LIFE OF THE AUTHOR xxix 



under-dog would fight too," or indeed much 

 longer, if he considered the under-dog was 

 really overwhelmed by odds. 



The article just referred to also remarked 

 most truly, that his motto might have been 

 that of his old swimming club, the famous Ilex, 

 *' Labor ipse voluptas." He was a good sports- 

 man and a twenty-four-carat amateur in the 

 loftiest sense of that much-abused word. His 

 idea of it was the etymological one, pure and 

 simple — one who does things for love of them. 

 In his eyes, no one was a true sportsman who 

 did not regard the incidental trouble and 

 exertion of his pleasure as ''part of the fun," 

 from filling and carrying down your own boat- 

 ing hamper to going a long tramp simply for 

 the walk's sake. The pot-hunter, the man or 

 club who will not enter for an event unless 

 pretty sure of bringing it off, the young fellows 

 who lounge about without energy to do any- 

 thing unless they can ''show off" or ''get a 

 bit " in some way — such as these he despised. 

 He loathed all cheapening and coarsening of 

 sport into mere gladiatorial show, and expressed 

 himself on this point with a definite and most 

 wholesome clearness. At the same time, no 

 one was ever less snobbish in his views of 

 professionalism. He stuck up with kindly dis- 

 interestedness for the honest worker, making or 



