George Kingsley 



square -shouldered man. His strong, mobile face 

 was sunburnt and weather-beaten like the face of a 

 sailor ; his fearless, brilliant gray eyes looked right 

 into the hearts of those who spoke with him ; his 

 whole form was alert and instinct with the warm, 

 passionate spirit of life ; and his conversation, ranging 

 easily through every subject from philosophy to 

 fishing, full of dry humour and flashing with brilliant 

 wit and trenchant repartee, had a charm which was 

 absolutely irresistible. In a few quiet sentences he 

 could give more facts, suggest more ideas, than many 

 a man could give in a laboured monologue of an 

 hour's duration. 



He knew books only less well than he knew men, 

 men only less well than he knew Nature ; while he 

 was gifted with the power to make those around him 

 realise, and that without the slightest sign of effort 

 on his part to impress or astonish, that he had 

 really looked upon the strange scenes he described, 

 and played his part in the wild places and conditions 

 he so casually referred to. 



Many-minded, truly, was George Kingsley: loving 

 the lore of the old Hebrew mystics, loving the 

 glorious, manly poetry of the great Elizabethan 

 dramatists, loving science, loving the company of 

 his fellow-men ; but beyond all else, loving to be 

 in the wild heart of Nature, far away from the 

 clamour and turmoil of crowded cities, listening to 

 the lore of forests or the voices of the sea. 



He was born on the 14th of February 1826, at 



