152 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



from Messrs Badger & Sheldon, of Shipston-on-Stour, 

 with whom I dealt during the whole of my stay at Oxford, 

 and I hope the firm still carries on. The fact that when 

 installed at Oxford you can obtain credit from tradesmen, 

 and say : " Send this or that to my rooms," with the assur- 

 ance that you need not pay for it until a quite indefinite 

 period, did not appeal to me, for I had always had pretty 

 much what credit I desired from my guardian, and did 

 not really know what it meant to want money. This 

 same credit business, however, must have been a serious 

 temptation to those who had been under tight control 

 until then. 



Balliol has always been a great rowing college, and the 

 idea of being well coached on the river was an immediate 

 attraction. I and others were quickly fastened on as 

 likely to do some good, and I fear that I ill repaid the trouble 

 which the devoted boating men took over me. Even then 

 there was another interest, as shown in a letter dated 

 30th October 1870 : 



We have begun boating and are coached every afternoon, 

 after which we adjourn to Tom Evans and box for about an hour. 

 He lets us box together now, and looks on complacently the while. 

 Every now and then we have a round with him, but he does not 

 altogether like it now as he has a bad cold and his nose is very 

 sore. We find it good policy not to hit him there, even if we can, 

 as he is sure to avenge himself speedily. 



An outsider came in yesterday, and Tom Evans knocked him 

 about unmercifully. Instead of saying, as he used to us : "I 

 will now touch you lightly," he said : " I will now hit you six times,'-* 

 and did so before the miserable man fairly knew where he was. 



We play a game or two at billiards every night and are becoming 

 quite expert. Every night last week were we fined pence for 

 coming in late but " no matter." 



We were at a " Wine " at Christ Church the other evening, 

 a very different affair indeed from the one here, as we did not 

 get away till past 1 1 o'clock. 



The most amusing thing occurred the other night. We were 

 playing billiards at about half-past ten, of course without caps 

 and gowns. We had just been deriding the idea of Proctors, 

 when suddenly a seedy-looking man put his head in at the door 

 and grinned. We thought at first he wanted the table, but soon 



