E-text prepared by Clare Graham from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/recordofnicholas00daws THE RECORD OF NICHOLAS FREYDON An Autobiography [A novel by Alec John Dawson] This etext prepared from the first edition published in 1914 by Constable and Company Ltd, London. EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE It would ill become any writer to adopt an apologetic tone in introducing the work of another pen than his own, and indeed I have no thought of _apologia_ where Nicholas Freydon's writing is concerned. On the contrary, it is out of respect for my friend's quality as a writer that I am moved to a word of explanation here. It is this: there are circumstances, sufficiently indicated I think in the text of the book and my own footnote thereto, which tended to prevent my performance of those offices for my friend's work which are usually expected of one who is said to edit. It would be more fitting, I suppose, if a phrase were borrowed from the theatrical world, and this record of a man's life were said to be 'presented' rather than 'edited,' by me. I am advised to accept the editorial title in this connection, but it is the truth that the book has not been edited at all, in the ordinary acceptance of the term. A few purely verbal emendations have been made in it, but Nicholas Freydon's last piece of writing has never been revised, nor even arranged in deference to accepted canons of book-making. It is given here as it left the author's pen, designed, not for your eye or mine, but for that of its writer, to be weighed and considered by him. But that weighing and consideration it has not received. So much I feel it incumbent upon me to say, as the avowed sponsor for the book, in order that praise and blame may be rightly apportioned. Touching the inherent value of this document, nothing whatever is due to me. Any criticism of its arrangement, or lack of arrangement, to be just, should be levelled at myself alone. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY CHILDHOOD--ENGLAND BOYHOOD--AUSTRALIA YOUTH--AUSTRALIA MANHOOD--ENGLAND: FIRST PERIOD MANHOOD--ENGLAND: SECOND PERIOD THE LAST STAGE EDITOR'S NOTE THE RECORD OF NICHOLAS FREYDON INTRODUCTORY Back there in London--how many leagues and aeons distant!--I threw down my pen and fled here to the ends of the earth, in pursuit of rest and self-comprehending peace of mind. Here I now take up the pen again and return in thought to London: that vast cockpit; still in pursuit of rest and self-comprehending peace of mind.