348 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



and he knew all the officers. It was about 8.30 P.M. 

 before the Orizaba was signalled and we went off on the 

 tender, but our coming was expected and they looked 

 well after us when we reached the liner. Trenton had 

 been seriously amiss in the Red Sea but was recovering. 

 Carnage (three parts brother to Carbine) was very well. 

 We had a fairly quiet night, but next day as we continued 

 our course along the Channel the officers, who were over- 

 joyed to see Phil May, were immeasurably hospitable, and 

 each one made his own special sort of cocktails. The 

 genuine conviviality of such an occasion was too much 

 for poor Phil, and when it came to the time for going to 

 the captain's cabin to have a cocktail before lunch I 

 had to go alone and make some excuse for my companion. 

 That captain Captain Collins I have sailed with since 

 a good many times, but never under such strange con- 

 ditions, for who should there be in the cabin with him 

 when I entered but Mr Strachan Davidson, the Bursar 

 of Balliol College, who later on became the Master ? Of 

 course he knew me well and I was very glad to see him, 

 but it needed a quick-change artist to come from the 

 society of Phil May and his friends to that of even the 

 most kindly Balliol don. All that afternoon and evening 

 these studies in contrast were such that they became 

 really trying, but all was well when we reached the docks 

 next morning and I got away with the horses to Cobham, 

 where there was a large party of journalists to meet them. 

 Trenton could not commence a stud season until quite late 

 that year, but the first foal sired by him in England was 

 Longy, a very good two-year-old winner for whom the 

 owner refused an offer of 7000 guineas. My meeting with 

 Mr Strachan Davidson resulted in my going up to Oxford 

 later in that year and taking my B.A. and M.A. degrees 

 on the same morning. This I had neglected to do during 

 more than twenty-two years. 



In 1895 I had obtained a renewal of the Cobham lease 

 for twenty-one years, and have carried on since the 

 expiration of that term up to the present. Among the 



