392 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



he laughingly shook his head. He was deservedly 

 proud of his Bishopsgate Institute, and on the occa- 

 sion of a lecture which I gave there on December 

 1 9th, 1895, ne took the chair although the evening 

 was a bitterly cold one. I was amused at the kindly 

 but autocratic manner in which he treated the audi- 

 ence. They were marshalled into their seats, and 

 when the time for beginning arrived, the doors were 

 locked, no further admission being permitted, in 

 order that perfect quiet should be maintained. Then, 

 in his humorous and unsophisticated way, he intro- 

 duced the lecturer, and I went through my perform- 

 ance, which seemed to meet with the approval of 

 the audience. Shortly afterwards I was shocked to 

 hear of the death of my old friend ; and I have some- 

 times thought that I may have been, unwittingly, the 

 cause, for that was the last occasion on which he 

 appeared in public, and perhaps he caught a fatal chill 

 sitting in the draughty room. 



I attended his funeral at Mickleham Church, the 

 old man was laid to rest, close to where he had so 

 long lived ; but I have often fancied that he would 

 rather have lain within the sound of the busy hum 

 of Bishopsgate than under the whispering trees of 

 Mickleham. 



My friend, the late Sir Wemyss Reid, was also 

 a welcome guest at our house. I met him first on 

 a political platform in Leeds when he was editor 

 of the Mercury, and when he was good enough to 

 introduce me to the audience. Long afterwards he 

 and I became intimate, as he was my neighbour in 

 South Kensington. We had many ideas and friends 

 in common, and I have often spent a pleasant hour 

 in his company, for he was a rare good fellow, and 

 /d raconteur of the first water. Moreover, his literary 



