X WAYFARING NOTIONS 



brought out and fostered that love of rowing, 

 swimming, and rural roaming which was born 

 in him and distinguished him through life. 

 The first business he learnt was that of timber 

 merchant ; but he had ever a notable turn for 

 sporting journalism, and in the seventies he 

 took to writing for the Sportsman and the 

 Sporting Life. Here are his own words on 

 this subject, taken from the Referee of 9th 

 November 1902 : — 



" Sporting reporting life is an estate for which 

 I hold the greatest admiration, because, so far 

 as its inner life is concerned, you can translate 

 envy, malice, and all uncharitableness into jolly 

 old pallishness ; and no matter what part of the 

 world a sporting Pressman comes from, he can 

 rest assured of being put and kept straight. I — 

 moi qui vous parle — have probably had more 

 good turns done me than I have rendered. That 

 last was not my fault, I do assure you. Speaking 

 from within the prison-house walls of a craft 

 which has the strange peculiarity that generally 

 when you want a capable hand to join it you 

 can't find him, and if you do not, you are besieged 

 with applicants, I venture to say that no unhand- 

 some turn will be given to a member of the 

 profession, and if he is in difficulty he will be 

 seen out of it — and no charge made nor price 

 accepted. 



'' Plumming up my own sort, am I ? Probably 

 I am, and you can take it at that. I did not 

 want to bring myself in, but as the Sportsman 

 has occurred, I may cite that for purposes of 



