72 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK 



CH. 



letter of a son to a father ? We do not often 

 find brothers writing to another that they will 

 be " strictly subservient to any wishes of yours," 

 even though, as in this case, the promised sub- 

 serviency is held out rather in the way of a bribe 

 for the elder's complacency. The whole tone of 

 the letter bears witness to the paternal attitude 

 of Sir John towards the younger brothers, and 

 their almost filial view of him. It is curious to 

 see how the boy instructs the man, as if forgetting 

 that the latter too had been at Eton, in the 

 enormous value of such distinctions as the 

 Captaincy of the Eleven and the Presidency of 

 " Pop." Among brothers, who were Etonians, 

 these things would commonly go without saying. 

 The younger even suggests a doubt whether the 

 elder as much as knew that Eton had lost to 

 Harrow at " Lord's " ; and this, although Sir 

 John, as we have seen, was himself a keen 

 cricketer. 



It is an illuminating letter in the light that 

 it throws on the relations between the brothers. 

 It could hardly have been written except as a 

 consequence of a life at High Elms in which the 

 eldest brother was regarded as rather apart 

 from the rest — a little above the others, may be — 

 but it speaks of an isolation that sounds a little 

 pathetic. At the same time it bears witness 

 to the very serious bent of Sir John's mind, 

 grave beyond his age, although he was always 

 a very social being, and even to the latest years 

 of his life liked to have friends of both sexes and 

 of all ages about him. 



His father had lived long enough to have 



