The Hon. Grantley F. Berkeley 



IT was in the autumn of 1874 that I first made the 

 acquaintance of the Hon. Grantley Berkeley. I was 

 then editing a well-known sporting journal, and he 

 called upon me in reference to a leading article of 

 mine which had attracted his attention. He approved 

 of the sentiments expressed in the leader, and said he 

 should like to contribute to the journal. His name 

 was still so familiar to sportsmen that I thought any- 

 thing he might write would be of interest, and con- 

 sequently I accepted his offer. The articles which 

 he contributed were, I think, the last that came from 

 his pen. They were characteristically discursive and 

 abusive. The chief objects of his abuse were modern 

 methods of sport and the propaganda of latter-day 

 Radicalism ; but he lashed out indiscriminately at 

 pretty nearly every existing institution, on the general 

 principle that whatever is, is wrong, if it differed in 

 any way from what had been the vogue in his youth. 

 He was then an old man, but hale, erect, and 

 stalwart, with rude, I may almost say coarse, health 

 writ large upon his rubicund face. His interest in 



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