Excerpt from Fifty Years of My Life in the World of Sport at Home and Abroad
Many of my readers, and not a few of my casual acquaintance, will wonder how it is that I, 'The Jigger' of Eton and College days, and 'The Mate' of Regimental and present times, could ever have the audacity (though I don't pretend to be troubled with diffidence) to attempt to commit to paper some of my experiences in this 'vale of tears.' But the fact is, I have long been wishful to once again acquire possession of one of those pleasant occupants of my pocket which, in days gone by, used to nestle there periodically, and were so welcome, even when solitary - I mean the 'merry monk,' i. e. the collection of crisp bank-notes that constitute the adorable 'monkey,' value ?500 sterling. The receptacle still exists, but its occupants have deteriorated into occasional 'flimsies' (fivers) and very often 'nonsies.' One day, after a pleasant luncheon in Grosvenor Place, I had been telling several stories in a voluble and, to some of my audience, amusing style, when suddenly an old friend, who, like me, had seen better days (only in a pecuniary sense, be it understood), exclaimed, 'Why don't you write a book? You are constantly complaining of poverty, why you would be a rich man if you would take the trouble to put on paper the amusing stories you have just been telling us.' I replied, 'It's all very well, my dear Charlie, to talk. Any fool can tell a story, but it takes a man to write a book. How could I write one when, barring Bradshaw, I never study any book?' 'Go on,' he answered; 'you take my tip and you will make a pile.'
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