members of what would become known as the ‘Bloomsbury group’. He attended the group's early gatherings at Gordon Square and Fitzroy Square, and became attracted to Virginia Stephen, to whom he proposed on a punt on the Cam in May 1909, only to be rejected. Another Cambridge friendship, made through his brother Geoffrey, was with G. M. Trevelyan and in Spring 1906 he accompanied the historian during a retracement of the route of Garibaldi's retreat which became the basis for Trevelyan's Garibaldi trilogy. The second work in the trilogy—Garibaldi and the Thousand—was dedicated to the Young brothers and contained 15 photographs taken by Hilton. First World War Enlisting in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 22 August 1914 and commissioned in September, he served in a wide variety of theatres and actions in the First World War, including the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. He served on HMS Cyclops then from September 1914. That autumn he wrote to his brother that it was “really rather wonderful” to be serving on Admiral Jellicoe's flagship. In a letter in October he mentioned a sailors’ entertainment for “the admiral’s” benefit including some sailors dancing the can-can. However, by February 1915 he was chafing at the “inoccupation” of the Grand Fleet, in the absence of any major sea battle. A literary consequence of his war service was A Muse at Sea, a compilation of his poems initially published in the Ducal Weekly (the Iron Duke'''s newspaper), and also in the Morning Post, the Cornhill Magazine and the Nation. He also rendered other types of service to his friends Lytton Strachey and Clive Bell during the War. In 1908 he had bought a thatched cottage for weekend use, The Lacket, at Lockeridge near Marlborough. During 1914–15 he rented the cottage to Strachey who drafted the first two chapters of his Eminent Victorians there. While on active service on at Scapa Flow, in February 1915 he was elected unopposed as a Liberal MP at a by-election for the seat of Norwich. In April 1915 he received a letter from Vanessa Bell, in response to his request for a letter making no mention of the war, telling him of the doings of the Bloomsbury Set, including “Bertie” Russell, Lytton Strachey and Ottoline Morrell. In May 1915, while still serving on HMS Iron Duke, the first edition of his System of National Finance appeared. Through further editions in