ather, watch in hand, stood waiting to
hear the bells ring in the New Year. All was hush and silence after the
laughter and merriment! Suddenly the peal of bells sounded, and turning
he said: "A happy New Year to us all! God bless us." Kisses, good
wishes and shaking of hands brought us again back to the fun and gaiety
of a few moments earlier. Supper was served, the hot mulled wine drunk
in toasts, and the maddest and wildest of "Sir Roger de Coverlys" ended
our evening and began our New Year.

One New year's day my father organized some field sports in a meadow
which was at the back of our house. "Foot races for the villagers come
off in my field to-morrow," he wrote to a friend, "and we have been hard
at work all day, building a course, making countless flags, and I don't
know what else, Layard (the late Sir Henry Layard) is chief commissioner
of the domestic police. The country police predict an immense crowd."

There were between two and three thousand people present at these sports,
and by a kind of magical influence, my father seemed to rule every
creature present to do his or her best to maintain order. The likelihood
of things going wrong was anticipated, and despite the general prejudice
of the neighbours against the undertaking, my father's belief and trust
in his guests was not disappointed. But you shall have his own account
of his success. "We had made a very pretty course," he wrote, "and taken
great pains. Encouraged by the cricket matches' experience, I allowed
the landlord of the Falstaff to have a drinking booth on the ground. Not
to seem to dictate or distrust, I gave all the prizes in money. The
great mass of the crowd were laboring men of all kinds, soldiers, sailors
and navvies. They did not, between half-past ten, when we began, and
sunset, displace a rope or a stake; and they left every barrier and flag
as neat as they found it. There was not a dispute, and there was no
drunkenness whatever. I made them a little speech from the lawn at the
end of the games, saying that, please God, we would do it again next
year. They cheered most lustily and dispersed. The road between this
and Chatham was like a fair all day; and surely it is a fine thing to get
such perfect behaviour out of a reckless seaport town." He was the last
to realize, I am sure that it was his own sympathetic nature which gave
him the love and honor of all classes, and that helped to make the day's
sports such a gr