264 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



Lord Avebury's son, had for long been in most 

 indifferent health, so that the year opened with 

 a double anxiety. There are entries in the diary 

 recording that the state of one or the other 

 invalid became so critical that he hurried to see 

 him, fearing the worst, and then again that the 

 account was better and that there was hope of a 

 rally. But finally on March 19 he writes : " Poor 

 Beaumont died, after a long illness most patiently 

 borne. He will be much missed and much grieved 

 for." 



On May 5 his diary says, " Bad news of Rolfe," 

 and on the 11th, " The sad news of poor Rolfe's 

 death — a terrible loss." 



After these two blows it is little wonder that 

 on his silver wedding day, only a week later, he 

 writes : " Our silver wedding. We had looked 

 forward very much to it, but it is all so sad. 

 We had many nice presents and kind congratu- 

 lations," 



During all this year his own health seems on 

 the whole to have been good. He was very 

 variously busy, and played golf frequently. One 

 of his games was with Lord Selby, the Speaker, 

 but in November of this year he, another of 

 Lord Avebury's old friends, was taken. 



No doubt it will be readily understood that, 

 many as were the public functions which he 

 fulfilled during his life, the addresses and lectures 

 that he delivered, and so on, they were as nothing 

 in comparison with the requests which were 

 made to him, requests that he would often have 

 liked to comply with, had even his wonderful 

 economy of time made it possible. Anything 



