CHARACTER 109 



nature, and his printed word is characterised by great 

 width of knowledge, untiring research, and an unusual 

 degree of accuracy. In trying to sum up Newton's 

 character one's " mind naturally reverts," as Mrs. R. 

 Wilfer said, to Dickens' description of Sir Leicester 

 Dedlock, " He is a gentleman of strict conscience, dis- 

 dainful of all littleness and meanness, and ready at the 

 shortest notice to die any death you may please to 

 mention rather than give occasion for the least im- 

 peachment of his integrity. He is an honourable, 

 obstinate, truthful, high-spirited . . . man." I have 

 left out the words " intensely prejudiced, perfectly un- 

 reasonable," because although at times Newton was 

 prejudiced and was unreasonable, the adjectives Dickens 

 used go beyond my estimate of these traits in his 

 character. 



Once more to quote what I wrote soon after his 

 death : 



When once you were a friend of Newton's, you were 

 always his friend. He was possessed of the old-fashioned 

 courtesy of manner, and a certain leisureliness of habit, 

 which made a visitor feel that he was not trespassing on 

 the time of his host. Both in appearance and in cha- 

 racter he had the finest attributes of the old race of 

 English country gentlemen, to which by birth he 

 belonged. 



