household troops drilled. That part of Grosvenor Place where
the Grosvenor Place houses now stand was occupied by the Lock

Hospital and Chapel, and it ended where the small houses are
now to be found. A little farther, a somewhat tortuous lane

called the King's Road led to Chelsea, and, I think, where
now St. Peter's, Pimlico, was afterwards built. I remember

going to a breakfast at a villa belonging to Lady
Buckinghamshire. The Chelsea Waterworks Company had a sort

of marshy place with canals and osier beds, now, I suppose,
Ebury Street, and here it was that I was permitted to go and

try my hand at snipe-shooting, a special privilege given to
the son of the freeholder.

'The successful fox-hunt terminating in either Bedford or
Russell Square is very strange, but quite appropriate,

commemorated, I suppose, by the statue there erected.
Yours affectionately,

'E.'
The successful 'fox-hunt ' was an event of which I told Lord

Ebury as even more remarkable than his snipe-shooting in
Belgravia. As it is still more indicative of the growth of

London in recent times it may be here recorded.
In connection with Mr. Gladstone's forecasts, I had written

to the last Lord Digby, who was a grandson of my father's,
stating that I had heard - whether from my father or not I

could not say - that he had killed a fox where now is Bedford
Square, with his own hounds.

Lord Digby replied:
'Minterne, Dorset: January 7, 1883.

'My dear Henry, - My grandfather killed a fox with his hounds
either in Bedford or Russell Square. Old Jones, the

huntsman, who died at Holkham when you were a child, was my
informant. I asked my grandfather if it was correct. He

said "Yes" - he had kennels at Epping Place, and hunted the
roodings of Essex, which, he said, was the best scenting-

ground in England.
'Yours affectionately,

'DIGBY.'
(My father was born in 1754.)

Mr. W. S. Gilbert had been a much valued friend of ours
before we lived at Rickmansworth. We had been his guests for

the 'first night' of almost every one of his plays - plays
that may have a thousand imitators, but the speciality of

whose excellence will remain unrivalled and inimitable. His
visits to us introduced him, I think, to the picturesque

country which he has now made his home. When Mr. Gilbert
built his house in Harrington Gardens he easily persuaded us

to build next door to him. This led to my acquaintance with
his neighbour on the other side, Mr. Walter Cassels, now well

known as the author of 'Supernatural Religion.'
When first published in 1874, this learned work, summarising

and elaborately examining the higher criticism of the four
Gospels up to date, created a sensation throughout the

theological world, which was not a little intensified by the
anonymity of its author. The virulence with which it was

attacked by Dr. Lightfoot, the most erudite bishop on the
bench, at once demonstrated its weighty significance and its

destructive force; while Mr. Morley's high commendation of
its literary merits and the scrupulous equity of its tone,

placed it far above the level of controversial diatribes.
In my 'Creeds of the Day' I had made frequent references to

the anonymous book; and soon after my introduction to Mr.
Cassels spoke to him of its importance, and asked him whether

he had read it. He hesitated for a moment, then said:
'We are very much of the same way of thinking on these

subjects. I will tell you a secret which I kept for some
time even from my publishers - I am the author of

"Supernatural Religion."'
From that time forth, we became the closest of allies. I

know no man whose tastes and opinions and interests are more
completely in accord with my own than those of Mr. Walter

Cassels. It is one of my greatest pleasures to meet him
every summer at the beautiful place of our mutual and

sympathetic friend, Mrs. Robertson, on the skirts of the
Ashtead forest, in Surrey.

The winter of 1888 I spent at Cairo under the roof of General
Sir Frederick Stephenson, then commanding the English forces

in Egypt. I had known Sir Frederick as an ensign in the
Guards. He was adjutant of his regiment at the Alma, and at

Inkerman. He is now Colonel of the Coldstreams and Governor
of the Tower. He has often been given a still higher title,

that of 'the most popular man in the army.'
Everybody in these days has seen the Pyramids, and has been

up the Nile. There is only one name I have to mention here,
and that is one of the best-known in the world. Mr. Thomas

Cook was the son of the original inventor of the 'Globe-
trotter.' But it was the extraordinaryenergy and powers of

organisation of the son that enabled him to develop to its
present efficiency the initialscheme of the father.

Shortly before the General's term expired, he invited Mr.
Cook to dinner. The Nile share of the Gordon Relief

Expedition had been handed over to Cook. The boats, the
provisioning of them, and the river transport service up to

Wady Halfa, were contracted for and undertaken by Cook.
A most entertaining account he gave of the whole affair. He

told us how the Mudir of Dongola, who was by way of rendering
every possible assistance, had offered him an enormous bribe

to wreck the most valuable cargoes on their passage through
the Cataracts.

Before Mr. Cook took leave of the General, he expressed the
regret felt by the British residents in Cairo at the

termination of Sir Frederick's command; and wound up a pretty
little speech by a sincere request that he might be allowed

to furnish Sir Frederick GRATIS with all the means at his
disposal for a tour through the Holy Land. The liberal and

highly complimentary offer was gratefully acknowledged, but
at once emphatically declined. The old soldier, (at least,

this was my guess,) brave in all else, had not the courage to
face the tourists' profanation of such sacred scenes.

Dr. Bird told me a nice story, a pendant to this, of Mr.
Thomas Cook's liberality. One day, before the Gordon

Expedition, which was then in the air, Dr. Bird was smoking
his cigarette on the terrace in front of Shepherd's Hotel, in

company with four or five other men, strangers to him and to
one another. A discussion arose as to the best means of

relieving Gordon. Each had his own favourite general.
Presently the doctor exclaimed: 'Why don't they put the

thing into the hands of Cook? I'll be bound to say he would
undertake it, and do the job better than anyone else.'

'Do you know Cook, sir?' asked one of the smokers who had
hitherto been silent.

'No, I never saw him, but everybody knows he has a genius for
organisation; and I don't believe there is a general in the

British Army to match him.'
When the company broke up, the silent stranger asked the

doctor his name and address, and introduced himself as Thomas
Cook. The following winter Dr. Bird received a letter

enclosing tickets for himself and Miss Bird for a trip to
Egypt and back, free of expense, 'in return for his good