70 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



On the subject of the hacking game at football, as it 

 then was, I ought to add that so absolutely legitimate 

 was hacking that in case boys decided on a fight they 

 could set to with their fists, or, in the alternative, " have 

 it down " as the expression was. This meant that they 

 went to a little cockpit sort of place at the back of the 

 schools, perhaps eight feet by six feet, and there, holding 

 one another by the upper arms or shoulders, hacked each 

 other's shins till the issue was decided. To hack on or 

 above the knees was, of course, hopelessly foul, and boots 

 with nails in them were always prohibited, but it was a 

 punishing sort of contest, and if it has disappeared from 

 the school curriculum, so much the better. 



It does indeed make one feel young again to write of 

 life at Oakfield House, and to think of Mr Furness with 

 his fiery temper and his cane ; of Mother Davidson with 

 her every-morning glass of Port for me ; of the secret 

 repasts in bedrooms on purchased potted meats and bread 

 purloined from our supper-tables; of paper chases in 

 which, at that time of life, I was a most futile performer ; of 

 journeys home when we all had pea-shooters to sting up 

 old gentlemen at railway stations oh, what nonsense it 

 all was, and yet precious nonsense ! 



I must cut the experiences of Oakfield House short 

 and get forward to the Big School. 



