148 GEOBGE JOHN ROMANES 



He was very catholic in his musical tastes, except 

 perhaps that Italian opera never greatly fascinated 

 him. Wagner's operas, on the other hand, became a 

 great delight, particularly after a visit to Baireuth in 

 1889, where he saw ' Parsifal ' and ' Meistersinger.' 



Politics interested Mr. Romanes moderately. He 

 was by nature and by family tradition a Conservative, 

 but he cared very little for parties, and admired great 

 men on whichever side of the House they sat. 



Perhaps of all living politicians, the one for whom 

 he had the greatest enthusiasm and respect was 

 Mr. Arthur Balfour. For him, both as a politician 

 and as a thinker, Mr. Romanes had an unbounded 

 admiration. In 1880 came the first of many visits 

 to Oxford. This time Mr. Romanes and his wife 

 were Mr. Francis Paget's guests, and met in his 

 rooms at Christ Church Dr. Liddon and Mr. Scott 

 Holland. 



EXTKACTS FROM JOURNAL ' 



Feb. 1881. Went to Mr. Norman Lockyer. Seve- 

 ral people, including William Black, the novelist, 

 were there. After Mr. Lockyer had shown us several 

 experiments in spectrum analysis, a lady asked him 

 i What is the use of the spectroscope ? ' Called on 

 Mr. Cotter Morison and saw some beautiful books. 

 He is a wonderfully good talker. 



June 1881. Dinner at the Spottiswoodes'. Mr. 

 Browning was there and talked much about Victor 

 Hugo. He mentioned that when Wordsworth was 

 told that Miss Barrett had married Mr. Browning, 



1 It should be explained that the writer of this memoir is responsible 

 for the Journal, but as it was kept for the benefit of both husband and 

 wife a few extracts are given. 



