Impelled by a common interest in changing fashions, Professor Sir Denison Ross, Mr. Hugo Rumbold and I once agreed to compile an encyclopædia of the catch-words and cant phrases, the popular songs and popular dances, the endearments and greetings of the last twenty years; though the work has not yet been begun, I am not without hope that there may be published in our lifetime a social survey of England which shall contain some few of the things commonly considered to be below the dignity of history, for the change in manners during the last generation is worthy of an exhaustive treatise; it is at once the effect and the cause of a corresponding change in morals; and, whatever progress the future have in store, those who first drew breath in Queen Victoria's reign may congratulate themselves, if it be a matter for congratulation, on having passed in thirty years from the civilisation of the Stone Age to that of the Cities of the Plain. This book is as deliberately incomplete as the sketch-book of a traveller who records some few of the scenes that he most wishes to conjure up again and none that he would prefer to forget. Whether my reminiscences and reflections at thirty-three or at any other age are of interest to anyone I must leave my readers to determine, comforting myself with the thought that the years through which I have lived are themselves of interest and reminding those who regard memoir-writing as a prerogative of septuagenarians that in the life of most men there is a time when they are unable to look forward with confidence and must be deemed fortunate if they can look back without regret. I have striven to avoid inaccuracy, but I have been compelled to write at a distance from all works of reference. S. McK. _Talcahuano, 31 January, 1921._ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I WESTMINSTER 17 II A SETTING AND A DATE 40 III CHRIST CHURCH 59 IV LONDON AND ELSEWHERE 80 V THE FRINGE OF POLITICS 100 VI ON THE EVE 132 VII THE FRINGE OF WAR 154 VIII AT THE LIBERAL GRAVE-SIDE 183 IX ON THE ROAD TO WASHINGTON--AND AFTER 201 X LONDON AGAIN 226 XI DEMOBILISATION 244 XII LITERARY TOTEMS 268 XIII POLITICS IN A DISSOLVING VIEW 290 XIV A MEMORY RETOUCHED 314 WHILE I REMEMBER WHILE I REMEMBER CHAPTER I WESTMINSTER