BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 175 



sumed to be reading in an attorney's office ; but like 

 his old friend, Mr. Daley, long the clerk of the course 

 at Carlisle, he did not enjoy calf-skin, and soon 

 settled down into a sporting writer, much to his 

 father's annoyance, though he did not stop his yearly 

 allowance. At last, however, a book appeared from 

 his pen, entitled The Law of the Farjn, which so 

 gladdened the old man's heart that he sent him a 

 cheque for £100. This book, however, did not 

 appear till 1858, or nearly eight years after "The 

 Druid " had moved to London, which he did during 

 1850. But his Doncaster life had brought out the 

 salient features of his writing. From contributing 

 articles on all sorts of subjects to the Doncaster 

 Gazette, he rose to the position of manager of that 

 journal, and was by many regarded as its avowed 

 and acknowledged editor. However, technical edi- 

 torial work was the least important thing that he 

 learnt, for it was at this time that he really began to 

 study Nature and her chief children, viz. men and 

 horses. Country lanes and wild moorland were 

 more to his taste than the office of Mr. Baxter, 

 attorney, or even the editorial sanctum. Through 

 his friend, James White, alias " Martingale," he soon 

 made the acquaintance of every sporting character 

 in the neighbourhood, and his natural appetite for 

 conversing with all sorts and conditions of men, and 

 of being equally at home with the peer and the 

 peasant, found ample scope for indulgence. He was 

 as much at home pumping some decrepit herdsman 



