heard the heels of his horse speed on far in advance of the buggy."
[33] From _The Times_ Review of his _Life_, 1865.
To give Mr. Grantley Berkeley fair credit, he condemns the recklessness
of such robust adventures, but he pleads that such was the practice in
the days when he was raised; and to his own advantage, as he admits, he
was summarily recalled to a more quiet regimen by the sudden appearance
of a tutor who required from him other exercises. Nevertheless, his
stories of little private fights with the sons of the Vicar of Berkeley
and one of the keepers, which are very amusing, show that in stable
and backyards he enjoyed consolations, though he declares that this
was done chiefly for the amusement of his brother Henry, who used to
invite him to the stable with the gloves to fight one of the boys above
mentioned, when the battle always ended by his knocking the head of his
opponent into the manger. He says,
"I remember that for months during these, to my brother, amusing
combats my lips were sometimes so cut against my teeth that I could
not eat any salad with vinegar, the acid occasioned so much smarting.
I could lick my antagonist as far as the fight with the gloves was
permitted to go, but in a few days at the word of command the lad was
ready for another licking, so that week after week I had no peace,
and had to lick him again; nor had I resolution enough to withstand
the taunts of being vanquished, if I refused to set to, although my
superior proficiency had been a hundred times asserted. All things
must have an end: every day strengthened my tall and growing limbs,
and every day my power over my antagonist increased, when, for some
ill conduct, he lost his service and these, to him, not very agreeable
encounters. My brother then for a time lost his amusement; 'Othello's
occupation' was gone, for nothing came into service at Cranford that
approached the age of a boy. A new footman was, however, inducted, a
grown man and not a little one, but a cross-grown lout of a fellow;
and, mere boy as I was, we were ordered to the stable, in front of my
brother's usual throne, the corn-bin, and there desired to do battle.
By this time I had got into such habits of pugnacious obedience that if
a bear had been introduced, and I had been told that the beast was to
vanquish me, I should at once have boxed with him. The combat I am now
alluding to was not unlike one of a boy and bear. I stepped back, put
in, and then gave way successfully, for a short time; but at last the
man met me with a half-round blow, and hit me clean down on the rough
stones of the stable. Henry did not seem to care much; but Moreton, who
was present, spoke out loudly against the shame of putting such a boy
to fight with a grown man, and I believe, feeling slightly annoyed at
the way he had overmatched me, our elder brother stopped any further
assault on my part, and suggested that Peter should put the gloves on
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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