It was the very same man who now, as I'm writing, keeps whacking me, mechanically and impassively, with an umbrella.
Commentators talked of natural genius, as though he was still a seven-year-old whacking a pebble with a home-made club on a beach in Cantabria.
Dr Grundy quickly established that his chest pains sprang from a muscle he had strained through overzealous weed-whacking.