256 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



stances, was made too evident in sporting articles and 

 " Pomponius Ego " in Hundley Cross was a sufficient 

 lampoon in this connection. The genuinely best man 

 of the early days, as I remember them, was the 

 Hon. Francis Lawley, who was a scholar, a gentleman 

 and a sportsman without reproach, and he not only 

 brought out John Kent's book on The Career of Lord 

 George Bentinck, but also a charming work on the 

 Life and Times of " The Druid" who was the father of my 

 old friend, Sydenham Dixon. " The Druid," by the way, 

 was at Rugby, though long before my time. Francis 

 Lawley was in his younger days in Government office 

 and much on the ascendant, but something occurred 

 to check his career, and he gravitated to journalism. 

 Here what I have always contended was demonstrated : 

 the man knew his subject absolutely and he was highly 

 educated. Therefore his articles in The Daily Telegraph 

 were valued by all who read them to the end of his 

 life. 



I never met a man whose personality was more truly 

 pleasant. The last time I ever saw him he told me 

 many stories of the American Civil War when he was 

 out there with the Southern States armies, and Mrs 

 Jefferson Davis, who was still alive at the time I last 

 saw Mr Lawley, had written him a letter which he 

 showed me, saying, among other things, that she always 

 felt the Southern States had no chance, but she must 

 stand by her husband. "Well hang Jeff Davis on a 

 sour apple-tree " so goes the song ; but nothing of that 

 kind was contemplated in those really honest days, 

 before there was any idea of Bolshevist insanity. 



The Hon. Francis Lawley was by far the best 

 equipped and most brilliant sporting journalist of the 



