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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 161, 19 June 1884, Page 2

It is worthy of note how frequently men, possessed of really clever minds, and who make their mark in the world in their own particular line, are afflicted with ridiculous ideas of petty land. The following from an exchange gives an instances of one of these kind of gentlemen being hoist with his own petard:—James Payn. the novelist, refuses to dress for dinner like other gentlemen, and will only go out if his host will accept him in morning dress, his idea of the same being a suit which would become a scarecrow. Not long ago he was invited by a very considerable man, who asked some distinguished people to meet him. One of these proposed to take the conceit out of the novelist by outdoing him in his own line. And it was done. They dressed in flannel shirts, corduroy breeches, velveteen coats, scarlet necktie, thunder and lightening hunting waisccats, with brass buttons, thick boots and leggings. The novelist was completely beaten at his own game, for he looked like a Nomconformist parson among a lot of gamekeepers, not to say poachers.