As he was bent upon it, I would have backed Dogherty to
please him, but the match went off. It was of course to have been a
private fight, in a private room.
"On one occasion, being too late to go home and dress, he was equipped
by a friend (Mr. Baillie, I believe,) in a magnificently fashionable
and somewhat exaggerated shirt and neckcloth. He proceeded to the
Opera, and took his station in Fops' Alley. During the interval
between the opera and the ballet, an acquaintance took his station by
him and saluted him: 'Come round,' said Matthews, 'come round.'--'Why
should I come round?' said the other; 'you have only to turn your
head--I am close by you.'--'That is exactly what I cannot do,' said
Matthews; 'don't you see the state I am in?' pointing to his buckram
shirt collar and inflexible cravat,--and there he stood with his head
always in the same perpendicular position during the whole spectacle.
"One evening, after dining together, as we were going to the Opera, I
happened to have a spare Opera ticket (as subscriber to a box), and
presented it to Matthews. 'Now, sir,' said he to Hobhouse afterwards,
'this I call _courteous_ in the Abbot--another man would never have
thought that I might do better with half a guinea than throw it to a
door-keeper;--but here is a man not only asks me to dinner, but gives
me a ticket for the theatre.' These were only his oddities, for no
man was more liberal, or more honourable in all his doings and
dealings, than Matthews.
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