78 REMINISCENCES. ch. iv.J 



how in South America he killed twenty-three snipe in 

 twenty-four shots. In telling the story he was careful to 

 add that he thought they were not quite so wild as English 

 snipe. 



Luncheon at Down came after his mid-dav walk ; and 

 here I may say a word or two about his meals generally. 

 He had a boy-like love of sweets, unluckily for himself, 

 since he was constantly forbidden to take them. He was 

 not particularly successful in keeping the " vows," as he 

 called them, which he made against eating sweets, and 

 never considered them binding unless he made them aloud. 



He drank very little wine, but enjoyed and was revived 

 by the little he did drink. He had a horror of drinking, 

 and constantly warned his boys that any one might be led 

 into drinking too much. I remember, in my innocence as 

 a small boy, asking him if he had been ever tipsy ; and he 

 answered very gravely that he was ashamed to say he had 

 once drunk too much at Cambridge. I was much im- 

 pressed, so that I know now the place where the question 

 was asked. 



After his lunch he read the newspaper, lying on the 

 sofa in the drawing-room. I think the paper was the only 

 non-scientific matter which he read to himself. Everything 

 else, novels, travels, history, was read aloud to him. He 

 took so wide an interest in life, that there was much to oc- 

 cupy him in newspapers, though he laughed at the wordi- 

 ness of the debates, reading them, I think, only in abstract. 

 His interest in politics was considerable, but his opinion on 

 these matter was formed rather by the way than with any 

 serious amount of thought. 



After he had read his paper, came his time for writing 

 letters. These, as well as the MS. of his books, were writ- 

 ten by him as he sat in a huge horse-hair chair by the fire, 

 his paper supported on a board resting on the arms of the 

 chair. When he had many or long letters to write, he 

 would dictate them from a rough copy ; these rough copies 

 were written on the backs of manuscript or of proof-sheets, 

 and were almost illegible, sometimes even to himself. He 

 made a rule of keeping all letters that he received ; this was 

 a habit which he learnt from his father, and which he said 

 had been of great use to him. 



Many letters were addressed to him by foolish, unscrupu- 

 lous people, and all of these received replies. He used to 

 say that if he did not answer them, he had it on his con- 



