MEMOIR. XI 



which, notwithstanding the occasional absence of the captain and 

 'No, 5' (when out hunting Dabchicks), was soon so strong as to 

 bump the Victory (the 'second upper ^), a most unheard of circum- 

 stance in Eton annals. On one Avhole holiday Wolley's crew agreed 

 to ' shirk absence/ and row down to 'The Bells of Ouseley ' *, which 

 could not be done without that bold step. This was a case ol^ flogging 

 all round ; but, as good luck would have it, the ' absence ' turned 

 out to be ' a call/ and we thus escap3d. Wolley was a boy of 

 undaunted courage, and .... never knew fear. That made him a 

 good player at football, a game in which bones were at times broken. 

 Here I was always ' next choice ' to my captain, and stood at his 

 back ' at the wall ' as I rowed behind him on the river." 



To his brother Charles, the present Mr. WoUcy-Dod, I owe the 

 particulars of an earlier aquatic adventure, which seems to have 

 liappened in the summer of 1840, soon after John Wolley was made 

 captain of the Dreadnought (the ' third upper ') : — '' One fine holiday 

 morning he wanted to row down below bridge in a pa-ir-oared ' funny.' 

 His companions were one of the crew of his * long boat' and, as steerer, 

 a smaller boy of about my own age, whose nerve on this occasion 

 failed him, so that first aiming at one opening and then at another of 

 the Eelbucks at Old Windsor weir, he got the boat fouled across the 

 timbers, when the light and narrow craft actually broke asunder — 

 one half going through one passage, the other through another. All 

 three boys could swim, but the small steerer got into difficulties in 

 the foaming water, and was saved by the presence of mind and 

 bodily strength of his leader, who, both swimming and diving, was 

 nearly as much at home in the river as an otter." 



During the whole of his school career Wolley's holidays were spent 

 with his father at Beeston, varied by occasional visits to his maternal 

 aunt Mrs. Charles Clarke at Matlock^ or a summer-trip to some seaside 

 place. In October 1812 he went to Cambridge, having been entered 

 at Trinity College, under Mr. Blakesley f, but residing in lodgings 

 (No. 1, Jesus Lane) . For one who had just left ihc sixth form at Eton 



* A well-known inn on the Berkshire banli of the Thame?, about four miles 

 below Windsor Bridge, and just above the historic Runnymcde. 



t Afterwards Dean of Lincoln, but perhaps better known a? the '• Ilertford^hire 

 Incumbent " of ' The Times ' newspaper. 



b 2 



