while
the memory of the generation lasts which called them friends. They
have vanished from the scenes in which they played so prominent a
part, and yet their influence remains.

There was the old Admiral himself, the king of sportsmen and good
fellows. Horse or man-o'-war, it was all one to him; and although
sport may not be regarded as of the same importance with politics, who
knows which has the more beneficial influence on mankind? I would have
backed Admiral Rous to save us from war, and if we drifted into it to
save us from the enemy, against any man in the world. Then there
was his bosom friend George Payne, and the old, old Squire George
Osbaldeston, Lord Falmouth, W.S. Crawfurd, the Earl of Wilton, Lord
Bradford, Lord Rosslyn, Lord Vivian, the Duke of Hamilton, George
Brace, General Mark Wood, Alexander, Lord Westmorland, the Earl of
Aylesbury, Clare Vyner, Dudley, Milner, Sir John Astley ("The Mate"),
Lords Suffolk and Berkshire, Coventry and Clonmell, Manton, Ker
Seymer--the names crowd upon my memory; then, alas! a long, long while
after, Henry Calcraft, Lord Granville, Lord Portsmouth, and "Prince
Eddy," Lord Gerard, the Earl of Hardwicke, Viscount Royston, Sam
Batchelor, and Tyrwhitt Wilson.

These are some of those whom I remember, and, by the way, I ought to
add the Duke of Westminster and Tom Jennings, names interesting
and distinguished, and indicative of a phase of life ever full of
enjoyment such as is not known out of the sporting world, where
excitement lends to pleasure the effervescence and sparkle which make
life something more than animal existence.

This is true in hunting, racing, cricket, and I should think
intensified in the highest degree in a charge of cavalry. Take
Balaclava, for instance: the very fact of staking life at such odds
must have compressed into that moment a whole life of ordinary
pleasure.

I will mention a few more names, and then close another chapter of my
memory. There was Mr. J.A. Craven, the Duke of St. Albans, the Duke
of Beaufort, Montagu Tharp, Major Egerton, General Pearson, Lord
Calthorpe, Henry Saville, Douglas Gordon (Mr. Briggs), Oliver Montagu,
Henry Leeson, the Earl of Milltown, Sir Henry Devereux, Johnny Shafto,
Douglas Phillips, Randolph Churchill, Lord Exeter, Lord Stamford.

Of the famous jockeys and trainers there were John Scott, Mat Dawson,
Fred Archer. There were also James Weatherby, Judge Clark, and
Tattersall.

CHAPTER XLIX.

LEAV