FIFTY YEARS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 



OVER sixty years have passed since I was a 

 Cantab of Trinity Hall, and during this time 

 greater changes in political and social life have 

 been wrought than in any other like term at any 

 previous period. 



I did not care for the life of a London resident. 

 I had a fixed aversion to crowds indoors ; avoided 

 balls, theatres, and frivolities generally. Studying 

 law was not more to my fancy, and my chief 

 amusement was fencing, which I took up with 

 great zest, frequenting Angelo's Rooms, near the 

 Horse Guards. There I met few men who could 

 successfully compete with me, and but one who 

 could beat me easily. This was Sir George 

 Duckett, a short, middle-aged man of great strength 



B 



