Colonel Ben. Roberts. 57 



a horse who did a deal of wasting, but had the sense to give 

 it up. Colonel Roberts is now Chief Constable of the Metro- 

 politan Police. No better could be got ; for he is one of the 

 few men who have been born to command, and yet is pos- 

 sessed of infinite tact and charm of manner. No doubt he 

 learned something about * putting the comehether ' on them 

 while he was stationed with his battery at Ballincollig. I was 

 then a cadet at the R. M. A., and during my holidays over in 

 Cork, I used to hear extraordinary stories of the brilliant style 

 in which the young gunner, Mr Roberts, used to * pound ' 

 out t hunting, some of the best men in the county. The last 

 time I met ' Ben ' Roberts was a short time ago in Piccadilly. 

 He told me that he could ride over a country as well as ever, 

 but the task of keeping two sons in the army, and the per- 

 formance of his official duties obliged him to give up the old 

 game. He looked just as hard and fit as the first time I saw 

 him, more than thirty years ago, on board an Irish Channel 

 steamer, when he was bringing over a County Cork mare with 

 which to win the Royal Artillery Gold Cup at Woolwich. 



The easiest way to get down weight without resorting to 

 the continued use of medicine, which cannot help being injuri- 

 ous to the health is that of abstaining from taking any fluid 

 during meals and for, say, an hour and a-half after meals ; no 

 restriction being placed on its consumption before meals, so 

 long as the one and a-half hour's interval after them is 

 observed. This I found very efficacious ; but could not 

 continue it, as it brought on rheumatism, on account, I 

 presume, of the food being presented to the organs of 

 digestion in too concentrated a form. A large amount of 

 fluid is certainly required by the systems of most persons, 

 to, so to speak, wash out the tissues and thus to prevent the 

 deposition in them of deleterious products, the presence of 

 which is apt to give rise to rheumatism and other untoward 

 results. Acting on the fact that the weight of the bodily 

 tissues is largely dependent on the amount of water con- 

 sumed, Colonel Locke Elliott kept down his normal weight 



