The Life of a Great Sportsman 



brothers had not been long at Elstree, and duly entered for 

 Harrow, when Mr. Southwell claimed my mother, the house 

 at Stanmore was given up, and her second marriage took 

 place at St. Mary-le-bone Church in London, I being her only 

 bridesmaid. 



Directly after this interesting event, I went to the Misses 

 Hare's Boarding School in Kensington, and during that time 

 of probation, I trust, absorbed something at least of the noble 

 precepts the dear ladies endeavoured to inculcate into we 

 girls. 



After Mother's second marriage nothing seemed altered 

 outwardly, as far as we children were aware at the old home 

 at Limber, excepting that Mr. Southwell came to live there 

 instead of at his lodgings in the village, retaining his curacy 

 under Mr. Brown, and no doubt, though we did not under- 

 stand it at the time, helping our mother very materially in the 

 arduous work of bringing up two very self-willed boys. One 

 very special instance of his help with regard to my brother 

 Maunsell, which, indeed, I am only too glad to acknowledge 

 here, is a fact I was never cognisant of until many years after 

 it happened. It was, however, small wonder that such a thing 

 happened, and that he revolted at school discipline, as any 

 very spoilt and headstrong boy with a tremendously strong 

 character was practically certain to do, naturally detesting and 

 fighting against real restraint. 



Moreover, Dr. Bernays, the Headmaster of Elstree, was 

 not only renowned as a first-rate schoolmaster, but for his 

 terrible temper — even foaming at the mouth with rage at times, 

 so it was said — and that he thrashed any offender with an 

 extraordinary mercilessness upon the slightest provocation. Be 

 that as it may, early one summer morning, two very small boys, 

 minus caps and in well-worn slippers, arrived at Limber House, 



56 



