102 



REMINISCENCES. 



most to tears by grand or pathetic songs. His niece Lady 

 Farrer's singing of Sullivan's " Will he come " was a never- 

 failing enjoyment to him. He was humble in the extreme 

 about his own taste, and correspondingly pleased when he 

 found that others agreed with him. 



He became much tired in the evenings, especially of late 

 years, when he left the drawing-room about ten, going to bed 

 at half-past ten. His nights were generally bad, and he often 

 lay awake or sat up in bed for hours, suffering much discom- 

 fort. He was troubled at night by the activity of his thoughts, 

 and would become exhausted by his mind working at some 

 problem which he would willingly have dismissed. At night, 

 too, anything which had vexed or troubled him in the day 

 would haunt him, and I think it was then that he suffered if 

 he had not answered some troublesome person's letter. 



The regular readings, which I have mentioned, continued 

 for so many years, enabled him to get through a great deal 

 of the lighter kinds of literature. He was extremely fond of 

 novels, and I remember well the way in which he would an- 

 ticipate the pleasure of having a novel read to him, as he lay 

 down, or lighted his cigarette. He took a vivid interest both 

 in plot and characters, and would on no account know before- 

 hand, how a story finished ; he considered looking at the end 

 of a novel as a feminine vice. He could not enjoy any story 

 with a tragical end, for this reason he did not keenly appreci- 

 ate George Eliot, though he often spoke Avarmly in praise of 

 * Silas Marner.' Walter Scott, Miss Austen, and Mrs. Gaskell, 

 were read and re-read till they could be read no more. He 

 had two or three books in hand at the same time — a novel 

 and perhaps a biography and a book of travels. He did not 

 often read out-of-the-way or old standard books, but gener- 

 ally kept to the books of the day obtained from a circulating 

 library. 



I do not think that his literary tastes and opinions were 

 on a level with the rest of his mind. He himself, though he 

 was clear as to what he thought good, considered that in 

 matters of literary taste, he was quite outside the pale, and 



