A ZOOLOGICAL ANECDOTE 237 



matter-of-fact purpose, and ** gossipy " is the last word 

 that could be used of them, but his quiet (if somewhat 

 caustic) humour relieved the dryness of many a page. 

 He loved telling and hearing humorous stories — Dr. 

 Guillemard remarks elsewhere that he laughed with his 

 whole body — and he often passed them on in letters to 

 his friends. The following was written as a postscript 

 to a letter * to Mrs. Hugh Strickland dealing with the 

 legal terms of a bequest to the Museum : — 



Here is a zoological anecdote. Mr. G. X. is very 

 ugly and hairy. He went to call at a house a few days 

 ago and found only a little girl in the drawing-room. 

 He began to say something civil to her but she would 

 not answer. At last he said, " You don't know who I 

 am ? " *' Yes, I do," she replied, " I gave you a bun at 

 the Zoological Gardens last Sunday — and, you naughty 

 man, you had no clothes on ! " 



Newton wrote with a blunt quill pen a firm and 

 distinctive, but too often illegible, handwriting which 

 frequently bafHed the recipients of his letters : — 



Magd. Coll., 



May 26, 1892. 



My dear Potter, 



... I hope we may see you here one of 

 these days, and you know you will always be welcome 

 in my rooms. Poor Babington makes very little 

 progress, and I doubt whether he will get about again. 

 His doctor assured me to-day that it is only a bad form 

 of gout — a disease from which his very abstemious 

 habits ought to have kept him free — but it is said that 

 he has been a martyr since his marriage to sweet 

 puddings — so I pray you to take warning and believe 

 me to be, 



Yours very truly, 



Alfred Newton. 



* July 6, 1878. 



