{"product_id":"2940013695696","title":"The Shearer's Colt","description":"When Young Hilton Fitzroy, nephew of one earl and second cousin to\u003cbr\u003eanother, was due to leave school, the family went into conference as to\u003cbr\u003ehis career. His widowed mother naturally had no doubt that he would make\u003cbr\u003ea good Prime Minister; but the young fellow soon showed that he would be\u003cbr\u003every difficult to place. His extraordinary strength, his violent temper\u003cbr\u003eand his stubborn refusal to bear himself lowly and reverently towards\u003cbr\u003eanybody, all marked him out as a throw-back to some (possibly royal)\u003cbr\u003eancestor who had helped himself to everything in sight in the dim and\u003cbr\u003edistant past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFitzroy senior had been the younger son of a younger son of a county\u003cbr\u003efamily, so his widow was left with very little money. In this extremity\u003cbr\u003eshe was financed by the generosity of the head of the clan, a wealthy\u003cbr\u003epeer, who felt it his duty in the patriarchal English fashion to do\u003cbr\u003esomething for the various scions of the house, even unto the third and\u003cbr\u003efourth generation. Thus it came that young Fitzroy and his mother were\u003cbr\u003eallowed to live at one of the shooting-boxes belonging to the family.\u003cbr\u003eHere he was entered to hound, horse and gun, and he learnt the unusual\u003cbr\u003eaccomplishment of catch-as-catch-can wrestling from an old retainer who\u003cbr\u003efollowed their fortunes to the last. In due time he was sent on to\u003cbr\u003eOxford where he might have laid the foundations of a career as Prime\u003cbr\u003eMinister, only that an inherited inability to pass examinations made it\u003cbr\u003eapparent that if he lasted even one year at the University he would put\u003cbr\u003eup a remarkably good performance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever, there are other ways of distinguishing oneself at Oxford than\u003cbr\u003eby obtaining a degree with first class honours. Hardly had this youth\u003cbr\u003esettled down in residence, than he inveigled a policeman into his rooms,\u003cbr\u003egot the policeman drunk and sallied out into the streets arrayed in the\u003cbr\u003epoliceman's uniform. Wearing these borrowed plumes and knowing exactly\u003cbr\u003ewhere to go, he visited some out-of-bounds places and arrested several\u003cbr\u003ewealthy Indian undergraduates; but he did not take any of his captives\u003cbr\u003eto the police-station. Instead he accepted large bribes to let them go,\u003cbr\u003eand later on refused to give the money back, holding with the Tichborne\u003cbr\u003eclaimant that those who have money and no brains are meant to provide\u003cbr\u003efor those who have brains and no money. Then came boat-race night when\u003cbr\u003eit is traditional for the undergraduates to visit London music-halls and\u003cbr\u003eto play up until thrown into the street by a specially recruited force\u003cbr\u003eof chuckers-out. This is an annual affair, a perfunctory business,\u003cbr\u003eusually rather boring to the chuckers-out, who have little difficulty in\u003cbr\u003edealing with half-intoxicated undergraduates. But on this occasion the\u003cbr\u003echief chucker-out handled young Fitzroy with unnecessary roughness, with\u003cbr\u003ethe result that the chief chucker-out was treated to a lesson in\u003cbr\u003ewrestling which sent him flying down a flight of stone steps, with\u003cbr\u003econcussion of the brain and an action for damages to follow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe next thing was a letter from the much worried head of the clan to\u003cbr\u003ethe boy's mother:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDEAR MARIE,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am afraid that your boy is too much of a handful for the effete\u003cbr\u003einstitutions of this country. He belongs in the wide open spaces, where\u003cbr\u003emen are men and do not bring actions for damages. I am therefore\u003cbr\u003earranging to send him out to Australia where he will have more scope for\u003cbr\u003ethe exercise of his peculiar talents. I will put a thousand pounds to\u003cbr\u003ehis credit and will let him either mak a spune or spoil a horn. Do not\u003cbr\u003ethink that I am blaming you for the way in which you have brought up\u003cbr\u003ethis boy. On the contrary I congratulate you on having produced such a\u003cbr\u003etype.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145772286192,"sku":"2940013695696","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013695696_p0.jpg?v=1763584499","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013695696","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}