ENERGY IN OLD AGE. 461 



A, B, C were got through without hesitation ; but 

 P was a puzzler. 



' Go on,' said the clergyman by way of encourage- 

 ment ; ' you know it very well.' 



' Oh yes, sir,' replies Tommy ; ' I knows un very 

 well by sight, but I forget his name.' 



Mr. Robinson was always a remarkably early riser. 

 He was a moderate liver, although he occasionally 

 enjoyed a glass with a friend whilst relating or hearing 

 some humorous, but innocent, story ; for be it said 

 his humour was never coarse. He was fond of driving, 

 but a bad coachman, and rather delighted than other- 

 wise in ' a spill,' and he had plenty of them He 

 drove me once or twice a short distance, and nearly 

 upset me two or three times. He drove round the 

 corners so fast that the gig was nicely balanced on 

 one wheel for a considerable distance, and then 

 fortunately settled on the other. And the next thing- 

 was, he just missed coming into contact (whilst going 

 at a great pace) with a load of timber ; which, had it 

 but have touched us, we must have been smashed. 

 But he thought nothing of it; and he rode just as 

 wildly. ISTo one would ever believe, to see him ride 

 or drive, that he had been bred up with horses all his 

 lifetime, and made them his special study. 



He was a good shot, and walked well ; but what- 

 ever he might have been at running in his early days, 

 this was not his forte at the age of seventy. For I 

 remember that one clay, when shooting with me at 



