JEX-BLAKE 91 



It is a matter of great regret to me that the last time I 

 saw Jex-Blake, who was then Dean of Wells, I did not go 

 up and speak to him. It was at the principal hotel at 

 Assouan in 1903, and he was lunching there with Mrs Jex- 

 Blake and several of his numerous family. They were going 

 on to Khartoum. I was lunching at another table with 

 Mr Gubbins and Sam Darling, and we too had been going 

 to Khartoum, but my companions, not being Egyptologists, 

 had got sick of seeing temples and tombs, and persuaded 

 me to cancel our tickets and go back to Cairo. But for 

 this I should have been with Jex-Blake on the Nile boat 

 to Khartoum, and, as it was, I hesitated to go and interrupt 

 him and his luncheon-party. So we went away and I 

 never saw him again. 



One of my Rugby letters to my sister, dated 7th April 

 1867, gives a pretty good impression of his kindly 

 sympathy. The following is an extract : 



I and two other fellows walked last Wednesday to Stanfield 

 Hall, about nine miles from here. When we had got about 

 half way there, we heard a noise and up came Jex taking Mrs Jex 

 out for a drive. We got up behind and, after driving for some 

 distance, were turned out, as they were going in a different 

 direction. 



We got there after losing our way. The style of thing was a 

 house, deer, lake, swans. We returned by train, much too late 

 for tea ; but Jex, having, wonderful to relate, remembered that 

 we were out, had made them keep the water boiling, so we made 

 coffee, etc. in our own study. 



This was, of course, but a trifling incident, but it 

 shows in a nutshell the terms on which we were with 

 " Jex," and his thoughtfulness for all of us. There never 

 was a better sort. 



Once, in long later years, when I had written some Latin 

 verses on Victor Wild and the big weight given to him for 

 the Lincoln Handicap, entitled Victor Furens de onere im- 

 posito, and published them in The Sportsman, I sent a copy 

 to Doctor Jex-Blake, half fearing that he would express 

 disappointment at my having become a sporting journalist, 



