VIII] 



BEDFORDSHIRE: TURVEY 



127 



me ill. But exercise for about ten hours every day in the 

 open air had improved my digestion and my general health 

 so that I could eat most kinds of fat, and have been very fond 

 of it during my whole life. 



During our stay here we made the acquaintance of some 

 pleasant people, and on Sundays we were often asked out 

 to tea, which I should have enjoyed more than I did had it 

 not been for my excessive shyness, which was at this time 

 aggravated by the fact that I was growing very rapidly, and 

 my clothes, besides being rather shabby, were somewhat too 

 small for me. Another drawback was that our residence at 

 any place was too short to become really at home with these 

 passing friends. I was therefore left mostly to the companion- 

 ship of our own temporary pupil, and he, like the majority 

 of the young men I met at this period of my life, was by no 

 means an edifying acquaintance. Sporting newspapers, which 

 were then far grosser than they are now, were, so far as I 

 remember, his chief reading, and he had a stock of songs and 

 recitations of the lowest and most vicious type, with which he 

 used occasionally to entertain me and any chance acquaint- 

 ances. There was one paper which I used very frequently to 

 see about this time, and which I think must have been taken 

 at most of the country inns we frequented. It was called, if 

 I remember rightly. The Satirist^ and was full of the very 

 grossest anecdotes of well-known public characters, trials for 

 the most disgraceful offences reported in all their details, and 

 full accounts of prize-fights, which were then very common. 

 It was a paper of a character totally unknown now, and as it 

 no doubt reflected the ideas and pandered to the tastes of 

 a very considerable portion of the public in all classes of 

 society, it is not very surprising that most of the young men 

 of the middle classes that came across my path should have 

 been rather disreputable in conversation, though, perhaps, not 

 always so in character. 



But, notwithstanding that I was continually thrown into 

 such society from the time I left school, I do not think it 

 produced the least bad effect upon my character or habits 

 in after-life. This was partly owing to natural disposition. 



