The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford. Beresford Charles William De la Poer Beresford

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СКАЧАТЬ and I pointed them out to the lady.

      "I will get up a race between the two of them," said I.

      She bet me I would not, and I took it. I began with the soldier.

      Ambling alongside the general, I asked him casually if he had ridden much in his life.

      "Of course I have," says he irritably. "What do you mean, sir?"

      "Nothing at all," says I. "I thought I would ask. The admiral – "

      "What about the admiral?" cries the general, staring suspiciously at the distant and unconscious officer.

      "He was saying he didn't think you knew very much about a horse."

      The general lost his temper. He swore. He said he would show the admiral what he knew about a horse.

      "You can easily prove it," said I; and before he understood what was happening, he had agreed to ride a race. Then I went over to the admiral.

      "Do you know what the general says? He says you look like a monkey on a horse," said I; and it was the admiral's turn to swear.

      "D – d impertinence!" says he. "I'll race him, and beat him any day in the week." And he continued to use forcible language.

      "You can do that," I said, for the admiral was riding one of my best horses.

      "If you really want a race, I'll arrange the whole thing," said I. And I brought the two wrathful old gentlemen together, rode with them to the starting-point, gave the word, and off they went as hard as they could pelt. I followed, cheering them on. The general began to draw ahead, when his horse baulked at a soft place. The admiral's horse did the same, throwing his rider upon his neck.

      "Get back into the saddle and he'll go through," I shouted, for I knew the horse. The admiral hove himself into his seat, and won the race. He wouldn't have won, if his adversary hadn't baulked.

      The members of the Board of Admiralty came down to Plymouth to witness the autumn military manoeuvres. I offered to drive them all in my coach; and they were settled in their places – Mr. Goschen the First Lord, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, the Earl of Camperdown and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre – when out of the house came Rear-Admiral Beauchamp Seymour.

      "Get down!" he shouted. "Gentlemen, you must get down."

      They asked him why.

      "You don't know that boy," said Seymour. "He's not safe. He'll upset you on purpose, just to say he's upset the whole Board of Admiralty!"

      And he actually ordered my guests off my coach, so that they had to go in barouches.

      Sir Harry Keppel often came sailing with me in my little yacht. We were out together, when I said to him,

      "I cannot weather that ironclad, sir."

      "Then run into her, my dear boy," said Keppel placidly.

      "All right, sir – obey orders."

      I held on, and we cleared the jib-boom of the ironclad by an inch.

      Sir Harry had an old friend of his to stay with him, Captain Clifton, a most remarkable and interesting man. In the old days, the passage for the opium trade existing between China and India was taken only once a year – the opium ships running up to China with one monsoon and down to India with the other. Clifton went to the Government of India and undertook, if the Government would permit him to build vessels to his own design, to build clippers to thrash up against the monsoon as well as run before it, and so double the income accruing from the opium trade. The Government consenting, Clifton designed the Blue Jacket and the Red Jacket and vessels of that class, which were the famous opium clippers of the "roaring forties" and fifties.

      The Indian Government gave Captain Clifton a lakh of rupees. On his way home, Clifton, touching at what is now the city of Melbourne in Australia, but which was then a small assemblage of wooden shanties, noticed the possibilities of the magnificent harbour. He told me that he could have bought the whole site of Melbourne for a lakh; but on consideration, he decided against the project.

      One of my great friends, Sir Allan Young, a brilliant seaman of the old school, commanded, at the age of twenty-four, one of Clifton's opium clippers.

      Upon the occasion of the Prince of Wales's opening the new breakwater at Holyhead, in 1873, his Royal Highness was entertained together with a large party at a country house in the neighbourhood. The Prince called to me, and said:

      "This is very slow. You really must do something to enliven the proceedings."

      "Well, sir," said I, "I will run a hundred yards race with Lord – . As he is Irish, he is sure to take me up if I challenge him."

      Sure enough, Lord – accepted the challenge, but on conditions. These were: that I should race in full uniform, excepting my sword, while himself should "take his wardrobe from off himself." Lord – then proceeded to divest himself there and then of his Patrick ribbon, coat, waistcoat, and boots, which he confided to the care of the wife of a certain distinguished Liberal statesman. He dropped his Patrick ribbon into her lap, saying:

      "Madam, will ye have a care now of me Jewel, for glory be to God there's no saying what twist this mad one might give me!"

      Entirely at ease, with the seat of his breeches patched with stuff of another colour from the rest, and his toes sticking from his stockings, he was wholly unperturbed by the laughter of the assemblage.

      Although attired in cocked hat, frock coat, and epaulettes, I had the speed of him, and waited on him. Then the devil entered into me; and when Lord – drew abreast of a big plant of pampas grass, I cannoned into him, pitching him head first into the grass, not, of course, intending to harm him. But to my consternation and sorrow, Lord – 's leg was broken below the knee. I put the poor lord into his coach – he had a coach and four-in-hand – and drove him back to his hotel. That excellent and magnanimous sportsman was perfectly unconcerned.

      "You hit me a bad skelp, and I am destroyed," said he. "Never mind, they all laughed, anny way."

      It was about this period of my life, when, returning from a ball in London in the early morning, I came upon a person selling whelks. He invited me to sup – or breakfast – upon a plate of these delicacies.

      "How much do you charge for a plateful?"

      "Threepence," said he.

      "I'll give you sixpence for every plateful you eat yourself."

      "Done," said he.

      He finished two platefuls, and had begun a third, when he was overtaken by rebellion from within, swiftly followed by catastrophe.

      "That's not fair," I said. "You can't count those two platefuls."

      "O my Gawd," he said. "'Ave I got to begin again?"

      To this time, too, belong my memories of a certain famous naval captain, who was extraordinarily particular both as to his own dress and the wearing of proper uniform by others. His regard for appearances, however, did not prevent his diving overboard in full and immaculate uniform, including white gloves, to save a seaman. Exceedingly precise in his speech, he owned the singular trait of becoming deprived of utterance when he was angry; and few things made him more angry than faulty attire in the Service.

      He was driving СКАЧАТЬ