172 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



the variety and amount of information he had written 

 in it, in his small, clear handwriting. 



Lawrence Oliphant had a most winning manner 

 and a marvellous facility of expression. I have 

 served on more Council meetings than could easily 

 be reckoned, and am only too familiar with the often 

 recurring difficulty of finding a phrase that shall cover 

 just as much of the question under discussion as is 

 generally accepted, without touching any part on 

 which there is disagreement. Oliphant had the art 

 of hitting upon the appropriate phrase on these 

 occasions more deftly and aptly than any one else 

 whom I can remember. We worked together most 

 pleasantly as joint secretaries under the presidency 

 of John Crawfurd, the Ethnologist, who nicknamed 

 us his two sons. 



I had the great pleasure of again falling in with 

 Mansfield Parkyns of Abyssinian fame, at Admiral 

 Murray's hospitable gatherings. 



Amonff manv other distinguished travellers who 

 were in England during the fifties, I should mention 

 Dr. Barth, who was a learned and simple-minded 

 man. The five volumes of his travels in North Africa 

 have the merits and demerits of many German books, 

 being full of information but deterrent in form. I 

 suspect that few Englishmen have read them through 

 as conscientiously as I did. He was a great believer 

 in the importance of the Hausa language to traders 

 and settlers. It was then practically unknown even 

 to professed linguists, so he brought over with him a 

 bright Hausa boy to help him and others in learning- 

 it. I never knew exactly what happened, but it seems 

 there was evidence that the boy had expressed a wish 



