1 84 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



Westminster, if he knew who was its author. He 

 replied, "Myself." It is to be regretted that no good 

 biography exists of W. Spottiswoode. Many notices 

 were published at his death, and it gratified me to 

 learn that one which I wrote for the Royal 

 Geographical Society on one aspect of his many- 

 sided character greatly pleased his family and some 

 of his intimate friends. 



The main features of his life were that he was the 

 son of the then Oueen's Printer, of orood Scottish 

 family, and the presumed heir to a considerable 

 fortune. He went to Oxford, where he obtained the 

 University Scholarship in mathematics, and where 

 also intelligence reached him of the entire collapse of 

 his father's fortune through unwise speculation. He 

 braced himself to the occasion, and, after many years 

 of hard work, himself succeeding his father as Queen's 

 Printer, he created a model business on the largest 

 scale, and rehabilitated the lost fortune. In the 

 meantime he had sufficient spare energy to occupy 

 himself day by day with congenial pursuits in 

 literature and science. Among other diversions he 

 loved to travel considerable distances during the 

 few weeks he annually allowed himself for vacation, 

 and to acquire much knowledge of other countries in 

 that way. Enormously worked as he was, he always 

 seemed to have leisure, and he did with thoroughness 

 whatever he undertook. 



At this time there was still much ignorance con- 

 cerning the northern part of the peninsula of Sinai, 

 especially of the plain of El Tih, and he suggested 

 to me that by making judicious preparations its survey 

 might be accomplished within the short space of time 



