' ' BRAND Y-FEEACE ! " 39 



blue eyes, and a most kindly expression. " Florid," 

 perhaps, is hardly the adjective, for there was a tracery 

 of blue veins amid the rubicund hue of his face. This was 

 very notably adverted to once on a time when an election 

 was impending, and the candidates, Sir William Gallwey, 

 who always was the sitting member, and Sir Harcourt 

 Johnstone (later Lord Derwent) were on the hustings. 

 My father and his partner were always the Conservative 

 agents, and on this particular occasion some very important 

 member of the party had come down specially to speak. 



It was market day, so there was a good audience, but 

 it was raining, and the chief topic of the moment was 

 boring to a degree something about Denominational 

 Education. The great man held forth at considerable 

 length on this, and Mr Arrowsmith was standing by him 

 on the hustings. 



Suddenly there came a voice from the crowd : 



" Ho'd thy noise, man, and let ord Brandy-feeace have 

 a go ! " 



The effect of this was astonishing, for the speaker 

 absolutely broke down hi his carefully prepared statistics. 

 He finished as hastily as he could : but not all the vocifer- 

 ous calls for " Brandy-feeace ! " could draw a speech from 

 Mr Arrowsmith. 



Ultimately, arguments turned on the everlasting big 

 and little loaf, of which samples were carried about on 

 poles. They were torn down by the respective partisans 

 and mopped in rain and mud, then hurled up at the 

 hustings, one such missile hitting Mr Arrowsmith full 

 in the face and bursting innocuously over it, except for 

 befoulment. 



All these things I saw and delighted in. Needless to 

 say, we were always on the side of Sir William Gallwey, 

 the Conservative member, and he was never beaten, 

 though there was a time when he got in by one vote. 

 There was real sport in those elections. 



Mr Arrowsmith used to dine with us at home every 

 Christmas Day, and, as he came in, he gave my sister and 



