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obliterated by a knife, and "James Hook, his book" inserted in their place. Thus even in those days Hook was already the student. Athletically he was not especially notable, and there is a curious tradition that when hurt on the football field he "bled yellow." The best thing he did in sports appears to have been that he was 12th man in the college hundred yards. He left Balliol hurriedly but I have not discovered for what cause, the page in the books of the college which must have recorded the happening having been torn out.
This indeed is a misfortune that has dogged his fame and added considerably to my difficulty in tracing him. Thus as I shall show that I have proof that in his last year in school he was a member of what is perhaps the most exalted assemblage in the world, the Eton Society or Pop. Various explanations of this term have been advanced, but I think it probably derives from pop guns to which the members when fully dressed bear an interesting resemblance. The Pops are the chief sight of Eton and parade on great occasions in sock and slip, arms linked, six or eight abreast and two yards in front of God. The page recording Hook's election has been removed mysteriously from the ledger. Legend (always untrustworthy) says that his election was a surprise to everyone, especially to the members, who alone have the right of voting, and can only be accounted for by his having cleverly manipulated the ballot box. But even if so, what ardour to excel, how indomitable is the particle, Man. Again, Hook was captain of the cricket XI of his house, and this entailed
