REMINISCENCES. 



Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, 

 The sweeping vales and foaming floods, 



Are free alike to all. 

 In days when daisies deck the ground, 



And blackbirds whistle clear. 

 With honest joy our hearts will bound 

 To see the coming year. 



Burns. 



I By the Rev. J. A. Babington.* 



The following lines from the pen of a relative who knew 

 him intimately may be of interest to some readers. 



It is always difficult to give strangers a true and adequate 

 picture of a dear relative and an intimate friend ; but to draw a 

 picture of Charles Cardale Babington is a task of peculiar difficulty, 

 for no one could have been more retiring and self-repressed, or 

 more reluctant to obtrude his thoughts and opinions unsolicited. 

 Indeed, his humility was perhaps the most striking feature of his 

 beautiful character. You might have discussed Botany with him 

 by the hour, without discovering from any words of his that he had 

 gained a European reputation in that particular branch of science. 

 There was nothing dogmatic in his tone, nothing overbearing in his 

 arguments, no shade of contempt for the opinions of others less 

 gifted, no tinge of jealousy lest his reputation should be eclipsed 

 by the fame of rivals. It was probably this virtue which made 

 him so patient a listener. The most ignorant and importunate 

 questioner could not weary or annoy him ; he was as ready to 

 bring out the rich stores of his knowledge for the humblest be- 

 ginner as for the ablest man of science, to explain what was 

 obscure, to restate truths which were not apprehended, to set 

 facts in their true relation to theories. If it be asked what was 

 the source of this humility, I should unhesitatingly reply, his 

 religious faith. His life was a perpetual commentary on St. Paul's 

 words, " What hast thou that thou didst not receive ? Now if 

 thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not 



• The Rev. John Albert Babington, third son of Thomas Gisborne Babington 

 (of Trinity College, Cambridge, B.A. 1811, M.A. 1815), Esq., of Namur. The son 

 was of New College, Oxford, B.A. and M.A. 1872. Born 13 Nov. 1843, married 

 29 June 1876 Emily Elizabeth, daughter of William Gardner (of Qu. Coll. Cambr. 

 B.A. 1848, M.A. 1852), Vicar of Orpington. Mr. Babington was Assistant Master 

 at Marlborough College 1867 — 75, Head Master of Lincoln Grammar School 1875 

 — 80 ; he has been Assistant Master at Tonbridge School since 1880. 



