FIFTY YEAKS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



But out of school he was looked up to as the 

 repository of as much legal wisdom as we could 

 ever associate with any fellow-mortal wearing 

 turn-down collars and a short jacket. He cer- 

 tainly had a knowledge of the world, which occa- 

 sionally stood him in good stead when he got into 

 scrapes on saints'-day excursions, but his chief 

 claim to distinction was his legal erudition. His 

 profundity in this particular line was, as he gave 

 us to understand, mainly due to the fact that his 

 father sat on the Borough Bench ; hence the son 

 drew his supplies of legal lore direct from the very 

 fountain of justice itself. He it was the son, not 

 the father from whom we derived the belief that, 

 in the eye of the law, shooting a fox was only one 

 degree less heinous than shooting a man. Once, 

 during a paper-chase, when we were in full cry, 

 the two hares came flying back into our midst 

 with the tidings that a dog, who objected to their 

 laying the scent across his master's kitchen 

 garden, had not only insisted upon their returning 

 post-haste the way they came, but, to ensure 

 despatch, had, with the help of a good set of teeth, 

 put special pressure upon the fleshy part of the leg 

 of one of the hares. Linwood had the law of 

 dog-bites at his finger-ends, and knew exactly the 

 proper course to pursue. " Every dog," he 

 explained, " has his day," i.e., was entitled to one 

 good bite. "The law allows it and the court 

 awards it " : it was his right, his due, and no one 

 could legally deprive him of it. But once let a dog 

 so far forget himself as to indulge in a second 

 nip, his doom was sealed. Hence, he pointed out, 

 it behoved the bitten one to return with all speed 



10 



