er of the Chartered
Company, in 1875; and in 1878 there came out from Edinburgh one whose
name was to be linked still more closely with that of Rhodes. Leander
Starr Jameson, a skilful doctor, a cheerful companion, gifted with a
great capacity for self-devotion, and with unshakeable firmness of will,
was now twenty-five years old. Rhodes and he soon drew closely together
and for years they were living under one roof. While his casual and
rather overbearing manners repelled many of his acquaintances, Rhodes
had a genius for friendship with the few; and it was such men as these
who shared his work, his pastimes, and his thoughts, and reconciled him
to spending many years in the unattractive surroundings of the mines.

[Note 60: C. D. Rudd (1844-96), educated at Harrow and Cambridge.]

[Note 61: Alfred Beit, born at Hamburg, 1853; died in London, 1906.]

But his life at this time had other phases. Not the least wonderful
chapter in it was the series of visits which he paid to Oxford between
1873 and 1881. The atmosphere of a mining camp does not seem likely to
draw a man towards academic studies and a University life. But Rhodes,
who had a great power of absorbing himself in work, had also the power
of projecting himself beyond the interests of the moment. Seven times he
found opportunity to tear himself away from the busy work of mining and
to keep terms at Oxford; and they made a lasting impression upon him. It
was not the love of book-learning, still less the love of games, which
drew him there. To many he may have seemed to be spending his time
unprofitably. He indulged in some rowing and polo, he was master of the
drag-hounds, he worried his neighbours by nocturnal practising of the
horn. The examinations in the schools, and the more popular athletic
contests, knew little of him. But his sojourn in Oxford was a tribute
paid by the higher side of his mind to education and to the value of
high thinking as compared with material progress; and no one who knew
him well in later life could doubt that the traditions of Oxford had
deeply influenced his mind. On these things he was by nature reticent,
and was often misjudged.

Between the years 1878 and 1888 must be placed the struggle between him
and his rivals for predominance in Kimberley. It had begun with small
enterprises, the purchasing of adjoining claims, the undertaking of
drainage work, the introduction of better machinery. It attracted more
attention in 1880 wit