-
cluding the fowls in which

intense interest
for
for his
he took such
years.
Lastly,
many
wife,
he would look
ing bitterly
list,
who, complainlast
one day of standing

silenced
on the
was
I
by
the
apt
rejoinder,
"
Ought
not to keep
"
?
my
choicest treasure
for a final treat
He
delighted to draw his children out upon

their attention, and
any subject that engaged
was always not only ready, but eager to leftd his' valuable assistance and advice in the rehearsal of their juvenile recitations and the
'
preparation of their tableaux arid ph'arades.;
His patience, with them

inexhaustible, except
at' all
times was
upbri' to
when
calle'd
His Love of
asstet in their Studies,
Children.
277
an which occasions he
seemed to
lifig.
fail
to understand
of passages of Virgil or
why the unravelXenophon should

appeared to him,
not be as easy to
them
as
it
and their apparent stupidity vexed him sorely.

He" had a great idea that his sons should
never
miss
an opportunity of
"
witnessing
events which might
make
this
history,"
and so
keen was his anxiety on

time of the Fenian
Jioiiie
head during the
riots,,
that,
on arriving
finding his
on the night of the great open-air
demonstration in
elder sons
Hyde Park and
had gone out
to witnessv the scene
andy
if
necessary, to participate in the skirmish
as special constables,
he insisted that the ten-
year-old boy should be roused from his bed
and dressed to accompany him to the scene

of action.
Together they solemnly climbed

this excellent coign of vant-
a tree,
and from
age watched the
arrival of the Life
Guards
and
Grenadier Guards,
who
subsequently
the latter
charged and dispersed the
rioters,
in their fear and haste leaving the Park, not
through the gates, but straight over the iron

palings, which, not
having time to climb, they

It
uprooted arid threw down.
was midnight
278
before
"The Druid" and his little boy

will
reached
that
home, and certainly the recollection of

night
never
fade
from
the
latter's
memory.
Much
however, as he loved children,
it
self in their
must be owned that he was a very child himmanagement, and to the last day
life he held strongly to the belief that no boy's grievance was too great to be over-
of his
come by the
liberal application of
taken internally.
He
jam tarts, has been known to bid
good-bye to one of his boys,

taken from school for a day,
with him on a
visit to
whom
in
he had
order to go
some celebrated Kennels

late at night, tired,
and to send him back

six
sleepy and cross, but the proud possessor of
jam
tarts,
which were mostly negotiated

Despite
this
before the school was reached.
treatment the boy
still lives,
and "The Druid"
wended
his
way home,
quite satisfied that he
had done his duty. Ill-health alone prevented him from participating in all the sports and amusements of his sons, and eager as he ever
was
that
he might
live to see
one of them
make a name
literary world,
for himself in the scholastic or

it
cannot be denied that these
His Love of
Children.
279
higher aspirations on their behalf would for

the time being be forgotten,
on hearing of
distinction
any special
aptitude
shown, or
gained by one of them in any branch of sport

or of athletic
mitted,
exercise.
When
health perathletic
he rarely missed attending any
meeting at which his eldest son, Sydenham

Dixon, happened to be competing, taking the
greatest interest
latter's
and pride
really
fine
some of the performances on the

in
running path.
His keen sense of humour led him perhaps

to
forgive
and gloss over many youthful

to
errors
which had
him
their laughable side,
but his
that of
memory
lives with his children as

father,
irre-
an ever-indulgent, ever-loving
whose untimely death was to them an

parable loss.
His
total disregard
of dress and appearto
ance was a source of

all
much embarrassment
his family
and
of
especially to the
younger
(in
members.
day
at
One
his sons recalls a prize
Kensington Grammar School
which
"The
Druid" was deeply interested), when
on his arrival his general appearance was such as to evoke both merriment and disdain
28(>

the boys.
among
at,
Nor can
this be*
wondered
cut
for the tall

suit,
bent figure with the badly
grey
old-fashioned hat, gaiters and huge
hockey
stick,
the ensemble being completed

the the
by a shepherd's
shoulders,
plaid shawl thrown over was a sight calcalated to upset
gravity of boys
who
are naturally prone to be
biassed by external appearances.
They thought that his presence there was probably a mistake, but, when after several
somewhat dry and formal speeches
figure
the queer
moved
to the front of the platform-, the
careworn face lighted up and the apparendy

old
man became
for the
moment almost
a boy
again, whilst delivering a bright telling speech,

full
of reminiscence and speaking to boys as
only one
who knew them and
their
ways
could speak, the feeling of partial contempt
melted into one of respect and admiration, and
he was ever afterwards sure of a grand

tion.
recep-
His
religion
was as bright and
cheerful as
his earliest
for
his natural
temperament.
From
youth, he had a
things.
deep reverence
holy
few minutes before midnight on
Saturday, he always laid aside his writings,
His Love of
Children.
281
and fiothing would induce him to touch them ont the Sunday. In whatever house or company he found himself, he would put a prayer
book
in his
pocket and walk away to some
quaint old country church.

naelodiotts
and his ear

in
correct,
His voice wasand he would

of the
join heartily
service.
the musical portion

at
When
home,
he
regularly
attended church in the morning, and

health permitted,, in the evening also.
his children
tell
when
As
grew up around him, he would stories and draw pictures, chiefly of churches (he was clever with his pencil), thus rendering Sunday a bright and happy day. To vary the pictures,
thetrr
wonderful
cabs were introduced taking the people to
church
"
and on wet Sundays he would draw Noah's Ark," and all the animals entering
;
two and two.
This sympathy
with
the
young
circle
;
extended
beyond
his
own
family
"
many
and
a lad came to him for help and
counsel,
if,
it
was a delight
turn
of
to "
The Druid
by some rare chance, he came across one

mind.
Cheerfully
to
of a studious
would he lay aside his own work

boy preparing
coach a
for school or college exams.,
282
and
one of these
degree,
who
eventually took a
his
splendid
came on the eve of
marriage to consult his old friend concerning

his speech
on the day of the important

well
event.
"
The Druid " was
and
effective speaker,
known and many

topics.
as a concise applications
for
this
were made to him to write speeches

friends
special
on a variety of
On
his
occasion he accomplished
task
with ease, and being satisfied with the

sat
for
result,
elect,
hours with
the
bridegroom
rehearsing and amending the carefully pre-
pared composition.
The happy morn arrived,

(rubbing his hands as was
the
and
his
"
The Druid
for the
"
wont when pleased) eagerly awaited

the unhappy
moment
bridegroom to return thanks.
When at length it came,

and began to thank you
:
man rose
I
" Ladies
for
and gentlemen,
here
beg
!
coming
to-day
Then
followed an awful pause, and casting

sat down,
an agonized look around him, he

exclaiming: "
!
have forgotten every word

"
of
it
''
The poor
Druid
"
long suffered from
the shock and disappointment.

tatious acts
His unosten-
of kindness
were of constant
occurrence, but one in especial recurs to the
His Love of
writer's
Children.
283
memory
as a
good
illustration of his in
universal
charity.
He
discovered
the
Chelsea Workhouse an aged man,

in his
who had
youth been trainer to some nobleman,
but now, blind and lame, he seemed friendless
and forgotten.
Druid
"
For
after
many months
"
The
morning service every Sunday, and with his own hand led the old man back to his house in Kensington Square.
went
humble friend got a plentiful meal of roast beef and plum pudding, and after a few hours of cheerful talk, was led back,
There
his
strengthened and refreshed for the desagrd-
ment of another week of Union fare. The house in Kensington Square had
behind
it
a long old-fashioned garden, in
which stood a mulberry tree and several pear

trees,
sit in
under the shadow of which he loved to

his rare
moments
of leisure.
Beyond
the garden was a large yard with fowl houses, kennels, and other minor sheds wherein "The Druid " housed all the family pets. For years he kept a record of every egg laid nor, when in London, was anyone permitted to go near
;
the nests but himself.

ness,
When
in
increasing
ill-
inevitably resulting
decreasing
in-
284
coine,
Life and Times of
**
The Druid"
obliged him to remove to a smaller

in
house
regret
Warwick Gardens,
still
his one source of
was the
loss of his " live stock,"
His
wife and children
entertain a vivid and

as
tender
remembrance of him,
he stood
beneath the mulberry tree on the eve of the

flitting,
and exclaimed, with a suspicion

:
of to
tears in his voice
"
How
shall I
be able
bear
this
my
pain and trouble wheri deprived' of

rabbits,
tbefti
dear old garden, and the dogs,

pigeons, and
ferrets,
doves
love
every one, even

"
down
to the Httfe
tame
mke
that run so fearlessly over
my
feet."
The Druid " had an

and genuine
it
innate respect for
true
piety,
even when accom-
panied, as
intellect.
sometimes
is,
by a feebleness of
his
On
one occasion,
youmg
son's,
purely out of mischief, stigm,atised some half
dozen of the clergy and other special

of their mother, as " muffs "
!
friends
Rising from
demanding silence^ he said wrathfully Boys The Kingdom of Heaven will be largely composed of muffs, and I
the table, and
:
"
earnestly
pray that
may
find
entrance
amongst them."
religious subjects,
He
was very reserved on

his wife;
even with
but
His Lcv0
though
>silent,
of Children.
285
his
his feelings
were deep, and

ill
convictions strong-
However
his
;
or suffering
he.
jjiight
be,
he liked
wife to read a
PsaJ-ro
to
him every night
he delighted
in
the Psalms, althoTjgh his well-njarliced Bible
proved
his careful study of every portion of the
,Holy Book,
ful
Throughout those last four pain-
years of his existence, he never lay
down
it,
in his bed,
in
but was "packed," as he termed
a spacious easy chair, with head rests, and

feet.
an inclined board for his
Many
a time,
when he believed
endure to the end.
heroically
lips
:
his wife to
be sleeping,
"
would he pray most fervently for strength to
And
"
endure
he did
his
rarely did a
murmur escape
but rather, a continual thanksgiving for
"mercies and blessings," the existence of
which those ministering to him

cover.
failed to dis-
no hired nurse ever attended his bedside, and it is still

his earnest entreaty,
By
a tender consolation to his
widow
to feel that
no hand but her
own soothed
his last days.
He
wrote to the very
last in the intervals of
most patiently and efficiently by Very his eldest son, Henry Sydenham. shortly before his death he bore striking
pain, assisted
286
Life and Times of " The Druid",
testimony to the power of faith in his Saviour.
Addressing some who were near him he

"
said,
For many years
contrived to live pretty

;
comfortably without Jesus

to
but
want you
all
know
that
could not die without Him."
being told the end was at hand he exclaimed, "Oh, God, I thank Thee! I could
not bear
On
much more."
sS;
CHAPTER
"
XIII.
THE DRUID
"
AS A POLITICIAN.
yet was there a boy sent
(EVER
to
Rugby School to be educated there when Dr. Arnold was in his prime, who was more in a
condition to imbibe and sympathise with the
atmosphere of
Liberal
politics
which that
greatest of schoolmasters diffused around him.
was may be gathered from many passages to be found in Dean

that atmosphere
Stanley's admirable " Life of Dr. Arnold," one
What
of which and one only,

to
must ask permission

In chapter
:
add to these pages.

"
iv.,
the
following sentences occur
There was a peculiar importance
attach-
ing in Dr. Arnold's view, to political questions,
with which every reader of his works

familiar.
must be
The.
life
of the
common-
288
wealth was to him the main subject of history;

the desire of taking an active share in the
great
work of government was the

will
highest
earthly desire of the ripened mind.
Those
at times
who
read his letters
be startled
by the
real
interest with
which he watches
the
changes of administration where to many the

difference
would
seem comparatively
of a Ministry
trifling.
Thus he would speak
advocating even good measures inconsistently

with their position and principles
pain
'
as a daily
feel
'
a moral east wind which made him
uncomfortable without any positive ailment
or he would lament the ascendancy of false

political
views as tending to the sure moral
degradation of the whole com.munity and the

ultimate social disorganisation of our system.
"Conservatism,
party, but the
his
in
Dr.
Arnold's mouth,
was not mereiy the watchword of an English

symbol of an
public
evil against
which
whole
life,
and
private,
was one
continued struggle.
his use of the word,
Again,
Jacobinism, in
included not only the party

in-
extreme
England,
movement
to
France
or
^but all the natural- tendencies
of
mankind
oppose the authority of
law,
"
The Druid" as a
Politician.
289
and human, which he regarded with Popular principles and so deep a reverence. democracy, when he used those words in a
divine
good sense, were not the opposition to a

hereditary
Monarchy or Peerage, which he

blended with his
always valued as precious elements of national

life,
but were inseparably

the
strong belief in
injustice
and want of
sympathy generally shown by the higher to

the lower orders.
Liberal principles were not
merely the expression of his adherence to a
Whig
Ministry, but of his belief in the con-
stant necessity of applying those principles of
advance and reform which,

perfect
identical
in
their
most
be
development,
he conceived to
his
;
with Christianity itself

in assailing evil,
as
he was
Vehement whole mind

his
was
essentially
constructive
love
of
reform was in exact proportion to his love

of the institutions
his
which he wished
to
reform
hatred of shadows in exact proportion to
his love
I
of realities."
cannot recall any other pupil of Dr. Arnold, during the latter's fourteen years of
supremacy
at
Rugby
School,
his master's
19
politics so
who represented faithfully as Henry
290
Hall
Life and Times of " The Druid,"

Dixon.
No
one
who
fail
reads
Mr.
Prothero's most
interesting and instructive

to perceive
political
" Life of
Dean Stanley" can

at
all.
that his hero
had no independent
opinions
On
the
other
hand,
in the
Henry Dixon resembled Dr. Arnold

that
thoroughness and intensity of his conviction
Conservatism
symbolised
sin,
and
Liberalism health, vigour, and life. Like the cloud of the poet Wordsworth, " which
moveth altogether if it move at all," master and pupil regarded everything which they took in hand as part of their daily religion.
Referring to "
The
Druid,"
cannot
illustrate
my meaning
his
better than
by quoting the
four
following anecdotes, communicated to
me
by
7,
nephew, Mr. Francis Peter Dixon, of

Terrace, Carlisle.
I
Howard
give them
in
their writer's
own words
L
"
At
the time of the General Election of
1868,
which
occurred
in
the
month
of
November, and resulted

Mr. Gladstone
position
in the elevation of
for the first time to the proud
of Prime
Minister with
large
'^'Tke
Druid"
as a Politician.
291
majority to support him,
my uncle,
Mr, H. H.
near
Dixon, happened to be visiting his mother,

Mrs.
Peter
It
Dixon, at
Holme Eden,
Carlisle.
was the
last
General Election
which
my
uncle lived to see.
He
had been
a
born and brought up at
Holme Eden,
neighbourhood
greatly
full
of old associations which
interested him,
hardly add, he
spected by his
and where, I need was much admired and renumerous friends. My father,
his eldest brother,
had been dead about eleven

estate,
years,
and
I,
then a youth of nineteen, was
heir to the
Holme Eden
spinning
and residing
with
my
grandmother
of
in order to learn the
business
cotton,
and
the
manufacturingfirm
carried on
by
of Messrs.
Peter
by.
Dixon
I
& Co., at Warwick Works, close
remember the earnest political discussions and arguments between my uncle and two of his brothers, Mr. John Dixon of Manchester, and Captain (now General) Dixon of the Madras Native Infantry, both
well
of
whom
were Conservatives.
'
The Druid
'
was equally strong in his Liberal opinions, He and a great admirer of Mr. Gladstone. had a most wonderful faculty of remembering
292
Druid"
political events,
and such a quick and ready power of repartee that he was much more than a match for his two brothers, easily refuting
their arguments,
and holding up
their old,
high-dried Toryism to such exquisite ridicule

that on
many occasions they lost
their tempers,
so that their sisters had to intervene as peace-
makers.
taste of politics,
These discussions were my first and so impressed was I by Uncle Henry's readiness and ability that I became a Liberal, and have remained one
ever since."
n.
" In those times there
were public nomina-
tion days, which were almost as exciting and
interesting as the election days themselves.
In Carlisle, a large
wooden platform used

the
to
be erected for the hustings in

place, in front of the
market
Town
Hall, for the use
of the candidates, their proposers, seconders,
and
principal
supporters.
The
Blues or
Liberals were on the right hand side of the

hustings,
and the Yellows or Conservatives The audience, an immense on the left.
crowd holding
all
shades of
political opinion,
*'The
filled
Druid"
as a Politician,
It
293
the large open space in front.
was
always a stirring and exciting scene, accompanied at times by much rough horse-play
and disorder, by throwing of rotten eggs and other unsavoury missiles at the candidates, and sometimes by the scattering of
blue
and
yellow
powder.
Occasionally
the dense
violent rioting broke out
among
throngs of people below.
my
uncle taking
me
Well do 1 recollect into Carlisle from Holme

to the hustings to
Eden, and leading

support Sir Wilfrid
me on
Edmund
Potter, the
Lawson and the late Mr. two Liberal candidates.

I
Being very young,
soon got tired of the
speeches and began to
move about
the plat-
form, approaching rather closely to the

side.
I
Tory
was quickly perceived and called
back by 'The Druid,'
who
exclaimed:
'Come
away from
politics
there,
my
boy, at once, or your
may,
perhaps,
be
misunderstood.'
After the proceedings on the hustings were over, we went to lunch with a relative, Mr.
Silas Saul,
a leading
solicitor of Carlisle,
and
the head Conservative agent for East berland.

I
Cum-
can well remember my Uncle Henry joking with Mr. Saul at luncheon
294
îf^ ^^'^ Times of " The Di'uid."

politics,
about the difference between them in
and
my
uncle's
look of
delight
when he
'
mentioned that he had just come away from

the hustings, where, pointing at me,
just
he had
been blooding a young
Blue.'
The
result of this election
was that Sir Wilfrid

of the
Lawson and Mr.

defeating Mr.
sitting
Potter were both returned,
W. N. Hodgson, one
members and a Conservative."

III.
" Simultaneously
my
uncle took the deepest
interest in the election for
East Cumberland,
for the city of Carin visiting
which followed the election

lisle.
He
was indefatigable
many
for
of his old friends and neighbours, doing his
utmost to persuade them to vote and work

the
Liberal
of
candidates,
the
Hon. Charles
Howard
Naworth
Castle,
and Mr. William
Marshall of Patterdale Hall,
who between
them had held undisputed possession of the seats for that division of the county for many
years.
test,
At
last,
after a short
and sharp conhour was wholly

N. Hodgson of
which
until the eleventh
unexpected, Mr. Marshall lost his seat, having been defeated by Mr.
W.
"The Druid"
as a Politician.
295
Newby Grange,
ber for Carlisle
the recently rejected

city.
memlittle
One amusing
Cumberland was that, after much persuasion and no small amount of chaff and banter about the victim
being tied to his wife's apron strings (she was
a violent Tory),
incident of this struggle in East
my
uncle induced his brother
Mr. Tredway Dixon,
who was no
politician,
to vote for the Liberal candidates.
So
faint
was the interest
in the election felt
by Mr.
Tredway Dixon that a week or two later he met Mr. Hodgson in Carlisle, and warmly congratulated him upon being returned, quite oblivious of the fact that he had himself voted
openly against him."
IV.
"In a few days
my
Uncle Henry
left
Holme Eden to spend Christmas with his This was his last active family in London. participation in politics, as his life was maniSo strong, howfesdy drawing to a close. ever, was in his case the ruling passion even
on the day before he breathed his last March i6th, 1870 he called for writing materials and drew up on a sheet of
in death, that
296

will,
note paper a codicil to his

his share in a freehold
leaving to
me
house
in Carlisle
which
gives a vote for North Cumberland.
As he
signed
this
codicil,
he remarked to those
left this little
standing round his bed, that he property to
me
because he was not sure that

sons would vote Liberal when
any of
his
own
he was gone, and that he had confidence in my

always doing
so.
In this
way
have pos-
sessed a vote for North Cumberland for

years,
many
and
have invariably exercised

I
my
privilege
by voting as
his life
feel sure
he would
have done had
been spared."
Another point of resemblance between Dr. Arnold and Henry Dixon as politicians was
that both
were always eager to give exprestheir
sion
print.
to
opinions
and convictions
in
In 183 1
and
1832
Dr. Arnold, for
instance,
was so much alarmed by the aspect
of English society and by the political agitations caused
by the Reform
Bill
that he set
himself to
work
to impart to the publications
of the " Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge" something
bearing upon
to
politics, in
of a religious
spirit
which they seemed
him
to
be
deficient.
Thus he
writes as
''The
Druid"
:
as a Politician.
297
follows to a friend
objections to the
"If there were no other Penny Magazine assuming

difficul-
a distinctly Christian tone than mere

ties
of execution,
would most readily

to furnish
offer
my
best services, such
as they are, to the
Society,
and would endeavour

I
them
by
a
with such articles as
desire to see printed
them."
The most
practical attempt, however, at
realisation of these
views was Dr. Arnold's
endeavour to set up a weekly newspaper
Englishman s Register, which he undertook in 1831, more to relieve his own

called
The
conscience than with
doing any good.
He
it,
though not the sole

the chief articles in
sisting
sanguine hope of was the proprietor, editor, and contributed

the
signed " A,," and con-
comments on the political events of the day, mixed with explanations of It died a Scripture as it bore upon them.
chiefly of
natural death in a
few weeks, partly from
his
want of leisure and from the great expenses entailed upon him, and partly from want of
sympathy with
that
his
writings
in
any of the
existing poHtical parties.
Finding, however,
some
of his articles
had been copied
298
into the Sheffield Courant,
he opened com-
munication with
its
Editor which he main-
tained from that time forward until his death,
and wrote a
series of letters in that paper,
some
It
of which
were afterwards published

consequence of the
separately.
was probably
set
in
example thus
by
his idolised master that,
from his very
earliest years,
"The
Druid"
was prompted by an ardent

himself in print.
desire to see
His
earliest prolusions at
Rugby School have

after his
already been noticed, but

lost
marriage he
no opportunity of
in
;
writing political articles
every paper
nor was
it
to
which he could gain access

before
long
in
It
some of
his articles
found favour
the eyes of leading statesmen of that day.
has already been mentioned

tion of the course
that his justifica-
adopted by Sir Robert
Peel in repealing the Corn
Laws was
so well
it
reasoned and so admirably expressed that
caught the quick eye of Sir James

(then
Home
"
Secretary),
Graham who sent for " The

in
it.
Druid
"
and offered him an appointment

Service
if
the Civil
he cared to accept
The
Druid," however, refused to
sacrifice
"The Druid"
as a Politician.
299
his prospects at the Bar,

that,
happily for his
was readers, he became one

result
and the
of the
most successful public writers of the
century.
The
fervour of his political articles

written
may be gauged by a specimen

its
when
author was but twenty-six years old.

It
should be premised that in 1848, the
death of Lord Morpeth's aged father, the

sixth Earl of Carlisle,
removed the Liberal

the
it
representative of the
West Riding from

the
time,
House of Commons, and although

little
was
anticipated
at
practically
brought his public
life in England to a close. Morpeth had been returned for the Lord West Riding on eight different occasions,
when, in a
moment
of caprice, such as
all
great constituencies are occasionally liable
to,
he and his Liberal colleague. Lord Milton,
were defeated
in
1841,
by
Mr.
Evelyn
John Stuart- Wortley. The triumph of the two latter candidates was
short lived, as the following article will show.
It
Denison
and
Mr.
should be added that Lord Morpeth was
the uncle of the present

that
Duke of Devonshire
he was Chief Secretary of Ireland from 1835 to 1841 and Lord Lieutenant (as Lord
;
300
Life and Times of " The Druid!'
Carlisle)
1859
till
from 1855 to 1858; and again from In addition, 1864, when he died.
political offices.
he held many other high

"
Lord Morpeth's Farewell.

27th, 1848.)
(From the Doncaster Gazette of October

"
George Frederick,
at Castle
sixth Earl of Carlisle,
at length sleeps with his forefathers, in the
Mausoleum
son,
Howard
'
and his
eldest
the
true-hearted
Morpeth, has, with

devoted to the
' '
characteristic
good
feeling,
people of the
ture of a
its
West Riding, the last signaname which has derived from them
illustration,'
chief
throughout
political
eighteen
years of
a chivalrous
sire
attachment.
The dead
Peers,
It is true that
was not unworthy of the son. the former's place among his
the
beneath
shadow of
the
time-
honoured Abbey of Westminster, had long
known him no more.

son,
He
had
not, like that
mingled
'
'
frank and free with toiling
men
in
the busy hives of living industry the

vast
surface of
the
which
Riding
dot
;
West
nor had he, with
every
English
heart bidding
him
'
God
speed,' crossed the
''The
blue
Druid"
as a Politician.
301
waves of the Atlantic, and wandered with peace and commerce on his lips amid the infant cities and gigantic lakes and forests of
though he may have lacked the earnest purpose of his first-born
the
New
World.
Still,
'
and
his best,'
by an inscrutable decree
uses of
life's
;
and though he was not snatched from the noblest

'
prime,'
he
left
no deep blank
behind him
but broken as had been his
vigour for years by sickness, he proved in
age as
in youth,
no
aristocratic laggard in the
onward march of the British people.

the glorious truth applied not to
*
Thus,
that,
him
" The image of a man who died In his hey-day of renown. Hath a fearful power to which the pride
Of
fiery life
bows down.'
" Nevertheless,
when he passed
last
into the
unseen world, one of the
great links that
bind together the stormy political past and

present
first
was
for ever broken.
He
drew
his
breath in a century fraught with grand
historic
less
remembrances.
The fate
of the help-
Charles Stuart, and of the gay Scottish
chiefs
who
flocked to his standard
when he
fresh in
kept court at Holyrood, was then
still
302
the recollection of the fair-haired daughters of
the
'
land of the mountain and the flood loving
'
the
rude,
Highlanders who had drawn
their claymores at
CuUoden, that the
'
bonnie
Prince might enjoy his ain again,' were- still

faithful
to
his
memory
on the
the
mouldering,
ghastly heads of their clansmen, each of whom
had issued
forth
fatal sledge, side
by
side with his executioner, from beneath the
massive portcullis of Carlisle Castle,
to the
dark scaffold on Harraby

years before been the
Hill,
had but a few
market people as
town.
awe and wonder of the they viewed them spiked

from ward and keep
baronial castle of
above the iron gates of that ancient border
century
earlier,
at midnight,
in his
own
Naworth,
'
bugles blew for Belted Will,' as
the moss-troopers scoured through the park
on
their
marauding
forays.
His youthful
lot
in the latter years of that stirring century
was
cast in
an age teeming with giant
intellects,
who
scarce found their equals even under the
fostering
sway of Elizabeth.
Sir
Joshua
his
Reynolds,
easel,
weary with the labours of
and Samuel Johnson, with the
faithful
Boswell, eagerly listening for 'thoughts that
"The Druid"
as a Politician.
303
breathe and words that burn,' at his side,
might be seen arm in arm with Charles Fox,

the English
Demosthenes, wending
their
way
by the light of a flambeau to their symposium

in
Gerrard Street, and perchance hailing the
timid but self-sufficient Oliver Goldsmith, or
the scoffing, licentious Gibbon,

cis
bound on the
they passed along the Strand. same errand, David Garrick was drawing tears and laughter
by turns, as he wooed the

stage of
sister
Old Drury.
It
Muses on the was Lord Carlisle's
wont,
when
the interests of the
West Riding
or of the Abolitionists did not claim his hours
by the piano and listen to the voice of Wilberforce, as sweet and powerful in song
to stand
as
had been when heard to the cost of the Coalition Ministry by assembled thousands of
it
Yorkshiremen, from the platform in York

Castle Yard.
the witty
The high-souled Windham and Sheridan could nightly command

and Charles
the applause of a listening senate,
James Fox, forsaking his loved Newmarket, and aided by the Duchess of Devonshire's
eyes,
won
his
ever-memorable Westminster
after being
election,
and
chaired
in
pomp
behiod banners surmounted with the Prince's
304
feathers,
and inscribed
to
Female
Patriotism,
fdte
celebrated his victory at the blue and buff
of lovely Mrs. Crewe.

ears
The late
Earl's boyish
must have drunk
in the incidents of those

his
days as they were transmitted to
home
'
through the London journals by the

willing,
God
and
four
in the
days coach to York,' or were
echoed
merry Eton quadrangle

part,
hence when he grew up to manhood, he

longed to bear his
and soon joined
the
at
Embassy
Paris.
of the courtly
Lord Malmesbury
After the death of
Fox he was more

His own
life's
of a quiet spectator of political events than
an energetic actor
in
them.
varied experience had taught him a deep

historic lesson.
He
had heard when a youth

and he
lived to
fury,
of the taking of the Bastille, and the horrors of the three days of July
see
;
them again enacted with redoubled

the
Tuilleries
when
'holy
were sacked and the

standing between the
man
of God,'
dead and the living on the barricade, sank
down beneath
'
his
death
'98,'
blow.
He
had
feared to speak of
and, after the lapse
of half a century had witnessed the leaders

in
a second rebellion about to be consigned to
"The Druid"
a
life
as a Politician.
305
of foreign bondage, in which no holiday
ever comes round.
He
had triumphed over

deep sorrow,
told
Nelson's despatches from the Nile and Trafalgar;
had tempered
his joy with
when the black-edged Gazette

brother,
'
how
his
young, gallant Howard,' had, ere
the cannon of
Waterloo ceased
field
to roar, fallen
on the battle
heart
;
with a bullet through his

to see the
and he had lived
crown of
Indian victories
at
Sobraon.
In the worst of times
won by Gough and Hardinge when the
bigot
Eldon and the Toryism that revered

jest
;
Gatton and old Sarum were triumphant, and
Reform a mere
Earl Grey,
rein
and bye- word, he had and under the banner of

took off the bearing
dared to be honest
who
at last
from the English people, had beheld
the death throes of the haters of civil

religious freedom, as
and
embodied
lips
in the
Reform
very
and Catholic Emancipation Acts.

too,
Knowing,
in the
from his parent's
how
year of his birth the hardy sons of America,

tortured to
Acts,
madness by tyranny and Stamj

first
had
meditated renouncing
the
sovereignty of their forefathers, he did not

hesitate in the very
evening of
life
to record
20
3o6
Life and Times, of " The Druid"
his allegiance to the great principles of com-
mercial liberty, to which right, fearlessly pro-
mulgated by Richard Cobden and endorsed
by the hand of his own son, those very men, no longer aliens in heart, at once set their
seal.
To
watch the career of that son from

the
the day when he heard him rehearse

praises of the
sunny skies and fabled
roses of
Paestum from the very same Oxford rostrum
whence Reginald Heber had breathed

his
'
forth
Palestine,'
for
and to read the anxiously

announcing
in
looked
letter
that
Lord
list
Morpeth had appeared

pillow through
the honours
as a first-class man, served to cheer his sick
many
a night of weariness and
many
a suffering day.
The
public
part of the
at
that son's career
began
in 1830,
when by
verdict of
all
Yorkshire, he was returned

poll,
the head of the heart with
and joined hand and

of
Henry Brougham, who was one

Eight times was
it
his colleagues in the great struggles of that
stormy period.
his
lot,
as
a newly-elected Knight of the Shire, to have

the sword girded to his side, until at
last the
men
of the
West Riding heard
him, as lowest
on the
poll,
take an affectionate farewell of
"The Druid"
them
for
as a Politician.
307
his
a season.
So
that
pathetic
were
valedictory
words
they
would
un-
doubtedly have secured his return had they
been spoken before the irrevocable
gone
forth.
had But the manly warning which

fiat
he then delivered that those great principles
which they had just spurned were proceeding

silently
and
irresistibly
its
on their onward though
unseen track, had
glorious fulfilment
when
with Richard Cobden for his colleague he again stood at the Speaker's table and took the oath
as
their representative.
Truly has
it
been
is
said that the voice of the
West Riding
the
future voice of
England, which no Prime

reckless,
Minister,
however
can dare to
of
the
dis-
regard.
By
the
mouths
classic
Morpeth and the persuasive

lately
spoken, as she did at
Cobden she has the Reform crisis,
with a voice of unmistakable power."
3o8
CHAPTER
XIV.
TURF.
THE "OLD mortality" OF THE
H AT
"
The Druid
"
knew
about
racing, fox-hunting,
and grey-
hound coursing was quite insufficient to fit him for writing upon agriculture, and upon flocks and
herds.
Sitting,
however, at the
feet of such
a Gamaliel as Mr. Thornton, the far-famed

shorthorn auctioneer, he soon acquired an
amount of information which enabled him

for
many
years to supply a weekly column,
headed
"The Farm,"
to
the
Illustrated
London News, which soon became his favourWith Mr. Thornton as his coite work.
adjutor,
upon
"
The Druid " also wrote The History of Shorthorns

"
an essay
" for the
Journal of the Royal Agricultural which succeeded (as all who read
Society,
it
will
The "Old Mortality" of
the Turf.
309
I
readily understand) in winning the prize.
have omitted, however, to

Dixon's
contributions
to
state that
the
Henry Mark Lane

effect
Express
soon
had
the
natural
all
its
of
elevating that journal above

tural contemporaries.
agricul-
The modest
book,
"
preface
to
"
The
Druid's
"
last
Saddle and
:
Sirloin," refers to this period of his life
"
The
title
of this
'
work pretty
Sirloin
'
well ex-
plains
its
nature.
speaks
with
ponderous emphasis for
itself,
and
'
Saddle
has a triple bearing on horses, sheep,

pigs.
I
and
The work
is,
in fact,
a record of what
last
have seen and heard during the
eleven
years in the course of
my summer
rambles
from Cumberland to Cornwall.
My business
among
the leading breeders was in connec-
'The Herds and Flocks of Great Britain for the Mark Lane Express, and with sundry prize essays in the Royal Agrition with
'
cultural Society s Journal, the main points of
which are here briefly reproduced.
large
share of attention has been given to coursing;
but racing and fox-hunting have been
passed over
somewhat
lightly,
as
have
already devoted three books to them."
3IO
It
must never be forgotten that in " The Druid " we have a writer of great culture, of
wide and varied information, and with the instinct of a poet, who took for his motto,
''
Juvat integros accedere
fantes."
No
racing
stable of note, no famous paddocks existed

in
England
to which, at the cost of infinite
labour and
much exposure
of
to hardship,
he
his
did not pay a personal
visit,
and upon
death the
name
"The Old
Mortality of
the Turf " was justly bestowed upon him by an appreciative friend. Slightly altering the words originally applied to the learned Anti-
quary who wrote " Camden's Britannia,"
it
might be said with truth of

that
"
The
Druid,'
"he
is
the
common
sun, whereat modern
sporting writers have

torches."
all
lighted their
little
His influence upon the

which he devoted
his
class
of
literature to
singular
powers has, indeed, been exceptional.

he made occasional mistakes
confessing that he was no
but,
is
That
to
;
tantamount
more than human

his errors
It
considering the breadth and length of
the
canvas that he
filled,
sink
altogether out of sight.
may,
perhaps,
be remarked of his works that they present a
The ''Old Mortality" of

fuller
the Turf.
311
and more sympathetic view of North country than of South country racing stables
and stud farms
of
;
but, in his time, the influence
Langton Wold and Middleham, of Richmond-on-the- Swale and Black Hambleton,

had not been superseded by Newmarket, Danebury, Manton, Kingsclere, Lambourne and Stanton.
That his title of " The Old Mortality of the Turf" was well deserved,
selected from
will
the following passage, others
many
of
like
nature,
sufficiently
show
"
The Coverdale valley, down which so many jocks have wasted in their day, lies in
*
'
front,
its
with the river Cover winding through

In the
at
deep dingle of ash and sycamore.

is
distance
the ridge of the
Low Moor
skyline,
Middleham, with occasional sheeted strings

of
racers
in to
glancing along
its
like
scenes
a magic-lantern,
the
and stretching
the
away
at
High Moor, which has

it.
frowning Penhill to back
The, old church

lies
Coverham
is
hard by the Cover stream,
and
many
a racing celebrity
sleep old
under
its
There steersman of Beeswing and Dr. Syntax

shadow.
Bob Johnson,
;
the
Ben
312
Smith, as green as a young turkey on his
mother
saddle,
earth, but
a very Talleyrand
six St.
in the
and the winner of
Legers
;
Harry Grimshaw, of Gladiateur fame and there, too, old John Osborne now rests his
dreamless head.
Ashgill, in
sit like
whose quiet little

prophets,
parlour he used to
a wizard, not con-
sulting the stars or perusing the
but weighing handicaps in his good brain

balance,
is
perched high on the
hill-side.
Below
Caccia
is
Tupgill, from which
Tomboy and
their
is
Piatti
used to go forth to clear

;
pipes in the brisk air

gill,
and beyond
Brecon-
which
Tom
'
some of Dawson's best triumphs with the EgHnis
also associated with
ton tartan, the Johnstone crimson, the Jardine
blue with silver braid,'

'
and the
'
Jamie
Meiklam
In the
stripes."
same style and manner are " The Druid's" comments upon the graves of Bay Middleton and Crucifix " The old horse was ill all the summer of 1856, and died on November 3rd of the folHis heels had been very bad, lowing year. and kept in perpetual turnip poultices, and for
:
the last three or four days he lay
down and

tossed in great pain.
the
Turf.
313
The mysterious off foot

was buried within ten
;
enlarged considerably, but there was no post-
mortem upon
it.
He
down
yards of his stable door

they had to dig
sent to
but a few days after
to him, as
beg the near
fore-foot.
Lord Jersey His old mate

is
Crucifix,
who just
him
;
survived him a year,
now
buried beside
inside the rustic paling of a
and John and Alfred Day have each planted a cedar to their memory. The spot was all blooming with hollyhocks
small flower plot
when we passed
quite wasted
it
last
October to take an-
other glance at old Crucifix.
There she
stood,
and
listless,
under the wall of a
loose box, with withers as sharp as a knife.
She had kept in pretty blooming condition Stockbridge race levê was till her wonted over, and then she began to fail very fast. Since Chalice, in 1852, she had bred no
foal,
and always broke
at the
end of a
fort-
night.
Her
great peculiarity was the narrow;
ness of her chest
and hence,
in her training,
cut.
she perpetually suffered from speedy

"
Her
legs
went within a week
after the
Oaks race, but the secret never fairly oozed Out till the Saturday before the St. Leger.
314
Looking thinner than she was in her 'sky blue and white cap days, and with her great hips and deep brisket more prominently marked than ever, she seemed like the last
'
Turf
at
relic
of Lord George, whose heart was
one time never far from these paddocks, where Chalice, Slander, Homily, and Simony
are
now roaming."
is
Nowhere, however,
antiquity better
tion of the
tract
his peculiar love of

in his descripI
marked than
growth of the Ring, which

:
ex-
from " Scott and Sebright " " Betting was as tardy in its growth as the
American
to
Owners were ready enough put down money for a match, but did not
aloe.
care to speculate deeply about other people's

horses.
Much
of that spirit
still
lingered
offer
which had made Lord Grosvenor
to
match any three out of his

ten thousand
stable against the

for
same number of the Duke of Bedford's

;
but
till
book-making gradually
difficulty,
became a
profession, getting the odds laid
was always a matter of
and
it
was
told as quite a marvellous thing that Sir John
Shelley should win nine thousand guineas on
Phantom's Derby
in 181 1.
Another kind
of
The "Old Mortality'' of

Ring had
the Turf.
315
risen so high in 18 17,

'fight
neux was open to
when Molyany man born of
woman
bar
Tom
Crib,' that the first wits of
the day flocked round
Incledon at Tom's
St.
anniversary
tavern
dinner near
James'
Square, to hear
for the
Edmund Kean
in this
return thanks
Drama and
It
take a second in 'All's
Well.'
was
year that the two
greatest certainties in the
North and South

favourite, Student,
came
to naught.
The first
was beaten to a
standstill at
Epsom by
his
own
'
valet
'
Azor, and like him, the mighty

last
Still,
Blacklock was also snapped by the very

horse in the
betting at Doncaster.
despite these turns for the fielders, the bett-
ing was at least forty per cent, below that of

the
to
two preceding
sessions.
Chester seems
have been the one bright exception.
Such
was the crush and excitement during the two ladies fainted, and two heats, that
'
gentlemen betted over them

clearers
two courseknocked down, and nobody were

;
picked them up.'
Nor
as
is
there anything better of
its
kind
exemplifying
"The
Druid's" unrivalled
familiarity with,
and accurate reproduction of
3i6
Life
and Times of
"
The Druid."
the North country lingo, than the subjoined
sketch of a famous Yorkshire character

"
Mark Plews was a mixture

if
of blacksmith
and farmer, and
there was a
Richmond
it.
horse in the St. Leger, he invariably stood
When
rage,
Vingt'un from Belle Isle was

his wife got
all
the
tell-
Mark and
on without
ing each other, he to win 2^^ for himself,
and she /^ in partnership with Mrs. Pierse. These daring ventures got bruited about, and
hence when the town express,
which was
horses
at
managed on
on
state occasions
by sending
to Ferrybridge the
day before, arrived
midnight, with the news of the defeat, one of

the party
who
sat
up
for
it
could think of no
'
other consolation than hoaxing
Old Mark.'
word
which
won.'
The window was

for
not
far
from the ground,

to report,
and the delegate was enabled

word,
followed
the
the matrimonial colloquy,
shout
of
'
Vingi-un's
Mark was
in the
furious
when
the truth came out

in vain to
morning,
all
and threatened
if
walk
over Yorkshire,
he could only
discover the owner of the voice.
"He
always delivered his mind about man

without fear or favour; and was
or horse,
The "Old Mortality'' of

looked upon as no
the
Turf.
317
mean
authority.
When
the Marquis of Queensberry, whose waist was quite as capacious as his own, requested him to come and give him his confidential opinion
of Caledonian's
chance
for the
Leger,
he
mounted
survey.
his spectacles
and took a protracted The horse's rainbow neck he dis-
missed in silence, and then he broke out with
He wants what you and me has gitten, my Lord hinder ribs, hinder ribs ; and in went
'
'
his spectacles to their case
once more."
The above
others,
passage, together with
many
exhibit,
cellences,
one
despite their numerous exfailing in " The Druid's

in
writings.
They were prepared
such hot
their
haste for magazines
and newspapers, that
author seldom had time to correct them before

they appeared in print.
evitable
result
The
natural
and
in-
was that occasionally they produced a blurred and confused impression

upon
the
reader's
mind.
all
"
The Druid
understood so well
the surroundings and
accessories of the scenes
and characters he
described as to forget that his readers were
seldom as well informed as himself. Thus he speaks of "Sir Wolly " as dashing the knob
3i8
of his walking stick through a pier glass at
Doncaster, after the victory of some horse
in
which he took great pride, without remembering that few readers of a subsequent generation
would know that
" Sir
WoUy "
was
*'
Sir
David
Baird's nick-name.
Although
The Druid "
cared nothing about betting, and never caught

its
contagion, and although he was seldom in
the saddle, never went out hunting on horseback,
and could no more have driven a
four-
in-hand team than Mr. Bright or Mr. Joseph
Arch,
am
far
from believing that his readers

This, at any
are sufferers in consequence.

rate,
was his own opinion, as may be inferred from his preface to " Scott and Sebright "
:
"
Although the author does not scruple
to
admit that his hunting experiences have been

very
much
confined to watching the cubs at
play near the earths on a summer's evening,

to taking notes of hunters at crack meets,
was wont to do after the same fashion in Turf pencillings, and to seeing, by dint of short cuts on foot, a goodly number
as he
much
of foxes pulled
down
in the
woodlands, he
is
is
not altogether sure that this tage to his readers in
not an advan-
more ways than one

Beckford,
the
Turf.
319
Delme
Radcliffe, Apperley, Smith,
Vyner,
'Cecil,'
'
Grantley
Berkeley,
'
'
Scrutator,'
'
Harry Hieover,'
Gelert,'
Jorrocks'
and John Mills have written so much and so well on the science of the sport, that he has been obliged to try and hold his own line, and confine himself to
It is
its
gossip."
a proverbial saying that lookers-on see
most of the game, and never yet was there

a looker-on
who saw
"
farther into the true
inwardness of the subjects upon which he

descanted than
The
Druid."
He
could
trace Velocipede's blaze of light in the face
and white legs of a

four generations
foal distant
by three or
"
;
from that mighty " miler
the lop ears

flashed
and Roman nose of Melbourne

his
upon
eye as he saw a far-away

illustrious
descendant
of
that
sire
whom
Mr. Sidney Herbert refused to take at 250

guineas
;
and
the
elegance
of
Orlando
delighted
him when reproduced
in the light-
limbed Teddington, Ariosto, and Bay Rosa-
had a word to say upon the peculiarities of soil, herbage, and water which distinguished every famous stud farm in
lind.
He
England, and such redoubtable stud grooms
320
as

Isaac
Walker,
of
Streatlam
Castle
Timothy Forshaw, of Knowsley Park; Tweed, of Leybourne Grange and Markham, who, having served General Anson and Baron Mayer de Rothschild, ended by presiding over Lord Rosebery's paddocks at Mentmore little thought that the lightest words
;
falling from their lips would, perhaps, be perpetuated by " The Druid" in print. His
description of the
way
in
which Wild Dayrell
came
into the world betwixt night
and morn-
ing at Littlecote, and of the old butler who

insisted
so that
upon taking the foal up in his arms, he might say he had carried a Derby
;
winner, will never be surpassed

the
nor that of
mad
pranks in which the Prince Regent

at
indulged
Newmarket,
when he
Another
in "
mis-
chievously shoved a French
Prince of the
ver-
Blood Royal into the water.

sion of the
same
"
:
story
is
given
Tommy
told
Moore's Diary
" 26th
1825.
August,
Lord
into a
Essex
me
the
the anecdote
of the
St.
Prince of Wales
pitching the
Abb6
Phar, half-brother to
fish-pond at
Duke
of
Orleans,
Newmarket.
The Abbd had some method

of tickling
skill,
the Turf.
to
321
his
fish,
first
and proceeded
show
having
exacted a promise that they
would not shove him into the water.

bent over the pond,
He
head
when
the Prince, unable

in
to resist the temptation,
pushed him
after
over heels.
The Abbe was

out,
so enraged that, the
upon getting
he ran
Prince
of Wales, and, but for the company's favouring the latter's escape,
would have used him
very roughly."
21
322
CHAPTER
"
XV.
THE DRUID's
"
ENDURANCE,
THOUGHT
would walk
it
at first that
all
the way, but

It
was a great mistake.
hearted
may answer for a mere lightsaunterer who wants to take a few

and
his ease in his inn, but not for
in
sketches,
one who has a responsible task

"
hand."
in
Such are some of the words contained
The
Druid's
"
preface
to the volume to the
of
" Field
and Fern," devoted

it
North of
Scotland, and
is
easily intelligible that a
man
of forty-three
who had
injured his con-
stitution
by
total inattention to regular meals,
and by walking vast distances
in all weathers
on an empty stomach, should begin

his
to find
out that to tramp thousands of miles carrying
own baggage, was no
longer within the
"The Druid's" Endurance.

compass of his powers.
most interesting works
323
Readers of his four

will
not require to be
reminded that he thought nothing of starting

off
from London at 4 a.m. with a heavy knap-
sack on his back,

thirty miles
and walking twenty or
a day for
many
consecutive days,
it
resting always on a Sunday, when he made

his invariable
at
duty to attend Divine service

I
some country church.

occasion
"
have already
on
stated in the preface to this volume, that
one
The Druid
to
"
walked from
miles)
Swindon Junction
(a
Marlborough College
or
distance
of thirteen
fourteen
across the Wiltshire
Downs, with a
in
large
portmanteau on his shoulder,

a
visit to his
order to pay
old friend
and schoolmate, the
Rev. Dr. Bradley, then Headmaster of Marl-
borough College, and now the successor to Dr. Arthur Stanley as Dean of Westminster.
On
another occasion he walked from ChippenStation to Badminton, ten miles and a
ham
half,
and
back,
to
inspect
the
Duke
of
Beaufort's hunters and hounds,
and again he
describes himself as lying

in
down under a hedge
the early morning of a summer day, and
getting four or five hours of quiet sleep before
324
Life and Times of " The Druid!'

his
he resumed
march.
At
last
he undertook
that long journey in Scotland which he describes in the preface to "Field

in the following
and Fern"
words
" After
working hard
for four years
among
I
the
flocks
and
herds of England,
was
naturally
find
anxious to cross the border, and

for
new scope
in
my
pastorals.
wished
to visit past
and present Highland Society

their.
winners
own
stall
or
fold,
and
to
gather evidence from the breeders
who
stand
high
in
Scottish annals, not only as to the
present
progress
of
the
stock on
which
England depends
for extensive supplies, but
also as to the thoughts
and labours of men

their
who have done

then
Scotland good service, and

to
rest.
have passed
their
Grouse
fishing,
;
shooting, deer stalking, and salmon
have
still
there
own high were many
lords of the pen
but
points connected with
hunting, coursing, racing, and otter hunting
which seemed calculated

of Scottish
life,
to
work
into a picture
and
to
vary the monotony of
mere beef and mutton chapters. " Fancy soon faded into reality, and
that
I
found
I
had
set
myself a very serious
task.
"The Druid's" Endurance.
325
had to pluck the heart out of three summers, a winter and a spring to travel some eight thousand miles to sleep away from home
; ;
some two hundred and

wrote a
line.
fifty nights,
before
It is
very easy to draw up a
programme but not so .easy to hold to it. I often found a new and valuable witness where I least expected, and had to throw over every plan rather than leave him. There was still,
in spite
of
all
the hardship and harass, quite
a pleasant soldier-of-fortune sort of feeling in
never being sure whether you would turn up

at
night
by the
fireside of
a golden farmer, or
in -a hole,
inn.
or bunk, in the wall at a wayside
Mere scenery
In fact
it
regard.
it
was obliged to diswas of no use to me, unless

I
served as a setting for some crack herd of

or flock of sheep
;
cattle,
and acting on
sternly held to
this
practical
line,
view of things
my
regardless of the most glorious combina-
tions of water,
wood and mountain,

day
for
which
I
other tourists were ever turning aside.

not even spare a
' '
did
for the Trossachs,
but
went hot-trod past the guide post after black faces in the direction of Rob Roy's grave, and
my eye might
never have rested on
Killie-
326

I
crankie had
not passed through
it
on
my
way
to the
'
West Highland herd

night's repose,'
at Blair
Athole.
Something attempted, something

was my
enjoyed one between two and
done has earned a

motto, and
I
four a.m. in the saddle during a night ride
over the Ord of Caithness, while the
rain
poured
'
down
and
I
the
mare
grazed.
Cockade,' for so
called her,
from
perside,
sistently
wearing her mane on the near
was not
1862.
I
my
companion
far as
I
in
the
summer
of
walked as
could, but coaches
and railways aided me

finding
also
in
a measure, and
wearied sadly under a very heavy knapsack,

that
such long
cross-country
cross-
walks were not favourable for framing

examinations at night.
that
I
Hence
soon found
was merely cutting time to waste, and

pushed
a
sfter that discovery
my way
'
on
to the
Orkneys, and asked

Fortescue to buy
my good
'
friend Archer
me
garron
before that
day twelvemonths." When the second summer came round

there were only two "garrons" of the size
he wanted and the
for sale in
Pomona
at
one at ^10,
los.
other,
a brown,
^'j
The
'^The
Druids" Endurance.
327
brown was
four
just the thing, and being in Hght marching order, " The Druid " was twenty-
pounds lighter than when he left London, which (in his own words) " he carried behind
in the
him
tosh
lot,"
much
pleasanter shape of mackin" Just fifteen
and luggage."
four the
with his saddle, valise and book bag, he
set out
from Kirkwall upon a brown

as
half-
broken four-year-old mare,

she had passed her early
rough and
uncouth as the half-wild sheep
among which years, to make his
way
to
London.
"
The
journey," he adds,
"to a
man who
has a good horse, and can
send his luggage on to points, must be easy
and pleasant enough
but
when you have a

and
in
shy, half-bred nag, quite out of condition,
have perforce to spend months and months

roughing
it,
in
it
a country to which you are not
acclimatised,
'
becomes no merry game. " He'll never get to Lunnon, maister,' said Dick, the first whip and kennel huntsman to
sotto voce, as
;
Orkney Hounds, mare from his hand

the
clear
took the
and
was not quite
on that point myself. Still, with fine weather overhead, and a steady practice of
o-etting off to lead for
every third or fourth
328
mile,
ling.

it is
a grand, independent
way
of travel-
the
was positively exhilarating to put mare's head straight across Scotland,

It
from
or
St. Boswell's to
Ayr, and to cut down
the hundred
to
rattle
miles at four-and-forty a-day
from Athelstaneford to Kelso

shirts
over the Lammermuirs with two

ting your cheeks to the bone.
and
three pairs of stockings on, and the cold cut-
There
were,
however,
sundry disadvantages
connected
It
with this primitive

is
mode
of locomotion.
a weary thing sitting three-quarters of an

that
hour on a corn bin at night to be sure

the
ferry
ostler
-
does your nag

the
justice.
Every
boat in
Highlands was fraught

;
with a fresh difficulty
every railway
off,
train
produced a fresh run

if
I
and
was lucky
could put
my
horse's head in the right
direction, before
she started, so as to get a

It
three hundred yard gallop to the good.
was equally objectionable having to blindfold her and stufif her ears, and twist her five
or six times round, so as to
which way you wanted to
make her forget go, when late at

in
night you found a Lanarkshire or Ayrshire

blast
furnace roaring like a lion
your
Engraved by
F.
Babhngejrom
a.
Photoâph
by
Mr. H.
Phillips, Kensington.]
From the Orkneys to Kensington

(with punctuality
and dispatch).
24,
August
29,
1863
Feliruary
1864.
^^Tke Druid's" Endurance.

path,
329
and interposed between yourself and

inn.
is
your
"
However, the book

I
done
after
many
interruptions from illness
and other causes

proof sheet.
to
and
seemed
I
to breathe freely once more,

last
I
when
signed the
it
can
only trust that
may prove
be the
scarlet
pioneer of a
more extended tour through England, Ireland, and a portion of the Continent but go where I may, every August
still
;
will
bring with
it
the old yearning to cross

all
the
of
Tweed, and
the pleasant memories
my
journey from the Orkneys to Ken-
sington with punctuality
and dispatch."
This pilgrimage from the Orkneys to Kensington "
The Druid
"
accomplished, but
life.
it
must be added
does his wife
at the cost of his
remember
that terrible
Well homein
coming
at
1 1
p.m. in a blinding snow-storm.
He
rang feebly at the door of his house
Kensington Square, so utterly exhausted that

on the servant opening the door he
the passage
;
fell
into
the
" garron " which he

into the square,
was
leading escaped
and was
Druid's
"
caught by the maid servant, and housed in

a shed for the night. '5*
On
"
The
^ô
recovering somewhat from the exhaustion he

fervently exclaimed, "
Thank God
for bring-
ing
me home
to die with wife
and children
around me."
Little did
he dream of the four years of

a night
intense suffering he had yet to endure.
He
ride,
caught so fearful a cold

is
in
of which his description
given below,
that
for
when he got home asthma marked him

its
victim,
little
and
for
four
sad years he
or day.
to
enjoyed
rest,
either
by night
With
tell
characteristic cheerfulness
he used
his friends,
when they
noticed his wasted
form and shortness of breath, that he was

suffering from foot
and mouth
until
disease.
It
was
his
custom to muffle himself round the
throat,
and to walk and
he was foot-sore
but those
for years,
who had known and honoured him
whom
at
he encountered
at the
annual meetings of the

Society,
Royal Agricultural
plough
rapidly
and
the Smithfield Club Cattle

his
\yas
Shows, saw that
drawing near to the end of the furrow.
The
which
of "
I
description of the fatal night ride to
have already alluded

Druid's
"
is
so symbolical
The
pluck and endurance that
^^The Druid's" Endurance.

it is
331
quota-
worthy to be selected
:
for
final
tion
On the occasion of my second visit to Scotland there was nothing for it but to steel myself against all bed-regrets, and to face the
"
muirs at night.
series of zig-zags
wended my way by a
from Barrock to the high
road between Thurso and Lybster, and then

struck straight for the coast.
The sun went

Soon every door
but one family
down, and the rain took no half-measures

with those exposed to
it.
was barred, and every

responded to
light put out in the

;
few cabins along the road

at last
my
hail
with
biscuit,
cheese and milk, besides offering a bed and
abundance of
tares.
There are many dreary

life
;
passages in a man's
but wiping
down a
mare very short of condition in your shirt sleeves in a cow- house, on a wild muir, by a
dim spluttering dip, at midnight, with the wind sighing through the broken panes, the heavy rain-drops pattering on the door- sill, and a forty miles' ride before you, has very
few to match
it.
Still
'
it
had
I
to
be dojie
I
and
doy.'
said to myself,
If
mun
doy,
mun
332
DnndP
to
"The mountain
row, and as the
burns, which soon began
to run right viciously,
made music
sailed out
my
sor-
moon
from behind
a cloud, and shone on the long pools, which
were
along.
fast
gathering by the roadside, they

polar
seemed
like
I
bears
craftily
stealing
hailed the mail-road
at
Lybster
friends,
and the roar of the sea as quite old

and
felt
little
comforted.
although she had only

days, she
that
if
I
As for the mare, known me for two

to
had got so accustomed

fell
my
voice
little
behind, she would stop

first to
when spoken
to
to
and look round,

at
the
near and then to the off-side in the gloom,
be sure
was
hand.
Weariness
at
length defied
springs,
all
face-washing at the roadside

are best
it
and two hours of that night

in the preface.
accounted for
Be
that as
may, the mist-wreaths began to

the deep mountain ravines, and
curl lazily
up
away
to the
vast granite deer forest behind.
Morning
rain-
broke and the rain was gone, while the
bow spanned
were and
brace
all
the Berriedale valley.
There
the varied purples of the heather,

fir
the rich green livery of
and
larch, to
man and
horse for the dreaded Ord of
" The Druid's " Endurance.

Caithness, and the mail, as
fully past,
it
333
rattled cheer'
was quite the

Morayshire,
'
missing link
with
mankind.
coast,
on
the
opposite
looked like the outline of a new world beyond a calm, blue, dimpled sea; and as I
rounded the
last
crag near Helmsdale, the
gently-curving sands of Sutherland lay at

feet,
my
white and
warm
ito
in the sunshine."
This narrative would indeed be incomplete

were
I
to
omit
repeat that during his long
years of patient, unselfish,

labour,
"
and conscientious
than
The Druid " never realised more ^600 in a single year. During the last
life,
were reby Mr. Robinson, of the Daily News, to write sporting and agricultural leaders for Had it been possible to keep that journal.
his services
few months of his

tained
him
alive
throat,
by pouring liquid gold down his Mr. Robinson and Mr. Labouchere
would gladly have sanctioned the necessary As he himself It was not to be. outlay.
said of the prematurely sacrificed life of the
young and gallant nobleman who owned The Earl and The Duke, and won the Cesarewitch with Lecturer, "All the wheels were
down," and after the spring of 1870,
the
334
writer
ing,
" The Druids îf^ ^^d Times of
who had given more pleasure to huntracing, and coursing men than all his
predecessors and successors combined, lived

only in works which will not soon pass away.
His dying bed was soothed by the unwearied ministrations and tender solicitude of
his
wife,
by the constant
friend,
affection
of his
Mr. John Thornton, and by the generosity and kindness of the present
devoted
Sir Tatton Sykes.
Mr. George Moore,
to-
gether with his charming wife, also visited
room continually, supplying hothouse fruit and champagne. Mrs. Moore, on hearing him express a wish for some genuine Cumberland porridge, came and made it for him with her own hands. As he
his
sick
lay with his
hands folded across
his breast,
it
might have been said of him,
in lines
which
were never more applicable

"
No
pearl ever lay under

in its shell
Oman's dark water

spirit in thee
!
More pure
than thy
335
CHAPTER
Reminiscences of "
XVI.
The
Druid."
By Mrs.
The
supplied
following
Dixon.
notes,
deeply interesting
kindly
by Mrs. Dixon, with reference
to "
The
Druid," appeared in Baily's Magazine of Sports and

Pastimes of
November,
1909.
They
contain some
further reminiscences of her husband,
and
for these
the publishers express their indebtedness.
AM
tell
afraid
is
that
at
85
one's
to
memory
relied
not but
I I
much
will
be
on,
gladly
First,
you what
I
can.
to
let
me
new
say
how
pleased
of
am
know
that
is
a
to
edition
my
It
husband's books
be published.
pleasure.
would have given him

used to say that he
his
great
He
if
should be satisfied
books were read
twenty-five years after his death.
His wish
:
to be remembered was a joke between us " I suppose you'd like to be a chimney
336

? "
I
ornament
like."
I
used to say, and his answer
was always,
"
That
it
is
just
what
should
do not think
" Life
is
mentioned
(in
Mr.
Lawley's
that
my
and Times of the Druid ") husband was called to the Bar he
;
had, as
the " Life " says, been articled to

of solicitors at Doncaster
(Messrs.
a firm
Baxter), but he always wanted to enter the
other branch of the profession, and he was

''
called
"
very
soon
after
we came
circuit
to
London
derful
in 1850.
He
I
went on
for
two
or three times, and
think with
his
won-
memory and
care
detail
would
have succeeded as a
terrible trouble
barrister, but for the
he had with
his
eyes.
It
was
Bar.
his sight that spoiled his career at the
Soon
it
a,fter
he had been called he got
briefs,
but the state of his eyes so often

impossible for him to do any work,
made
was generally obliged to pass them on to someone else and at last he gave up legal practice altogether and turned his atthat he
;
tention entirely to writing.
This, of course,
he could do at those times when he was

able to use his eyes.
Reminiscences, of "
I
The Druid."
337
have been. asked
if
Henry ever
in^
regretted
his. refusal
of the post
-
the
Admiralty
offered
refusal
him by Sir James Graham, or his of the Editorship of ^^//V Life by

I
Mr. Dpwling.
am: quite sure

refusing
either
that
do not think so and I if he ever did regret

;
he would
never ha,ve ad-
mitted
it,
even to
to
me
When
it
.
he took a
step of any kind he would never admit he
ought not
have taken
or have done
something
else.
all
The; regrets about the editorship were

inijje
Even now
cannot help feeling that he

it.
madca
think often
mistake innot taking

his
When
of
indifferent
unfit
health,
which so
journeys
in
all
made him
on
to go on
th;e
he,. insisted
making journeys
weathers into
all ki.tids of;
wild places, where
he got neither proper shelter nor food, it seems to me that as editor of a paper he
might have been-, longer with

TViDiild;
us.
in
Yet he
office;
never have been happy
an
he; was resdess, and his love of wandering Ap, I say, he often went on w-cs insatiable.
joHHjeys when; he; ought really to have been

22
338

if
in the house,
not in his bed.

life,
During the
later years of his
however, people knew

in,
the condition he was

to stay with
and when he went
them they treated him as the invalid he really was. You must forgive me if my mind dwells on those last eight years of his life, when he suffered so terribly from bronchial asthma what he went through what we both went through nobody can know. He could not lie down, and used to take what sleep he could get reclin;
ing in a big armchair, while

to sleep,
in
slept, or tried
the
room adjoining with the
door open,
Henry's indifference to money has not
been exaggerated
it
in the least
often wish
ark
had been
With our large family, and

if
I
income that decreased as

I
his health declined,
may be
forgiven
sometimes wished he
fairly
would accept money he had
earned/
The
fear of being
"bought" was
really
an
obsession with him.
How
well
remember
the case of Rarey mentioned by Mr.
Lawkyf
Rarey was quite an uneducated man, and he could never have gained all the reputation
he did without
my
husband's assistance.
Reminiscences of " The
Druid"
339
for him, and would never take a penny for all the work he did, hard as Rarey pressed him. When he could not move Henry, Rarey came to
Henry managed everything
me, and
shall
never forget the curious
way he
room
tried to give
me
the
us.
rightly declared he
in
owed
money he quite Our drawing-
double
Kensington Square was a large room with curtains and a step between if you were sitting in one room
;
somebody in the other without you knowing it. Rarey came one
there
might
be
afternoon while
was
at the writing table
he looked stealthily round, and then took

a
little
it
bag of gold from

to
his pocket
and
floor.
threw
me
along the polished
Henry, who, unknown to us both, was

other room, heard
it,
in the
and was up at once. " Give that back," he said, before I had had time to touch it. Rarey looked very so did I, no doubt. crestfallen He was a strange-looking man. I have
;
never seen
such
eyes
as his-^very dark
I could blue and extraordinarily piercing. not bear to have the man look at me,
though
liked him.
" Mr. Rarey,"
would
34
Life and Times of'^TJieDi'uid"
say, "if
you continue
out
I
to look at
me
in that
way I'm going

subdue me; and
of
thei
room.
You'll
don't
want
to be subdued.
Please look to the other side of' the room."
They
them.
said he
tamed the horses by

I
fixing his'
eye on them.
do not wonder he frightened
The
to
only thing
Henry ever allowed me
accept
from a
man
take
to
whom
he had
tablfc
it
rendered useful service was a work
He
only
let
me
that
because-
happened
to
come on
I
the anniversary of
it
our wedding day.
have
now,' with the
plate let into the top, engraved " Sarsden
Herd, 1862."
this
have quite forgotten what

it
refers
to
to,
but perhaps
may convey
versed'in
meaning
some of your readers
matters relating to cattle.
IfM had not been blessed with a keen sense of humour I must have suffered^ a
good
deal
from
Henry's' indifferenee- to
money
say
I
matters, but
T could always'
and
I
see- the
ridiculous side of things,
am
glad- to'
do so
still.
kept the purse: when-
evef he received money, whether 'it was
^5
of
;^50,'
he \4rouM toss the cheques or gold
.R&mmiscences of " The Druid."
,341
inta my. lap with the same unvarying words.

" Tihere you are, and do what you like,with
it,
only don't
let
me be
,
bothered with debts."

with
debts,"
it
He
never
I
was
it,
"bothered
though
ton,
say
and. ,ha,rd enough
was
fail
,
sometimes
to avoid them. his
We left
Kensingto
;
Square when
health,
began
so irauch that his
earnings declined
for us,
in
the
,
house was too expensive

;
ji
packed away the family

Gardens.
I
59,
and we Warwick
might mention here that I Jiave made thirteen moves in Kensington since
came to London. The .house, in the Square was pulled down long ago; Barker and Comp.any's Jflats ôccupied by employees stand upon, the site and the
we
first
garden.
It is a,
mistake to say that Henry never
w*eade more than

,
^600 a
year
;=
I
he never
kept, the
knew
much
himself what he made,
accounts, and
in his best years he.
made
as
as ;î,2CO.
We
wanted
it
with., our
,big family.
do not think Henry's will has. ever. been Here is a copy of it. I have published. left out those parts which are of no interest
I
342

to.
but to the persons referred

it
He
wrote
himself just after the doctor had told him

to live.
he had not long
He
was delighted
were nearly
his
when he was
over.
feelings
told his sufferings
He
;
sprang up, unable to repress

then he became
more
like
collected
and, sitting down, wrote the will at once.

I
must explain that Henry,

and
some other
;
people, had the dread of being buried alive
he never spoke of
it,
do not
think
many
''
people
is
knew he had
the last will
this fear.
This
and testament of
most
me, Henry Hall Dixon, barrister-at-law, of

59,
Warwick Gardens, Kensington.

desire
earnestly
that
after
my
death
my
heart and throat be examined and the wind-
pipe severed.
wish to have no shroud,

in
but
to
be
buried
my
nightdress
in
one thick wooden coffin by the side of
my
in
dear
little
daughter,
Sydney
Caroline,
Brompton Cemetery. Mr. Tuxford, Mr. E. Tattersall, and Mr. Thornton are to be
asked to
my
funeral.
They have been
good friends to me in life. Perhaps some of Mr. Tuxford's compositors might like to jneet my body at the cemetery. Our house
Reminiscences of " The Druid."

is
343
so small that we cannot invite them here. This might be privately mentioned to Mr.
Tuxford.
leave everything
die possessed
of
to
in real
and personal property absolutely
my
dear wife Caroline,
who has nursed

.
. .
me
so tenderly for three and twenty years
ver since our marriage.
With
re-
gard to
(in
all
I
the sporting and farming books
which
"
own
of the
the half copyright)
the
Law
Farm " (which
is
and mine
for
absolutely)
wish
will,
my
I I
wife to consult Mr.
Tuxford,
the
best.
who
know, advise her
When
know on what
literary
small
grounds pensions are given to
men,
widows and relations of literary men, I do feel that, after down my health by eleven years labour among the flocks and herds
to the
and
deceased
breaking
of hard
of Great
Britain,
from the Shetlands to Penzance,

has some claim for a pension.
I
my widow
trust she will try
and
interest the
Govern-
ment on her behalf through Mr. Moore, the

Hon. Charles Howard, and the Marquess
of Hartington (through Mr. Drewry).
I
And
appoint
my
eldest son,
Henry Sydenham,
and my
wife, Caroline
Dixon, executor and
344
Life
and Times of
"
The Druid."
.
executrix of this
my
will
Signed
this
by me the above Henry Hall Dixon, fourteenth day of February, a.d. 1870.
"Witnessed by William Brend, surgeon. "Witnessed by Priscilla Hall Dodge,
Warwick Gardens." Sydney Caroline died when she was four years
59,
of
old.
scarlet
fever
She was a
father's
lovely
child
and the joy of her
heart
after
he was never quite the same man

hurriedly,
little
we lost her. The will was written

have been
and that
'
accounts for the pathetic

will
noticed
slip
which
is
"
our house
so
small that
we cannot invite them here." A wonderful change came over Henry's face after death had released him from suffering he looked a young man as he lay there he really looked no older than he did when we married three and twenty yiears before. Our own doctor positively refused to
carry out the wish expressed in the beginning
of the
will,
and
It
had
to call in another
medical man.
have forced upon one, but

to
it
and
felt
was a dreadful thiiig;*ito I was pledgted obliged to put aside my own
Reminiscences oj
'feelings.
to.
it.
"The Druid"
345
It
was very hard

funeral did not
to bring myself
The
take place
till
eight days after he; died.

I
think our best friend in those sad days

Jeft
when we were
present
Sir
nearly penniless was the
Tatton
;
Sykes,
tremely good to us
who was exbe educated one of

in
my
-
boys besides helping us
other ways.
had a great The Druid " and his admiration Old Sir Tatton used always to writings.
his
Sir Tatton
and
father
for
"
greet
Henry with "How's your baby?"

he
said,
knowing,
that
there
must be a
baby
Though HeHry had taken a great interest in Indian affairs, as some of his writings pfove, he never had the least desire to go
to 'India, nor,
indeed,
to
travel
anywhere
I
outside
the
British
Islands,
This was a
point on which our tastes differed, for
had
always longed to go abroad and see foreign

countries.
I
remember a few days before
he- died, after he had been told that he must not hope to recover, he said to me, "Now,
dear, you'll be able to travel as

like."
much
as
you
him.
Poor fellow! that was so
like
346
It
never occurred to him that one needed

to travel
life
!
money
To
his
think of the sordid

in his nature.
necessities of
was not
Henry thought
the Farm,"
book
"
The Law
I
;
of
was the work on which
should
base an application for a pension

ever written, and
he con-
sidered this the most useful thing he had

I
believe
in the
it
is still
used as
a book of reference
first
law courts. a pension

for
The
endeavour
to obtain
me
was
made soon after Henry's death by Mr. Lawley, who approached Mr. Gladwith
stone,
whom
he was connected
by
Mr.
to
marriage, through
Lord Hartington.
it
Gladstone wrote very kindly, promising

consider the matter, but
for
I
went no
farther,
heard
nothing more.
When
in
Lord
1894 he
Rosebery became Prime Minister

I
applied again.
Lord Rosebery was one

"
of "
The
Druid's
greatest admirers
had described him as "half sportsman and

half poet" (Mr.
his
Lawley mentions this in dedication of "The Life and Times"),

I
and
this
thought that the
man who had

I
said
would
at least consider
I
an application
from me, so
wrote.
received a reply
347
from Lord Rosebery's Secretary on July 5th, 1894, saying that the Earl was " well aware of
the merit of
my late
husband's work in
many
;
different directions,
some
the
recognition of
the fund at his

list
and would be glad to see it placed on record but disposal was very limited and
29th
I
of applicants lengthy."
On August
recently fallen
got
another letter
saying that a pension of ;^25 a year had

in,
and
that
Lord Rosebery
it
had
great
I
pleasure
in
offering
to
it
me
as a
"should
be agreeable to accept
of
the
recognition
high
value
which his
lordship places
I
upon
my
husband's works."
suppose a wife has a higher opinion of

;
her husband's works than other people

all
at
events
did not think such a

at all of
so,
sum was
however,
any "recognition"
Henry's labours,
and
that
I I
wrote saying
adding,
was really too poor to refuse it. I am sure Lord Rosebery agreed with me,
for a year later
I
got a letter to say that
before leaving office he had given directions

for the pension to
be increased to
year; and that
sum
has been paid to
\o a me
ever since.
348
political
Hardly enough has been said of Henry's work as a writer; I mean he, has not been given enough credit for all he. did
in
this
way.
quite understand that his
writings on sport and farming topics were
so
much above anything
of the kind that
had ever been published that they overshadowed what he wrote on other- subjects
but
Jais
political
of.
work
was
very highly
considered
thought
His views were
"advanced" in those days; now he would be thought a "moderate" Liberal.

I
have often been asked whether Henry's

If
absence of mind has been, overstated. anything

it
has been understated.
could
understand a
his dinner, as
man
forgetting that he has had

often did
;
Henry
but
in
could
rrever
understand a
man
being
doubt
on the subject when he has not. Over and over again he came to me asking, " Have
we had
dinner yet, dear
? "
in the. reflective
tone of one
something.
dined,"
I
who
"I
tries in
vain to remember
\{
I
don't
say,
I
know
"but
you .hzv&
haven't."
would
"Then
if
you haven't,
relief.
haven't," he would
reply with
This curious uncertainty

;
349
was not a development of later years he was the same from the very beginning of our
married
life.
To this day
sometimes wonder
how
away
often he missed his meals

in the
when he was
country on his endless journeys.
Of
course he never
knew himself when he
came home. When he was going to people who knew of his peculiarity in this respect, it was all right, they looked after him but I am very sure that when he arrived late at his destination and was asked if he
;
had dined, he would be quite unable to give a definite answer, and probably went
without.
I
am
I
afraid
have not been able

will
to tell
you much that

but
interest
your readers,
it
hope they may share the pleasure
has been to
me
to write of
''
The
Druid."
INDEX.
Absence
of Mind, Druid's," 183.

at
" The
Death of " The Druid," 334. Decline of Cumberland Wrestling, 212.
Amusements
Asthma, 330.
Rugby, 64.
Arnold, Dr., of Rugby, 45, 287
Defect in "
ings, 317.
The
Druid's " Writ-
" Dick
145.
Christian's
Lectures,"
Barrister, Chooses the Profession of, 86.
Bay Middleton and Crucifix,3l2.

' Bell's Life," 108. Betting, 314. Bill Scott, 161. Birth and Parentage, 29. Birth - place, and its ences, I.
"Dixon's Gate," SSSydenham, Dixon, Henry Reminiscences, 198. Dixon, Henry Hall, born 1822,
died 1870, 129, 334.
Dixon, Mr. Peter, "The Druid's"

Influ-
Father, 29.
Dixon, Mrs. H. H., IIJ, 122,

27S-
Cambridge Days,
Carlisle, 15.
82.
"Doncaster Gazette," 133.

Doncaster,
124.
Residence
at,
87,
Children, Love of, 275. Contributions to the " Sporting Magazine," 249. Corbett, Mr., Uvedale, 75. Courtship and Marriage, 115. Crackenthorpe Hall, 24.
Doncaster Tovpn Moor, 99. Dowling, Vincent, Editor
of
" Bell's Life," iii. Dunchurch Steeplechase,
59.
Cumberland, History of, 3. Cumberland " Statesmen," 3. Cumberland Wrestling, 212.
Eccentricities,
"The
"Daily News,"
to, 133.
Contribution
Scott," ISS-
Druid's," 183. Eglinton's, Lord, Turf Career, 236. Eldon, Lord Chancellor, i, Endurance, " The Druid's," 322.
" Death of William

Life," 109.
Declines Editorship of "Bell's
Fatal Journey,
"
329. Field and Fern," 322.
352
Index.
Old
Manorial Halls of Westmoreland and Cumberland, 18.
308.
Fishing Difficulty at Rugby, 80. Further Reminiscences, 114.
" Old Mortality " of the Turf,
" General Chass^,"
115
Government Appointment Declined, 104. Graham, Sir James, 104.
"Orkneys
329-
to
Kensington with
Punctuality
and
Dispatch,"
Hastings, Marquis
Herring,
J.
of, 174.
Politician, " The Druid"
as,
F., 87.
34.
Holme Eden,
Horse Breeding in Virginia, 256. Horse Pictures of J. F. Herring,

93-
287. " Post and Paddock," 245, 249. Prize Fighting, 65.
Refuses
offer
of
Government
Hughes, Judge, 71.

Illness, "The Druid's," Cambridge, 84.
Illness of
at
Independence
Druid,'' 201. the Press, Jealousy of, 191, 209. Indifference to Money, 190. Influence on Literature, 310.
" The
of
Appointment, 104. Religion, " The Druid's," 280. Reminiscences by Henry Sydeaham Dixon, 198. Reminiscences of Early Lile, 1 11Reminiscences by His \Vife,:335. Rugby Days, 45. Sporting and Its "Rugby, School Recollections," 56.
Journey
to Scotland, 324.
" Saddle and
Sirloin," 99, 307.
Keen Eye for well-trained Racehorse, 253.
"Scott and Sebright," 249, 314. " Silk and Scarlet," 147, 249.
Simplicity of his Character, 192. Smiles', Dr., " Life of George Moore," 217.
Charles, 106. of the Farm," 103. London, Arrival in, 130. Career in, 105,- 130. Lord Eglinton's Turf Career,
.
Lamb, " Law
230.
"Lord
Love
Morpeth's
Farewell,"
300. of Children, 275.^ Lynes, George B., 253. Lynes, Miss Caroline, 83, ilS-
" The Literature, Sporting Druid's" Influence on, 310. "Sporting Magazine," Contributions to, 249. Steeplechases at Dunchurch, 78Steeplechasing at Rugby, 75. St. Leger of 1850, 162. Sympathies, "Druid's'' manysided, 258.
Thornton,
John, 308, 334.

the, 99.
of,
Machell
Town
Turf,
Moor,
Family, 24. Many-sided Sympathies, 258.
" Old Mortality"
308.
Marquis of Hastings, 174. Marriage of " The Druid," 122. " Martingale," 100. Moore, George, 213.
Versatility of
23Si-
"The
Druid,"
Volligeur's St. Leger, 163, 24P.
White,
Jaqies .(" Martingale ")
North
Country Lipgo, 316.
99.

Life and Times of The Druid

Încărcat de

Informații document

Descriere originală:

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Life and Times of The Druid

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

LIFE AND TIMES

Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.

Right Honoujiable The

OF "THE DRUID'S " WRITINGS,

CONNECTION WITH WHICH HE HAS LATELY

" ONE WHO FINDS CONSTANT REFRESHMENT

"HALF SPORTSMAN AND HALF

THEIR WAY ARE MASTERPIECESi.

"AND WILL NEVER

of perhaps the most pleasing

sporting writer of the present century should be

cessful in finding the

name of " Henry

the other hand, there

memoir, sometimes a prolonged memoir, of Mr,

William Hepworth Dixon, although

doubtful whether any of his numerous books

Post and Paddock," or

The only volume

can find any

Celebrities of the Century," edited by Lloyd C*

Sanders (formerly Exhibitioner of Christ Church

and Co. (Limited) in 1887.

"Dixon, Henry Hall; born 1822, died

sporting writer, well

The Druid and was educated

known through his pseudonym was the son of a cotton manufacturer,

admirable memoirs and descripin

Post and Paddock' (1856)

'Silk and Scarlet' (1858);

that the " Dictionary

than half completed, sport of

be regretted that the editor or

editors did not select for the task of dealing with

some expert who was

as capable of doing justice to their most

conspicuous votaries as Mr. Joseph Knight

to be regretted, because the

except William Chiffney, has thus

storehouse of biographies, and no jockey, with

the exception of George Fordham.

Robinson, the Prince of

jockeys, of John Scott of Whitewall House, Malton,

and of his brother.

Bill Scott, will

regards other trainers and jockeys, few,

are likely to find admission to pages which ought

surely to be devoted to qiiicqnid agunt homines.

true that in the

the ensemble of a work to which in other respects

myself owe deep obligations, and which,

regularity with which

volumes appear, and

general fulness, accuracy and excellence, awakens

gratitude and pride in the minds of

loving and appreciating literary

most part elegantly, executed.

the scythe of the universal reaper.

Time, has not yet

attention rest mainly

upon the following

" The Druid