DARK DAYS 333 



production in its later years. Yet it was paying well for 

 quite a long time, but then came the extraordinary legal 

 vicissitudes with resultant costs, and last of all the inter- 

 necine contest with The Hansard Publishing Union Limited 

 and Mr Horatio Bottomley. That proved fatal to both 

 parties; but I will say this, that at that tune I 

 came to admire and even like Mr Bottomley he was so 

 absolutely indomitable and fought so hard. That con- 

 flict, though certainly fought with the gloves off, left 

 not a spark of ill feeling behind, and whatever was said 

 or written about Mr Bottomley in those days, no one can 

 say now that he has not given whole-hearted service to 

 his country during the long years of war. He has been 

 the staunchest upholder of the cause of individual liberty 

 as against bureaucracy and cant ; and for horse-breeding 

 and racing in particular his work has been valuable 

 beyond estimation. 



The crisis, from my point of view, however, was rather 

 dreadful. It seemed out of the question to dash back 

 into work at the Bar after letting these years slip away. 

 I was living at Dorman's Cross and took some part during 

 the bitter winter of 1890 in the making of Lingfield race- 

 course and stands, but that was only relaxation. Then I 

 bethought me of The Parson and the Painter, and having 

 employed a canvasser to get enough advertisements to pay 

 for the production, I got a publisher to print 10,000 copies 

 for sale at a shilling. They were produced simply from 

 stereos of the old St Stephen's Review pages, and I wrote to 

 Phil May, who was then at Scarborough, telling him what 

 I had done, and that if anything came of it he should have 

 half profits. What came of it was the making of Phil 

 May's fortune. The first 10,000 copies were sold like a 

 flash 1500 of them on York bookstall alone. Then the 

 publisher said he would like to go on printing at his own 

 risk and would pay a royalty. To this I agreed, and he 

 went on and on till the old stereos must have been worn 

 out. Very foolishly I had not taken the original drawings. 



The papers became excited. The Daily Chronicle, 



