at a hound, yet the ruling passion was still strong, and being very much
of Mr. Jorrock's opinion that all time not spent in hunting is lost, I
resolved, before "settling down" or taking up any position which might be
incompatible with indulgence in my favorite amusement, to devote a few
years of my life to fox-hunting. At twenty-four a man does not give much
thought to the future--at any rate I did not.

The next question was how to hunt three or four days a week on four
hundred a year, for though I was quite willing to spend my income, I was
resolved not to touch my capital. To begin with, I sold my aunt's cottage
and furniture and took a couple of rooms for the winter at Red Chimneys, a
roomy farm-house in the neighborhood of Treydon. Then, acting on the great
principle of co-operation, I joined at horse-keeping with my good friend
and old school-fellow, Bertie Alston, a London solicitor. Being both of us
light-weights, we could mount ourselves cheaply; the average cost of our
stud of four horses did not exceed forty pounds apiece. Moreover, when
opportunities offered, we did not disdain to turn an honest penny by
buying an animal cheap and selling him dear, and as I looked after things
myself, bought my own forage, and saw that I had full measure, our stable
expenses were kept within moderate limits. Except when the weather was
bad, or a horse _hors de combat_, I generally contrived to get four days'
hunting a week--three with the fox-hounds and one with Mr. Vigne's
harriers--for, owing to his professional engagements, Alston could not go
out as often as I did. But as I took all the trouble and responsibility,
it was only fair that I should have the lion's share of the riding.

At the end of the season we either sold the horses off or turned them into
a straw-yard, and I went to sea as ship's surgeon. In this capacity I made
voyages to Australia, to the Cape, and to the West Indies; and the summer
before I first saw Mr. Fortescue I had been to the Arctic Ocean in a