The Life of a Great Sportsman 



and became so proficient in the art of fencing that he was able 

 to win the prize given by Mr. Angelo, the famous " Maitre 

 d'armes" who was instructor in the pastime at Harrow, and 

 who predicted for my brother (who had done him so much 

 credit) a wonderful career as an expert with the foils had he 

 been so minded. 



And I should add that Maunsell, like his brother before 

 him, was also a member of the Harrow Football Eleven for the 

 two years 1864 and 1865. At that time football had not 

 become the absorbing game of the day as it is now, but to be 

 good enough to be selected for the Eleven, out of the hundreds 

 of other boys, speaks well for his combined sportsmanlike 

 qualities. My eldest brother to the last day of his life was 

 immensely proud of a 3-inch scar on his right shin that he bore 

 from a hard-won "footer" match at Harrow, when he played 

 for the First Eleven,'and the securing of which obliged him 

 to take to his bed for three weeks. 



Hanging up in the billiard room at Edmundthorpe Hall are 

 two very handsome old trophies, two racquets with dark -blue 

 velvet handles and massive silver ends. These represent one 

 of the proudest moments of my brother Maunsell's life, when 

 at Harrow he captured the Challenge Racquet Cup from the 

 celebrated Cecil Clay, who afterwards became the Oxford 

 Racquet Champion. 



It was after the historic cricket match at Lord's, already 

 mentioned in this chapter, during the Christmas holidays, when 

 we three children were at home together, that as I was riding 

 one hunting day beside the then Lady Yarborough, in the 

 Brocklesby M Foxdales " Woods, one of its most lovely rides, 

 she said to me, " Oh, who is that pretty boy ? " Looking to 

 where she had indicated, I saw my brother Maunsell cantering 

 along the left of us In the valley. The woods in this part slope 



66 



