166 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



you are on far surer ground. I am not writing of what 

 I do not know, for many have seen me do it. 



I suppose there is no more enjoyable winter voyage 

 than that from Southampton to Buenos Aires and 

 back. The sea very rarely troubles you and there 

 are so many intermediate ports of call Vigo, Lisbon, 

 Madeira, St Vincent (sometimes), Pernambuco, Bahia, 

 Rio, Santos and Monte Video. Many of these are of 

 great interest, especially Rio, where there is always a 

 stay of about twenty-four hours, and to take a launch 

 and cruise about in the bay for three or four hours, 

 whether in the evening or the daytime, is a truly 

 pleasant experience. 



On these voyages you invariably meet someone 

 worth meeting. Thus among my first fellow-passengers 

 on the Clyde was Mr J. W. Philipps, now Lord 

 St Davids, who knows more than anybody does 

 about Argentine railways, and has taken no small 

 part in racing and horse-breeding. He was then a 

 Member of Parliament, and I remember with what 

 confidence he foretold to me the advance of Mr Lloyd 

 George, as we sat together at Captain Tindal's table. 

 To me, in those days, such an advance seemed an un- 

 imaginable horror, but it has come about nevertheless. 



My first arrival at Buenos Aires was untimely, for 

 there had been a military revolution in the night which 

 had succeeded in all important parts of the country 

 except in the capital itself, where it had been cleverly 

 checked just in time ; but it was a case of martial law, 

 and a serious question whether we should be allowed 

 to land. 



In fact we did not land until midday, and then police 

 with rifles were standing at all the street corners and 



