BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 183 



had lived he would probably have succeeded Colonel 

 Anstruther Thomson in the Mastership. But circum- 

 stances prevented his hunting much in the Fife 

 country. After his marriage and retirement from 

 the Service he went to live at Boughton, some three 

 miles from Northampton, in the Pytchley country, 

 close to Holdenby House. Afterwards he moved 

 to the V.W.H. country, and hunted regularly with 

 the V.W.H. and Lord Rothschild's hounds in the 

 Vale of Aylesbury, which he declared was the best 

 hunting country in England. It is beyond my 

 province to criticise his hunting literature, though, 

 as a student of his writings, I may be allowed to 

 say that I never knew him to dip his pen in bitter 

 ink. Nor do I know another author who has given 

 so much work to the reading public about which 

 the same statement can be truthfully made. Like 

 the majority of great writers, his modesty in all 

 matters appertaining to authorship was notorious, 

 and he disliked to be congratulated upon his literary 

 success. " My publisher dates the commencement of 

 his ruin from our first interview," he said to Miss 

 Strickland, the historian, when, with more zeal than 

 discretion, she asked him about the financial success 

 of his novels. The truth is that, though Whyte- 

 Melville was a poor man, he cared little for the 

 financial success of his authorship, and for many 

 years gave away the proceeds of his works in un- 

 ostentatious charity. On one occasion he received 

 a cheque for ^1,500 from his publishers, which he 



