CHAPTER XIII 

 HALFORD AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES 



THE story of Halford's life has been well told by him- 

 self in the Autobiography, published in 1903, and it 

 would be with a pained amazement that the wide circle 

 of readers who knew him and of him received the shock 

 of his announced death in the daily papers. They will, 

 I am sure, be sadly interested in the brief story of the 

 close of that life under circumstances that were un- 

 speakably pathetic. Mr. Halford was in the habit of 

 escaping our English winter by going to the sunshine 

 of resorts like the Riviera, Egypt, or Algiers, and this 

 year went to Tunis with his only son Ernest, his in- 

 separable companion on all such voyages. They had 

 a good holiday, and Halford was in excellent health, 

 full of life and energy, keenly enjoying the Orientalism 

 of the place, and very busy with his camera. 



" Tunis is a remarkably busy, bustling sort of place " 

 he says in a letter to me dated February 13 from the 

 Majestic Hotel " very Eastern, with the usual accom- 

 panying stinks, and most interesting to us. I have 

 taken a good many photos, but am a bit doubtful 

 about them, and do not know why. But well, we 

 shall see. They have made Ernest an hon. member of 

 the Lawn Tennis Club (he is now Colonel Halford), so 

 he gets plenty of exercise, and the other members are 

 great sportsmen. Indeed, this is the most manifest 



