& S. bottles and
less than usual justice to his gout, he showed me the record of a
long-gone year in which this same Bell's _Life_ called him the "first
among the gentlemen riders in the United Kingdom," and proved this
assertion by showing how he had won most of the great steeple-chases in
England and Ireland, riding his own horses. This was the nearest
approach to boasting that ever came to my knowledge in the years of our
close friendship, and I would never have thought of it as such had I
not seen that he regarded it as unwarrantable self-praise.
I have never known a more simple, kind-hearted, agreeable, and lovable
gentleman than this broken-down sporting man and gambler. I loved him as
a brother; and though he has passed out of my life, I still love the
memory of his genial face, his courtesy, his unselfish friendship, more
than words can express. A tender heart and a gentle spirit found strange
housing in a body given over to reckless prodigality. The combination,
tempered by time and exhaustion, showed nothing that was not lovable;
and it is scant praise to say that Sir Thomas was much to me.
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