FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



junior officer, was invited to take the ratings of his 

 ship, which apparently was in port, to an entertain- 

 ment given by the Mayor of Liverpool. The 

 Mayor, wise in his generation, took the precaution 

 to limit the supply of beer, and as the evening was 

 drawing to a close Lord Fisher rose to thank the 

 Mayor for his hospitality in language something like 

 this : " Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the ship's 

 company I must thank you for this great entertain- 

 ment; the food has been excellent and as for the 

 beer, well — Jack, hand me up the beer to drink the 

 Mayor's health." Back came the reply from Jack : 

 " Beer ! Why, there ain't no beer, it's all gone." 

 The end of the tale, of course, is that more was soon 

 forthcoming, and the men marched back to their 

 ship having received the order, " Arm to arm, 

 quick march." It may be, of course, that no one 

 seemed to think it necessary to take these precautions 

 when dealing with the British Army in Australia. 



What really happened to the Army in our case was 

 that the day was hot, the march long, the men 

 thirsty, and the beer good, but whatever the cause, 

 the end of the spread brought trouble. I am not 

 sure that even half the soldiers ever reached the 

 ship standing in harbour that night. I am not sure 

 that one or two ever did return to parade on this 

 trip. By a stroke of luck the Yeoman all answered 

 " Present " next morning when the roll was called, 

 and so came to an end our call at Brisbane. 



January 22 brought us into Hobart to hear the 

 news that Queen Victoria was seriously ill, and the 

 next day information reached us that her long and 



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