Cambridge Days. 103 



no abatement during the old man's lifetime, 

 and the yearly allowance of the son was 

 never stopped. Accompanied by Mrs. Dixon 

 and their children, " The Druid " never 

 omitted to pay an annual visit to Carlisle, 

 although it could not be concealed that his 

 sporting and poetical tastes grated sharply 

 upon the more prosaic intellect of his father. 

 At last, however, a book appeared from his 

 pen, " The Law of the Farm," which glad- 

 dened the old man's heart so much that he 

 sent a cheque for ^100 to assist his son's 

 struggling family, which had then taken up 

 its abode in Kensington Square. When he 

 made his way to the metropolis, he was 

 fortified by a strong letter of introduction 

 from "Martingale" to the late Mr. Vincent 

 Dowling, who was then the Editor of Bell's 

 Life in London, undoubtedly at that time 

 the first sporting newspaper in the world. 

 Into the service of that great journal he en- 

 tered in 1850, and here I may quote an 

 extract from a letter of his own, illustrative 

 of the sturdy independence of his character. 

 11 I began my career by editing a Liberal 

 paper in Doncaster for three years, and in 



