CHAPTER XXIV 



VARIOUS ACTIVITIES (1891) 



(Age 57) 



The diary for 1891 opens on rather a delightful 

 note. " January 1. Baby has not been very 

 well. He said to Alice, ' If father knew his 'ittle 

 boy was ill, he would come to him.' When I 

 came home I asked him how he was. He said, 

 6 Better. Not quite better. Not dead yet.' I 

 asked him if he had any pain. He said, ' Little 

 headache — in my head — that's a funny place.' " 



Perhaps the inference is that a more familiar 

 place for an ache was a little lower. 



Early in the year Sir John had some corre- 

 spondence with Mr. E. T. (now Sir Edward) Cook, 

 at that time editing the Pall Mall Gazette, on the 

 subject of the list of the best hundred books which 

 that paper had published as a pamphlet. Sir 

 John was invited at the same time to give a list 

 of those which he considered to be the best ten 

 modern books. His reply shows that he did not 

 feel himself quite able to comply with the sugges- 

 tion, but the alterations that he made in his own 

 list of the " best hundred " are not without 

 interest : 



307 



