MR. AND MRS. HENRY SAMPSON, G. R. SIMS AND RICHARD BUTLER.

The first time I met Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sampson was at one of the many (and especially in the summer time) dinner and ahvays jolly evening parties which Mr. Frederick Burgess, of Moore and Burgess minstrel fame, used to give at his lovely old house and grounds at Finchley, which he was proud to call “Burgess Hall.” Henry Sampson was, as all the sporting world knows, founder and editor of The Referee, and above the signature of “Pendragon” wrote many of the best sporting articles of his time, especially on boat racing, boxing, and wrestling. About the time I met Sampson he had hardly done with risky, and now and then over personal, paragraphs in his paper; but he soon found that such matter was not good journalism. On the night in question Sampson and I had several “word shies” at each other over the merry dinner table about certain matters in The Referee, and I am afraid our host Burgess now and then thought we were getting rather personal to each other; but even though we both doubtless had a little earnest meaning in our banter, we were never on the road to a wry word. In fact, I had no notion of trying to beat Sampson, who was a master of words. Indeed, I hope I may say that we were never anything like bad friends during the many years we knew each other, and no one was more sorry than I when the good man and capital journalist was called away years before he had seen old age.