40 A Sportsman at Large 



scores for The Thespids and other clubs ; though I never 

 succeeded in claiming a century seventy-five not out being 

 the best record to which I can point. 



We of the said Thespids were a merry team of Mummers. 

 Our captain, Aubrey Smith (known as " Round- the-Corner- 

 Smith," on account of his eccentric approach to the crease 

 when bowling), was a host in himself a Cambridge cricket 

 Blue and captain of Sussex County. Bobby Evett (who had 

 a reprehensible habit of running me out we generally opened 

 the innings together), O'Neill, Oscar Asche, John Drinkwater, 

 senior, and poor Jimmie Blakeley and Harry Nye Chart, 

 were some of those who wore the green-and-purple colours 

 of the Dramatic team with grace and distinction. 



To return to Harrow. There came a day when I was to 

 witness a sad tragedy. A boy called Cotterell was umpiring 

 at the playing end and standing by short leg. Willie Blacker, 

 one of the best bats in the eleven, hit one square and very 

 hard. Before poor Cotterell could duck, the ball caught 

 him full behind the left ear. He threw both hands up to his 

 neck and then fell forward on his face stone dead ! This 

 dreadful accident caused a deep depression in the school. 

 It happened shortly before the Eton and Harrow match. 

 Blacker swore he would never touch a bat again ; but wiser 

 counsels prevailed, and he not only went up to Lords as one 

 of our most cherished representatives, but " made good " 

 handsomely in both innings. 



My last term at Harrow was not altogether a happy one, 

 for I was afflicted constantly with headaches of such severity 

 that I was continually being prostrated. Medical skill 

 brought but little relief, and our school " saw-bones " (Dr. 

 Drinkwater) was quite unable to diagnose the cause of the 

 trouble or to mitigate its effect. My own opinion is that it 

 arose through acute dyspepsia set up by the badly-cooked 

 food served to us. " Boz " was too obsessed by his worship 

 of Gibbon, and his wife too busy bearing him children, to 

 properly superintend the House cuisine. Hinc ilia lachrymcz. 



On my return to my beloved Moat Mount I speedily re- 

 covered my normal state of health. 



Before abandoning my reminiscences of Harrow, I cannot 



