148 Mary Somerville. 



we had much conversation on a variety of sub- 

 jects, scientific or general. He was remarkably 

 acute in his observations on objects as we passed 

 them. " Look at that ash tree ; did you ever 

 notice that the branches of the ash tree are 

 curves of double curvature ?" There was a comet 

 visible at the time of one of these little journeys. 

 Dr. Wollaston had made a drawing of the orbit and 

 its elements ; but, having left it in town, he de- 

 scribed the lines so accurately without naming 

 them, that I remarked at once, "That is the curtate 

 or perihelion distance," which pleased him greatly, 

 as it showed how accurate his description was. He 

 was a chess-player, and, when travelling alone, he 

 used to carry a book with diagrams of partially- 

 played games, in which it is required to give check- 

 mate in a fixed number of moves. He would 

 study one of them, and then, shutting the book, 

 play out the game mentally. 



Although Sir John was a keen sportsman and 

 fox-hunter in his youth, he was remarkable for his 

 kindness to animals and for the facility with which 

 he tamed them. He kept terriers, and his pointers 

 were first rate, yet he never allowed his keepers to 

 beat a dog, nor did he ever do it himself; he said a 

 dog once cowed was good for nothing ever after. 

 He trained them by tying a string to the collar and 



