AROUND HAMPTON COURT 133 



caused the Count to bet freely and lose. I think 

 it was in Griffith's year, when, as I recollect, he 

 rowed all his men right out, then tried to pull the 

 boat all alone by himself for half a mile or so, 

 and spurted, and spurted, mtd spurted. There 

 was Jack Tagg, one of the finest, handsomest 

 men I ever saw. Jack, the ever free and 

 frolicsome, who once whitewashed a donkey on 

 the fifth of November, bundled the creature into 

 a barber's shop and wanted him shaved, saying 

 that he was already lathered ! 



Dear me, how old am I ? I used to own 

 wager-boats when Jack Tagg was racing. Poor 

 old Jack has been dead years and years. Tom, 

 of Tagg's Island, has gone too. A rare good 

 sort, a fine sportsman, who could walk, run, and 

 fight when fighting meant P.R. business, and 

 would take on anyone who upset him, weight of 

 no consequence. Tom, who was one of a 

 Thames Championship four, was an inborn 

 genius In devising craft, from a skiff to a steam 

 launch. He was an honoured member of the 

 Institute of Naval Engineers. Also he was one 

 of the best friends I ever had. We once were as 

 nearly as possible shipwrecked together during 

 Mr Billy Innes's International Regatta. I was 

 knocked off his launch into the water, had to 

 swim ashore, and was ordered out of the telegraph 

 office at Mortlake because I made the place wet. 

 Poor old Tom kept a special dispatch-box of 

 mine which was rescued, and preserved it as a 

 trophy. I wonder if I could swim ashore now if 

 I was cast Into mid-Thames at Barnes with the 

 water churned up by a score of steamers, and old 

 gentlemen throwing trifles such as tin buckets 

 and boat-hooks at me to represent lifebuoys ? 



