344 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEBS, 1886-1897 



To Ayerst Hooker 



May 18, 1890. 



I had the G.O.M. on my left at the dinner of * The Club : 

 last Tuesday. He is marvellous ! as full of interest in 

 everything in the shape of literature, Art, &c, as ever, and 

 as pleasant and vivacious, and really modest and unassuming 

 in conversation. I never saw a man wear so well at 80 ; 

 looking at his hands, they are not like those of a man of his 

 age ; and he enjoyed his dinner temperately. I soon found 

 out that he was not allowed to see the Times, for he was 

 deeply interested in the question of the mode of beheading 

 of Charles 1st, but did not know of its now being discussed ! 

 Nor did he know of Caprivi's speech 1 or that Prance had 20 

 millions of public debt. 2 I could not wonder at his living 

 in an atmosphere of illusions. 3 



In August he went to Scotland ; but the tour was cut short 

 by an alarm of diphtheria at home. The changes noted by him 

 in Edinburgh are interesting. 



To W. E. Darwin 



August 7, 1890. 



I did know it well 40 years ago, and now find the old 

 features as good and grand as ever, and miles of new added, 

 in good taste and with fine effects. 



The old town is almost replaced by new houses, which 

 however are not so conspicuously unlike the old as utterly 

 to destroy associations and sentiment ; and when one 

 remembers the intolerable filth, squalor, and stench of the 

 old town, one cannot regret the change. 



Nothing is more striking than the contrast in point of 

 good clothing for heads and feet, that distinguishes the 

 lowest orders of this and earlier days — though indeed bare 

 filthy feet and legs, and towzly heads of capless hair are still 

 too common. Above all I must mention that I saw but one 



1 His maiden speech as Chancellor : The Times, April 16. 



* Apparently a floating debt of 28 millions to be met by a loan. 



3 He had known Mr. Gladstone for many years, admiring his powers though 

 not following his politics. After meeting Mr. Gladstoneat Sir Harry Verney's 

 on March 8, 1878, he tells Mrs. Hodgson : ' I had, as usual, a long talk with 

 him. He was enthusiastic about America and the Californian trees, and the 

 methods of felling them and so forth. His memory is wonderful : he remem- 

 bered passages in books on Western America that he had read 40 years ago ! ' 



