MEMOIR xvii 



interesting fact or feature to describe." So it came 

 about that at Charterhouse natural history specimens 

 which he collected became the nucleus of what is 

 now the school museum, and he very soon earned a 

 reputation for natural history lore which was some- 

 times rather hard to live up to. In his second term 

 he was sent for by a sixth-form boy, and on entering 

 his study was greeted as follows : " Hullo ! you're a 

 naturalist, aren't you ? Very well then, you may as 

 well be useful. Just get along out at once and stop 

 the row these beastly nightingales are making, then 

 perhaps I shall be able to get on with my work." 



The thickets on the slope below the school buildings 

 held at that time plenty of rabbits as well as nightin- 

 gales, and these coverts afforded opportunities, too 

 good to be neglected, for more or less surreptitious 

 ferreting ; the chief drawback to which was that the 

 ferrets would never learn to recognise the school bell 

 as a signal to come to the surface, and so were rather 

 apt to get lost. Pistol shooting was another unrecog- 

 nised joy sometimes indulged in with quite as much 

 zest as the legitimate practice of the school rifle corps, 

 of which he was one of the earliest members. He 

 won a place in the first team which Charterhouse 

 sent to Wimbledon to compete for the Ashburton 

 Shield ; a team which also included the future General 

 Baden-Powell. 



As soon as school hours are over at Charterhouse, 

 the real business of the spring and autumn terms is 

 Association football, and at this Charles Cornish very 

 soon became an expert. Though small and some- 



