CH> IT .] REMINISCENCES. 77 



and white flowers of Dielytra. In the same way he had an 

 affection, half-artistic, half-botanical, for the little blue Lo- 

 belia. In admiring flowers, he would often laugh at the 

 dinoy high-art colours, and contrast them with the bright 

 tints of nature. I used to like to hear him admire the 

 beauty of a flower; it was a kind of gratitude to the flower 

 itself, and a personal love for its delicate form and colour. 

 I seem to remember him gently touching a flower he de- 

 lighted in ; it was the same simple admiration that a child 

 might have. 



He could not help personifying natural things. This 

 feeling came out in abuse as well as in praise e. g. of some 

 seedlings " The little beggars are doing just what I don't 

 want them to." He would speak in a half-provoked, half- 

 admiring way of the ingenuity of the leaf of a Sensitive 

 Plant in screwing itself out of a basin of water in which 

 he had tried to fix it. One might see the same spirit in his 

 way of speaking of Sundew, earthworms, &c* 



Within my memory, his only outdoor recreation, besides 

 walking, was riding ; this was taken up at the recommenda- 

 tion of Dr. Bence Jones, and we had the luck to find for 

 him the easiest and quietest cob in the world, named 

 " Tommy." He enjoyed these rides extremely, and devised 

 a series of short rounds which brought him home in time 

 for lunch. Our country is good for this purpose, owing to 

 the number of small valleys which give a variety to what in 

 a flat country would be a dull loop of road. I think he felt 

 surprised at himself, when he remembered how bold a rider 

 he had been, and how utterly old age and bad health had 

 taken away his nerve. He would say that riding prevented 

 him thinking much more effectually than walking that 

 having to attend to the horse gave him occupation sufficient 

 to prevent any really hard thinking. And the change of 

 scene which it gave him was good for spirits and health. 



If I go beyond my own experience, and recall what I 

 have heard him say of his love for sport, &c, I can think 

 of a good deal, but much of it would be a repetition of 

 what is contained in his Recollections. He was fond of his 

 gun as quite a boy, and became a good shot ; he used to tell 



* Cf. Leslie Stephen's Swift, 1882, p. 200, where Swift's inspection of the 

 manners and customs of servants are compared to my father's observations on 

 worms, " The difference is," says Mr. Stephen, " that Darwin had none hut 

 kindly feelings for worms." * 



