WHEN I WAS YOUNG 19 



bone-shaker in Piccadilly in 1878 was not quite 

 so simple a matter as on an ordinary safety of 

 to-day, and I know that when I reached the massed 

 traffic opposite Bond Street I would gladly have 

 given a sovereign to have been safely home again. 

 In those days bicyclists were called " Cads on 

 Castors," and other opprobrious terms, and small 

 boys, pedestrians and cab-drivers jeered at one 

 and made rude remarks. However, everything 

 comes to an end, and not without several falls and 

 much getting off and on in the midst of traffic, I 

 did the round and got my sovereign. I soon had 

 a good high steel bicycle, and was the first boy 

 allowed to possess one at Marlborough, and so 

 started the fashion, even teaching the masters, 

 who used to let me off extra lessons in consequence. 



Though never a good bicyclist, I once did the 

 Perth to Inverness ride in two days, somewhat of a 

 feat at that time, but my brother Geoff was an 

 expert, and was one of the first to undertake long 

 continental tours. He was, I beUeve, the first man 

 to enter Italy from France, walking his machine 

 up the St. Gothard Pass until the road ended, 

 and then with the help of a shepherd he carried it 

 fifteen miles over the snow. On reaching the first \ 

 village in Italy he was arrested " for disturbing the 

 pubHc peace, and bringing into the country a 

 vehicle calculated to be a danger to pedestrians and 

 a danger to horses." After paying a fine he was J 

 released. 



In spite of the sad experience with Duncan's gun, 

 before mentioned, I began shooting seriously in 

 1875, and until 1879 had to rely on any old weapon 

 I could borrow or hire, until one day, firing at an 



