173 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



Prehistoric Times, and had attracted the friendship 

 of most of the men of the day who were destined to 

 become famous in science. His week-end invitations 

 were always most instructive and grateful. It is 

 difficult justly to express the value of such oppor- 

 tunities of friendly and unhurried converse. I 

 received great kindness and much warm welcome 

 at his house, and was captivated by the ingenuity of 

 his experiments on ants and bees. 



Amongst many friends whose acquaintance I first 

 made at Sir John Lubbock's was Herbert Spencer, 

 then struo-alinor with difficulties connected with his 

 serial publications. They were removed by the 

 unexpected visit of an American gentleman, with a 

 gold watch, who made a brief oration to the effect 

 that Spencer's admirers in America feared the cessation 

 of his publications in pamphlet form owing to financial 

 reasons. That they had consequently subscribed and 

 invested a (handsome) sum in his name in Consols, 

 and had further deputed him the speaker to present 

 the sfold watch as a token of their esteem. It was 

 a touching and cheering event to Spencer, who always 

 wore the watch. It, moreover, went well, which was 

 not invariably the case with costly presentation 

 watches in those days. 



I met Herbert Spencer frequently at the Athen- 

 aeum, and had many conversations with him there. 

 He was always ready to listen sympathetically to 

 new views and to express his opinion on them, but 

 he disliked to argue. I persuaded him once to go 

 with me to see the Derby, in company with a near 

 relative of mine who was an Oxford clerical don. 

 These two were perhaps as incongruous a pair in 



