-302 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



the time. Just now and then he used to play instead 

 of lying down in the afternoon on which occasions I 

 usually accompanied him in order to act as scorer. But 

 the sleeplessness from which in those days he suffered 

 so much prevented him from giving up his nap unless 

 under exceptional circumstances ; and generally an odd 

 game or two in the course of the week was all that he 

 could manage. 



Of swimming, in all its branches, he was a perfect 

 master, from his very earliest years. When barely 

 four years of age his father was accustomed to take him 

 down daily to bathe in the river Isis, and he thus 

 acquired a familiarity with the water which enabled him 

 to perform all the feats of the professionals with per- 

 fect ease. He could swim in a dozen different ways ; 

 dive to almost any depth, and from almost any height ; 

 swim under water ; and, in fact, perform in the water 

 pretty well all that it was possible for man to do. 



And he was a very good long-distance swimmer, 

 thinking nothing of swimming half a mile out to sea 

 when taking his morning bathe. Once, upon one of 

 these excursions, he actually went to sleep in the water, 

 and remained quietly floating for some little time till a 

 sharp storm of hail awoke him. But on another occa- 

 sion he met with a far more unpleasant experience, 

 which left its effects behind it for weeks, and barely 

 escaped being attended by the most serious conse- 

 quences; for he swam into contact with one of the 

 terrible medusas, or stinging jelly-fish, whose envenomed 

 streamers passed across his breast, and injected their 



