XVI LIFE AT EASTBOXJRNE 421 



possibility of a constitutional. But the high expanse 

 of the Downs was his favourite walk. The air of 

 Beachy Head, 560 feet up, was an unfailing tonic. 

 In the summer he used to keep a look-out for the 

 little flowers of the short, close turf of the chalk 

 which could remind him of his Alpine favourites, in 

 particular the curious phyteuma; and later on, in 

 the folds of the hills where he had marked them, the 

 English gentians. 



After his walk, a cup of tea was followed by more 

 reading or writing till seven ; after dinner another 

 pipe, and then he would return to my mother in the 

 drawing-room, and settle down in his particular arm- 

 chair, with some tough volume of history or theology 

 to read, every now and again scoring a passage for 

 future reference, or jotting a brief note on the margin. 

 At ten he would migrate to the study for a final smoke 

 before going to bed. 



Such was his routine, broken by occasional visits 

 to town on business, for he was still Dean of the 

 Eoyal College of Science and a trustee of the British 

 Museum. Old friends came occasionally to stay for 

 a few days, and tea-time would often bring one or 

 two of the small circle of friends whom he had made 

 in Eastbourne. These also he occasionally visited, 

 but he scarcely ever dined out. The talking was too 

 tiring. 



The change to Eastbourne cut away a whole 

 series of interests, but it imported a new and very 

 strong one into my father's life. His garden was 



