PRINCE CHARLIE AND "MODS." 185 



built on that side of the quad the old facilities have 

 probably been interfered with. 



Meanwhile there had been the delight of knowing that 

 Prince Charlie had beaten Cremorne for the 2000 Guineas 

 a wonderful performance for a roarer, which, by that 

 time, he was well known to be. People became quite 

 infatuated about him, and, setting all precedent at defiance, 

 believed that he would even succeed in staying the Derby 

 course. Needless to say, I was one of the infatuated, 

 and it is disclosed in the Prologue how I left the Latin 

 Verse paper in the Mods. Examination to go out and see 

 if Prince Charlie had won the Derby. The disappoint- 

 ment of finding that he was unplaced, coupled with the 

 knowledge that I had quitted my best paper and could 

 not return to do it, was depressing in the extreme, and it 

 resulted in my getting a Second instead of a First, which 

 was a really silly thing to have done. The Derby was 

 the only race for which Prince Charlie was unplaced during 

 four seasons on the turf. He was never beaten but once 

 over a mile or less : he won twenty-five races and lost 

 only four, so that his career soon blazed into glory again, 

 but at the time of his Derby I felt very sad. 



I had one curious stroke of luck in that Mods, examina- 

 tion, for there was one of the Greek plays, the Philoctetes, 

 which I had never looked at until just before going in to 

 do the paper. I took a sudden fancy to open the book 

 and read the first ten or twelve lines of that play that 

 might catch my eye. I did so and read a part of a Chorus 

 carefully, with Paley's notes. It seems almost incredible, 

 but that identical portion of the Philoctetes, and that 

 only, was given in the examination paper, and, of course, 

 I dealt with it in fine style. 



By this time I was entered at the Inner Temple and 

 going up to town from time to time to eat dinners there. 

 I always used to stay at the old Bedford Hotel in Co vent 

 Garden, and a rare good house it was, under the manage- 

 ment of Mrs Anne Warner. Those were the days of Evans's 

 supper-rooms, Paddy Green and perfect glee-singing. 



