ON THE "FIELD" AND "QUEEN" 157 



lived till to-day there can be no doubt as to 

 which side of the Suffragette dispute he would 

 have been on. 



Not wishing to be deemed too hard on the 

 little weaknesses of the great writer whom, 

 naturally, I knew only in his later years, I will 

 give in his own words the following " snap-shot " 

 view of one of Tegetmeiers traits by a close 

 friend of his, who writes : "In his later vears 

 he felt that it was his special mission in life to 

 keep his friends right in matters of which he had 

 special knowledge, and it is to be feared that 

 some of them found pleasure in ' drawing ' him. 

 A frequent guest at Mr. Cox's house at 

 Hampstead, it was only necessary to lure him 

 into the neighbourhood of the poultry-run to 

 play upon this little weakness. He would bear 

 down upon the enclosures in meaning silence, 

 investigate the fowls and their surroundings 

 with fierce rapidity, and then let himself go ! 

 Defects, deficiencies and shortcomings would be 

 reviewed in scathing terms, and the owner called 

 to account without mercv. Mrs. Cox could 

 always appease him by a tactful request for 

 advice on some point of fowl management, and 

 this always had the effect of allaying the storm." 

 In June, 1877, Mrs. Serjeant Cox held a con- 

 versazione which he attended, as I find from 

 an entry in Mrs. Tegetmeier's diary for that 



