Activities
He shuns his administrative duties, and generally has a secretary to handle such things; amongst the occupants of this post have been the likes of Hugo Carmody, Monty Bodkin and Psmith, although by far the best known, and least appreciated by his Lordship, is Rupert Baxter, the bespectacled efficiency expert, who made Emsworth's life a misery with his ruthless organisation of his master's precious time.
Emsworth's favourite pastimes are his pig and his garden, and he spends many a happy hour pottering about it, arguing with his gardeners, especially Angus McAllister, whose desire to gravel the famous Yew Alley is particularly upsetting to his Lordship, and with his pig-keepers, who include Wellbeloved, Pirbright, and the Amazonian Monica Simmons.
He won first prize for roses at the Shrewsbury Flower Show, the same year Psmith's father won the tulip prize, and he is invariably amongst the competitors in Shropshire's Agriculture Show. He has some success in the field of large pumpkins, taking first prize in the competition with his "Blandings Hope" (cruelly nicknamed "Percy" by his son Freddie). He later enters his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings, who wins the coveted Fat Pigs contest several years in a row. The Empress's primary competitor is the Pride of Matchingham, who belongs to Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Emsworth's neighbour and rival. Once the pig fever has taken him, he is mostly to be found draped bonelessly over the pig pen, looking like an old sock.
In less salubrious weather he likes to mess around in his museum, or sit comfortably in the library, reading some informative tome of agricultural lore; his favourite being, of course, Whiffle on The Care of the Pig. A well-preserved fellow, he has a swim in the lake every morning he can, and has a fondness for amateur medicine, never happier than when trying out some new unction.
Read more about this topic: Lord Emsworth
Famous quotes containing the word activities:
“When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental—far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“...I have never known a “movement” in the theater that did not work direct and serious harm. Indeed, I have sometimes felt that the very people associated with various “uplifting” activities in the theater are people who are astoundingly lacking in idealism.”
—Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932)
“If it is to be done well, child-rearing requires, more than most activities of life, a good deal of decentering from one’s own needs and perspectives. Such decentering is relatively easy when a society is stable and when there is an extended, supportive structure that the parent can depend upon.”
—David Elkind (20th century)