84 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



with, let me modestly say, an income of a 

 few thousands a year. I confess at once there 

 was nothing in my birth to justify such a well- 

 meaning delusion on the part of mother nature. 

 Still, I really think that had such imaginary 

 circumstances been real I could have lived 

 a happy and contented life. A hunter or two 

 in my stables, a lovely trout stream meandering 

 through my estate, my woods well stocked with 

 game, feathered and furred hunting, shooting, 

 and fishing would have pleasantly occupied 

 leisure time, and diversified the monotony of 

 the more serious duties appertaining to such 

 a life. The study of agriculture, of horses, of 

 oxen, of sheep and of pigs, the habits and 

 customs of birds in the woods and fish in 

 the rivers all these things would have been 

 congenial to my nature, but as I think it 

 was Lord Byron who sang or said 



" I am not what I might have been, 

 So let it pass." 



The fates, always at deadly enmity with 

 benignant mother nature, maliciously deter- 

 mined that I should possess none of these 

 joys of life; on the contrary, they decided 

 that I should, of all things in the world, 



