236 "MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE! " 



was indeed a fitting object of hero-worship. No horse 

 has ever attained to his position in that respect. 



I remained in the north for shooting and hunting until 

 near Christmas, and then went south. My examination 

 for the Bar was to begin on ist January 1877, and I had 

 not given it a thought. Christmas came, and New Year's 

 Eve. We were at Kingston and my father-in-law, as a 

 Scotsman, had assembled friends to see the old year 

 out in orthodox style. Punch was brewed, without my 

 redeeming ingredient of syrup of ginger. I saw the 

 New Year in with adequate festivity, and retired to rest 

 about 2 A.M., with the horrible knowledge that I had to 

 make a fifteen-mile railway journey and must be in the 

 Hall at Lincoln's Inn by 10 A.M. 



It would have been far better not to go to bed, for 

 when I was called at 7 A.M. I felt as Solomon clearly did 

 when he wrote, in regard to his overnight condition after 

 celebrations : " When shall I arise ? " 



Yet it was necessary to " arise." Breakfast was out 

 of the question, and hastily picking up a book containing 

 a synopsis of " Leading Cases," I hurried off to the railway 

 station and so, in due course and time, to the Hall of 

 Lincoln's Inn ! Bitterly did I regret the lack of syrup 

 of ginger in that punch, for it was at least ten minutes 

 before I could even read the paper before me. Then 

 came a few minutes of deadly fear that I was actually 

 going to fail to deal with the questions. 



Such a thought drove away the demons of discomfort, 

 and having made a start I was soon scribbling away all 

 right, for the paper was really a simple one. 



The later papers were subject to no such handicap as 

 that awful first one, and there was no difficulty so far as 

 they were concerned, but the first called for the most 

 ruthless determination before I could force my faculties 

 into tackling it. All ended well ; but I shall always 

 think it positively inhuman on the part of the legal 

 authorities to fix such examinations for 10 A.M. on the 

 morning of ist January, before our old year follies have 



