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FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS. 



Although exactly fifty-one years ago, the recollection of my 

 first sight of Selous remains as fresh and as striking as though 

 of yesterday. It was at Rugby, in January 1866 — a big boy, 

 looking twice as big as his fellow-boys, with a big round face, 

 already shghtly hirsute. And Selous was big, even then ; 

 big not only in physique but in mentality, energy and strength 

 of individual character. It was not long before everyone in 

 the kosmos which a great Public School represents — from 

 Headmaster down to tiniest imps in " Lower School " — 

 recognised that something exceptional, something phenomenal, 

 had appeared on our stage. Soon rumours of Selous 's daring 

 exploits awed the boldest — the classic feats of Tom Brown 

 and " Scud East " by comparison seemed child's play. It 

 would be strictly inaccurate to regard these wild ventures 

 as breaches of school rules ; since no rules that ever were 

 framed quite contemplated the contingency of such heroic 

 deeds. Long years later I was present at an Old Rugbeian 

 dinner in London, when the honoured guests of the evening 

 were our former Headmaster, Dr. Temple (then, I think, 

 Bishop of London) and Selous. In his speech, the latter 

 referred to one of his raids on the heronry at Combe Abbey 

 — a place which, if I remember aright, was quite ten or a 

 dozen miles distant from Rugby and therefore quite outside 

 all conceivable schoolboy range. Then he told how, on the 

 way home (his pockets bulging with Herons' eggs and other 

 oological plunder), having recognised afar the taU figure 

 and striking gait of our austere Headmaster — his fellow-gviest 

 — he took prompt cover behind a friendly bush and watched 

 the dreaded " Doctor " pass within a yard ! Well I remember 

 how the Bishop — soon to become Archbishop — joined in the 

 laugh. 



On the other hand, if Selous did break a few rules, at least 

 he fairly forced the school to break its own rules in his favour. 

 Despite the hardest, most honest and conscientious school- 

 work, the faculty of mastering classics had been omitted from 

 his constitution — proving that that is no comj)lete criterion 

 of ability— and at times he fell below the arbitrary standard 

 that fixes a definite relation between a boy's age and his 

 position in the schools. To meet the exceptional case 

 " superannuation rules " had to go by the board ! The same 

 thing occurred in the field of sport. At football, Selous 

 had to be given his " Cap " in his first season— a breach of all 

 those unwritten laws that are the stronger b}- virtue of their 



