xi SCIENCE AND ARCHAEOLOGY 93 



British Association, and read a paper " On the 

 Primitive Conditions of Man," which was 

 described by the Spectator as " perhaps the 

 most interesting paper of the meeting." On 

 the Sunday he went over to St. Andrews to spend 

 the day with Mr. Robert Chambers, the publisher. 

 Mr. Chambers was a good and ardent golfer, but 

 it is not mentioned that Sir John Lubbock took 

 any interest in the game at that time, though he 

 was to become a keen player in his later life. 

 The extent to which he sacrificed inclination to 

 duty in giving so little time as he did to sport 

 or games has perhaps not been recognised as it 

 should be. In 1902 Mr. Sydney Buxton (now 

 Lord Buxton) published a book of sporting 

 reminiscences and sketches, of which Lord Ave- 

 bury writes to him : 



6 St. James' Square, London, S.W. 

 5th Nov. 1902. 



My dear Sydney — I mean to read your book (Fish- 

 ing and Shooting). Hunting, shooting and fishing 

 interest me only too much. Sometimes I despise myself 

 and at others hope I shall be rewarded for my virtue in 

 giving them up ! — Yours affectionately, Avebury. 



With regard to the above brief note Lord 

 Buxton observes : " This appears to me to throw 

 a very vivid light on one side of Lord Avebury' s 

 character — that of suppression of interest and 

 desire where they would appear likely to inter- 

 fere with concentration and application elsewhere, 

 in regard to matters to which he wished to apply 

 his mind and energy." 



Lord Avebury' s life was so full and varied that 

 its story does not readily suggest that any large 

 sacrifice of possible interests and pleasures was 



