Sea Scouting

In the words of Baden-Powell, from "Lessons on the 'Varsity of Life."

       Although I had missed the guidance of a father, I, as seventh son, got a good training at the hands of my brothers during my holidays. These all had the sporting instinct strongly developed and were good comrades together, first-rate swimmers, footballers, oarsmen, etc. All were good at devising things that they could not afford to buy, even to building a boat.
       We built our own huts, made our fishing, rabbit, and bird-trapping nets, and thus caught and cooked our own food to our hearts’ and stomachs’ content.
       In all of this I, as junior, had to take my share of the work, especially that part of it which would naturally be delegated to a junior, such as gutting the fish and rabbits (a really filthy job!), some of the cooking, and very much of the washing up.
       But it was all very good for me.
       As money came in we were able to buy a collapsible boat, in which three of us, among other expeditions, made the journey from London up the Thames to practically its source, then with a portage over the hills we went down the Avon via Bristol, across the Severn, and up the Wye to our then small home in Wales. A fairly adventurous journey, especially when crossing seven miles of Severn in our cockle-shell, but at the same time a very educative one for me.
       Eventually, when our money ran to it, we brothers became owners of a ten-ton cutter, built to my brother Warrington’s design, and in her we had the time of our lives, cruising round the coasts of Scotland and England at all seasons of the year. Many a scrape — in both senses of the word — we got into and  got out of and thereby gained a lot of useful experiences.
       Some of these I will deal with later, but from the educational point of view the discipline, the endurance of hardships and the facing of danger involved in this cruising, were points of lasting value in one’s training for life.

Education at Home

In the words of Baden-Powell, from "Lessons on the 'Varsity of Life."

       My education came from several sources — home, school, travel, sport, etc.
       Now, some of you will think — “Yes, that’s all very well, but you (meaning me) probably had a good start with lots of money and tons of luck.” I certainly had tons of luck. But luck is a thing like pluck, you may have some of it come to you, but you can make it to a very large extent for yourself.
       But I certainly had no money.  When your father is a clergyman with fourteen children, and you are the last but two, there is not much money flying around for you.
       From my father I derived but little in the way of education for he died when I was but three years old.
       This was a great loss to me for he was a man of many parts.
       Fortunately for me my father’s character was attacked some nine years after his death, by Dr. Pusey, who wrote such imputations against his Christianity which drew a chorus of indignation and refutation from those who had known him and admired his broad-minded views. If these were in advance of their time (for he was a scientist as well as a preacher) they were views which are freely discussed and generally accepted to-day. Had it not been for this defense of him I might never have known his qualities.
       The whole secret of my getting on lay with my mother, born Henrietta Grace Smyth. How that wonderful woman managed to bring us all up, so that none of us did badly; and how she did not kill herself with the anxiety and strain I do not know and cannot understand.
       Not only did she, though a poor widow, feed, clothe and educate us, but she found time to do other work in the world. It was her influence that guided me through life more than any precepts or discipline that I may have learned at school.