Durban. 293 



Charles Mitchell, the Governor, and Lady Mitchell attended 

 our shows, and appeared to take a great deal of interest in 

 them. We had the honour of being invited to the ball they 

 gave on the Queen's Birthday, and had a very pleasant 

 evening. One of the most popular sportsmen in Natal is Mr 

 Phil. Payne, to whom I had a letter of introduction and who 

 was very kind to us. He is a good example of a man who 

 waited too long in the race for wealth. During the ' boom 

 he made a lot of money, and as he knew that the inflated 

 prices could not last for ever, he determined that he would 

 sell out and 'go' when his capital had reached the limit of 

 £200,000, which would yield him the £10,000 a year that 

 he considered sufficient for a nice place in the country and a 

 house in town for the season. When his pile rose to £120,000 

 he was strongly advised to sell ; but it appeared such a pity 

 to miss the chance of affluence for life, that he held on, with 

 the result that the first crash came and down went all the 

 shares. The proper policy now appeared to be to wait for 

 a reaction ; but unluckily the shares went lower and lower 

 until many of them disappeared altogether. South Africa is 

 such a wonderful country for changes of fortune that few 

 things would surprise me less or give me greater pleasure than 

 to see Mr Phil. Payne, who is as good a loser as he is a 

 winner, return home in a year or two with that couple of 

 hundred thousand which has so long eluded his grasp. Both 

 at Maritzburg and at Durban I was fortunate to have as my 

 manager, Mr Cuthbert, who treated me more as a friend, than 

 as a mere employer. 



The horse which was kept waiting for me at Durban, and 

 whose reputation for untamed vice had been spread all over 

 the Colony, turned out to be a maligned animal, that with 

 ordinary skill and patience might have been converted into a 

 lady's quiet hack. He made no attempt to buck when my 

 wife rode him, and although very nervous at first of being 

 handled, he gave in and got quiet as soon as he found that if 

 he obeyed, no harm would befall him. 



