FAMILY LIFE AND CHARACTER 215 



advancing age : " I well remember," he writes, 

 " the vigorous fashion in which he fell foul of 

 a kind but mistaken friend who attempted to 

 relieve him of a heavy rug he was carrying one 

 hot day, a burden for a man many years under 

 the eighty-four years Tegetmeier had then passed ; 

 the jocular friend who came to the rescue with 

 an appeal to him to carry a bundle of macintoshes 

 as well, had a very different reception. Teget- 

 meier accepted the load at once, as a compliment 

 to his strength." 



Although he suffered from an occasional touch 

 of gout during the last few years of his life, he 

 remained wonderfully active, and retained his 

 interest in many of his old pursuits. Again I am 

 indebted to the same correspondent for an indirect 

 illustration of this, so late as his ninety-second 

 year, in the following letter from Sir Walter, 

 dated October 13th, 1908 : "My dear Teg.,— I am 

 sure you must think me unkind for not writing 

 you earlier. The fact is my house has been full 

 of shooters and many strange, odd men ; amongst 

 them Percy Percival and Sir Richard Green 

 Price. I regret to tell you Percival is as mad as 

 ever — marking eggs, laying competitions, breeding 

 for feather and other ' asinine ' ideas ! Sir 

 Richard is, if anything, worse on the horse 

 question, believing there is no other breed but 

 Welsh cobs and Mountain ponies ; worse still, 

 he says the failure of your book Horses, Asses 



