CHAPTER I 
‘ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO’ 
A DIFFICULTY in the way of writing about the par- 
tridge is the question: To whom shall I appeal? 
‘To the public,’ I am told, but here I am doubtful, 
for the public knows nothing of partridges, excepting 
towards Christmas-time the price per brace. In my 
Oxford days, ‘Student Williams’ was a Fellow of 
Merton, when Randolph Churchill and I were under- 
graduates there—a very brilliant and characteristic 
specimen of the Don of that day, whose literary and 
classical ability forced from his seniors a measure of 
the popularity which his wit and liberality of opinion 
readily secured for him from the younger men. 
Afterwards one of the most fluent and versatile of 
the well-known band of writers who have made the 
variety of the articles in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ so 
famous, he was one day, being in town on August 31, 
asked by his editor to write an article to appear 
the next day on the rst of September and partridges. 
