"Be Senectuter 215 



the last. Parson Russell, we know, was a living example of 

 an iron constitution, and so was Wenman, the old Kent 

 Avicket keeper ; and although feeble in limbs, at ninety, the 

 late Lord Lyndhurst made a celebrated speech in the 

 House of Lords, every word of which was as clear as a bell. 



I tell you what I believe, good reader, and it is this. We 

 go upon wheels more than we ought, and we travel too 

 much and too quick ; it is all railway and hansom now, and 

 we are always running a race against time, and we have 

 our heads in the manger too much, and it is too much 

 refreshment bar wherever we are. Except on Sundays, 

 perhaps, when there is nothing to do, we hardly ever do 

 what was the custom when we were boys, when we used to 

 take an eight or ten mile walk to the races or a cricket 

 match, or a good stretch to a meet of the hounds and a run 

 with them afterwards. An athlete who leads a life of 

 indolence after he has laid aside his weapons, whether 

 cricket bat, the coestus, the oar, or what not, and indulges 

 in dissipation is a sure victim for the undertaker, in proof 

 whereof I can quote Pierce Egan's lecture on self-defence, 

 delivered in 1845, which contains the history and career of 

 all the great prize-fighters from the earliest period till the 

 date of the lecture ; and it is melancholy to see how many 

 died of drink ; and unfortunately in our own experience 

 how many of our best athletes have done the same on their 

 retirement ; whereas, on the other hand, fortunately, we see 

 how tough some are. 



I came across two specimens of the old school lately, such 

 as one seldom sees, one of whom broke the King's peace as 

 often as most men, and the other had helped to preserve the 

 peace of Europe, early in this century ; the first named is 

 aged seventy-nine on Christmas-day next and the second 

 eighty-eight, and both of them are as hale and hearty as 

 any two men in England. I met the first some two or 



