6 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK oh. 



unidentified hand, it is written that " he was a 

 most kind and devoted husband and father, 

 and made his children, eleven in number, his 

 constant companions, teaching them in the early 

 morning, before starting for the City, and playing 

 with them on his return. He never allowed his 

 children's questions to go unanswered, and 

 delighted in watching the development of their 

 minds. He was much struck by a question of 

 his eldest child, the present Sir John Lubbock, 

 then about four years old, who sat on the 

 rug watching some paper burning in the fire : 

 c Where do burnt things go to ? ' " Doubtless 

 all that his children did was of interest to him, 

 but there is abundant evidence that his authority 

 was very strictly enforced. 



I will ask the reader to note this query of 

 Lord Avebury's because we shall find, at a later 

 period, this faculty of asking himself (and others) 

 questions as to the " why " of the common 

 phenomena which surround us very finely 

 developed. And we shall see, too, that it was a 

 faculty which led him to highly interesting 

 conclusions. 



In the same year, 1838, when he was just 

 turned four, there is the following note about 

 him in his mother's diary : " His great delight is 

 in Insects. Butterflies, Caterpillars or Beetles 

 are great treasures, and he is watching a large 

 spider outside my window most anxiously." 



During his earliest years he, in company with 

 his father and mother, used to spend many weeks 

 at the house of his grandfather and grandmother 

 at Mitcham Grove, and in the then pellucid 



