A Sportsman at Large 43 



grass on the velvety lawn in front of the house in an ecstasy 

 of sheer joy and thanksgiving ! 



As the end of each term grew near, I would draw up a 

 calendar and scratch out each date as day passed into night, 

 and I sought my fold-up " frowsting crib." 



Not that I was unhappy at " The School-on-the-Hill," 

 mark you ! Far from it ! Indeed, I had a pleasant and 

 fairly easy time there ; but Moat Mount was Moat Mount, 

 and I had a super-feline attachment to my home and its 

 inmates and all that it and they meant to me. 



Of the holidays, the midsummer vacation appealed to me 

 particularly. Not only was it the longest, but by far the 

 most attractive ; for it meant camping out, fishing, shooting, 

 unlimited fruit (for which I have always had an insatiable 

 appetite), and various other good things, sports and adven- 

 tures. My parents always encouraged me to forgather 

 with contemporary lads. As a smaller boy I was given to 

 solitude, and when my youthful spirit moved me to seek 

 the society of others of my age, I had to fall back on the sons 

 of the soil, as represented by the male offspring of the head 

 gardener, the farm bailiff, and even on those of subordinate 

 hinds and menials. Of these I was an unchallenged leader, 

 and as such led my contingent into innumerable scrapes, 

 which resulted in the tanning of their several hides, hard and 

 good ; whilst I, who ought to have suffered in like fashion, 

 managed to avoid Nemesis, but looked upon the units of my 

 legion as fitting scapegoats, or " whipping boys," to bear 

 the burden of my own iniquities. 



This association engendered somewhat socialistic theories 

 in my youthful brain ; whereat The Dads grieved sorely, 

 since he was a Tory of the old-fashioned, uncompromising 

 sort 



But whilst I was at Harrow my politics underwent con- 

 siderable modification. The tendency of the school, taken 

 as a whole, w r as decidedly Conservative. When I came to 

 mix with other boys of equality in social status, I began, 

 rather snobbishly perhaps, to look down upon my erstwhile 

 boon companions and to perceive in them a lack of culture 

 and understanding, and an uncouthness of manner and of 



