THE SPORT SET DINNER 



going in Essex Street, and that is what occurred for 

 more weeks than I care to remember. In the late 

 winter, or rather tlie early spring of 1910, I was intro- 

 duced at this very office to Cecil Drew who can be 

 mentioned in a subsequent chapter in connection with 

 the Counties Club at Newmarket with which I was so 

 much identified. 



We had a Sport Set dinner when the paper was two 

 or three months old, and indeed it was a notable 

 gathering in a big private room at the Waldorf Hotel. 

 A number were invited, including one or two City 

 magnates; where on earth they are now, God only 

 knows ! The whole of the staff were present. Willie 

 Griggs played the piano to us, and brother Walter 

 sang. Our tame inventor, a most wonderful French- 

 man, who was one of the many on the staff, M. Bou- 

 racier, played and sang us French songs. Then there 

 was the verse writer, Sullivan, Bernard Dillon, George 

 Graves, Guy Campbell and many others. The dinner 

 had been ordered with much care, in fact more of a 

 supper than dinner, because we did not wish to exact 

 the wearing of evening clothes, as it did not fit the 

 spirit of ultra-Bohemia which the gathering was in 

 spirit. It was a great evening. I remember putting 

 up one man to propose the health of an eminent 

 gentleman from whom we had financial hopes with 

 regard to the Sport Set. I had put the latter on my 

 right. I wish to goodness I had taken on the job 

 myself, for instead of saying everything which I 

 anticipated he would, and making a most laudatory 

 speech about the moneyed one, he prefaced his 

 remarks with the fact that he had only met the gentle- 

 man in question for the first time that evening, but 

 he had " no doubt whatever that he was a splendid 

 fellow," otherwise he would not have been invited on 



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