e very talents
which should have been his glory, were, in fact, his ruin.

His extravagance was unbounded. At a time when misfortune lay thick upon
him, and bailiffs were hourly expected, he would invite a large party to
a dinner, which a prince might have given, and to which one prince
sometimes sat down. On one occasion, having no plate left from the
pawnbroker's, he had to prevail on 'my uncle' to lend him some for a
banquet he was to give. The spoons and forks were sent, and with them
two of his men, who, dressed in livery, waited, no doubt with the most
vigilant attention, on the party. Such at that period was the host's
reputation, when he could not even be trusted not to pledge another
man's property. At one time his income was reckoned at L15,000 a year,
when the theatre was prosperous. Of this he is said to have spent not
more than L5,000 on his household, while the balance went to pay for his
former follies, debts, and the interest, lawsuits often arising from
mere carelessness and judgments against the theatre! Probably a great
deal of it was betted away, drank away, thrown away in one way or
another. As for betting, he generally lost all the wagers he made: as he
said himself--'I never made a bet upon my own judgment that I did not
lose; and I never won but one, which I had made against my judgment.'
His bets were generally laid in hundreds; and though he did not gamble,
he could of course run through a good deal of money in this way. He
betted on every possible trifle, but chiefly, it would seem, on
political possibilities; the state of the Funds, the result of an
election, or the downfall of a ministry. Horse-races do not seem to have
possessed any interest for him, and, in fact, he scarcely knew one kind
of horse from another. He was never an adept at field-sports, though
very ambitious of being thought a sportsman. Once, when staying in the
country, he went out with a friend's gamekeeper to shoot pheasants, and
after wasting a vast amount of powder and shot upon the air, he was only
rescued from ignominy by the sagacity of his companion, who, going a
little behind him when a bird rose, brought it down so neatly that
Sheridan, believing he had killed it himself, snatched it up, and rushed
bellowing with glee back to the house to show that he _could_ shoot. In
the same way, he tried his hand at fishing in a wretched little stream
behind the Deanery at Winchester, using, however, a net, as easier to
handle