The Life of a Great Sportsman 



The kindly vicar, Mr. Knox, to whom, knowing and loving 

 my brother as he did, the ceremony must have proved a severe 

 strain, had to wait many minutes before the huge congregation 

 had settled down, many being unable to find seats. Then, 

 when all was still, and without any hymn being given out, the 

 first note of " Abide with me " (Maunsell's favourite hymn) 

 was heard from the organ, and never, to my dying day, shall I 

 forget the impressive effect of those sweet, soft strains, not 

 only upon myself, but upon the whole congregation. For the 

 moment I had forgotten who was the organist ; then I realized 

 that whatever nervousness my musician nephew may have felt 

 beforehand, it was now forgotten in the one idea of carrying 

 out the task he had undertaken. His masterly interpretation 

 of this simple hymn carried with it not only art but also the 

 heart-notes of sorrow and of hope. The soft opening note 

 swelled on, until the whole congregation, taking up the words 

 of the hymn, sang each verse with an underlying softness 

 and tenderness of expression, harmonizing admirably with the 

 delicacy of the surroundings and of the music. 



All through the service it seemed as if one great sob went 

 out from each heart, not only for her who had sustained the 

 greatest loss of all, but for themselves ; and that each in- 

 dividual member of that congregation mourned the loss of a 

 personal friend. At the conclusion of the service Chopin's 

 Funeral March was played amid an intense silence, as 

 painful as it was wonderful. Then as the bier was con- 

 veyed to the graveside, as if by one impulse, the whole 

 congregation turned towards it, and so they took farewell of 

 their friend. 



Nobly self-possessed, his widow stood close to the open 

 grave, her son Jack by her side. Her grief was too deep for 

 outward expression, her training of self-repression from child- 



'74 



