uld enter three times a year. The
elder brothers, Hugh, Tommy and B., would come home for the holidays
from Sandhurst and Rugby, and R. would appear, and become almost one
of the family. Then would occur troublous times, with a few advantages
and many disadvantages.

"Tommy" was a curiously solitary youth as I remember him, who played
the 'cello with great perseverance and considerable success. At
soldiers he was something of a genius, though his games were of an
intricacy which failed to commend itself to me altogether. In his
great soldier days he not only made history, but wrote it--a height to
which I never attained.

In the holidays, cricket in the back garden became a great feature,
and Tommy was a demon bowler. I fancy, too, that the very elaborate
but highly satisfactory form of the game must have originated with
him. In the back garden we not merely played cricket, but made
history--cricket history. Two county sides were written out, and
we batted alternately for the various cricketers, doing our best
to imitate their styles. We bowled also in a rough imitation of the
styles of the county bowlers whom we represented. This arrangement
secured us against personal rivalry, kept up a tremendous interest in
first-class cricket and enabled matches to continue, if necessary,
for weeks at a time. It encouraged, too, a fair, impersonal and
unprejudiced view of outside events.

In cricket, war and music we undoubtedly benefited by the holidays,
especially in the summer, when we used to go to the country, often
occupying a school-house with gym, cricket nets and a fair-sized
garden. Ecclesiastical architecture suffered, however....

Hugh was a great and glorious person, a towering beneficent despot
when he did appear.... As for me I adored him with whole-hearted
hero-worship. He was the "protector of the poor," who kept the rest of
us in order. He was a magnificent person who revolutionized the art
of war by the introduction of explosives. He was a tremendous walker,
and first taught me to love great tramps over the downs, to sniff
appreciatively the glorious air and to love their bare, storm-swept
outlines. Hugh stood for all that is wholesome, strenuous, out of
doors in my life. Without him I should have been a mere sedentary.
Among other things he was an enthusiastic boxer and gymnast. For these
pursuits I sturdily feigned enthusiasm and suppressed timidity.

A few more pictures. First, Sunday morning. Gertrude g