168 REMINISCENCES OF 



The meeting of the British Association was this 

 year held in Bristol. Leaving my people in their 

 farmhouse home, I went down for a few days, and 

 stayed at the house of Mr. Fry, the celebrated 

 chocolate manufacturer. My fellow guest was Dr. 

 Fair, Superintendent of the Statistical Department 

 of the General Register's Office. Fun and merriment 

 were not absent from the little circle. Among other 

 amusing facts narrated by Dr. Farr was the somewhat 

 startling one, that after the age of forty-five years, 

 eleven widows married to one maiden lady. 



During this visit I had an example of the erroneous 

 judgments arrived at from mere external appearances. 

 At a large breakfast-party where our host was a 

 member of the Bristol Corporation, I found myself 

 seated by the side of a gentleman, who was a stranger 

 to me. The scientific circle was brilliant, but my 

 neighbour never opened his lips so long as we sat 

 side by side. I tried to imagine who he was, and 

 concluded he was some one very much out of his 

 sphere, and very uncomfortable, with no interest in 

 the flow of conversation around him. Judge of my 

 astonishment when I discovered my silent neighbour 

 was no other than James Joseph Sylvester, and that 

 I, in my undiscerning stupidity, had spent a silent 

 hour side by side with one of the very foremost 

 mathematicians in the world. 



In 1876 the British Association held its meeting 

 in Glasgow, where my wife and I were the guests 

 of Mr. J. Napier, the active partner of the eminent 



