behaviour I could actually take hold of to find fault with:  although his whole conduct was insolent and supercilious to the highest degree.  His mother was very much agitated at receiving him on his arrival; if he felt any such agitation he certainly did not show it.  He made her a very low and formal bow when he kissed her hand; and, when I held out mine, put both his hands behind his back, stared me full in the face, and bent his head, saying, ’Mr. Barry Lyndon, I believe;’ turned on his heel, and began talking about the state of the weather to his mother, whom he always styled ‘Your Ladyship.’  She was angry at this pert bearing, and, when they were alone, rebuked him sharply for not shaking hands with his father.

‘My father, madam?’ said he; ’surely you mistake.  My father was the Right Honourable Sir Charles Lyndon. I at least have not forgotten him, if others have.’  It was a declaration of war to me, as I saw at once; though I declare I was willing enough to have received the boy well on his coming amongst us, and to have lived with him on terms of friendliness.  But as men serve me I serve them.  Who can blame me for my after-quarrels with this young reprobate, or lay upon my shoulders the evils which afterwards befell?  Perhaps I lost my temper, and my subsequent treatment of him was hard.  But it was he began the quarrel, and not I; and the evil consequences which ensued were entirely of his creating.

As it is best to nip vice in the bud, and for a master of a family to exercise his authority in such a manner as that there may be no question about it, I took the earliest opportunity of coming to close quarters with Master Bullingdon; and the day after his arrival among us, upon his refusal to perform some duty which I requested of him, I had him conveyed to my study, and thrashed him soundly.  This process, I confess, at first agitated me a good deal, for I had never laid a whip on a lord before; but I got speedily used to the practice, and his back and my whip became so well acquainted, that I warrant there was very little ceremony between us after a while.

If I were to repeat all the instances of the insubordination and brutal conduct of young Bullingdon, I should weary the reader.  His perseverance in resistance was, I think, even greater than mine in correcting him:  for a man, be he ever so much resolved to do his duty as a parent, can’t be flogging his children all day, or for every fault they commit:  and though I got the character of being so cruel a stepfather to him, I pledge my word I spared him correction when he merited it many more times than I administered it.  Besides, there were eight clear months in the year when he was quit of me, during the time of my presence in London, at my place in Parliament, and at the Court of my Sovereign.