138 REMINISCENCES. 



alities of my many cats, and would talk about the habits 

 and characters of the more remarkable ones years after they 

 had died. 



" Another characteristic of his treatment of his children was 

 his respect for their liberty, and for their personality. Even 

 as quite a girl, I remember rejoicing in this sense of freedom. 

 Our father and mother would not even wish to know what we 

 were doing or thinking unless we wished to tell. He always 

 made us feel that we were each of us creatures whose opinions 

 and thoughts were valuable to him, so that whatever there 

 was best in us came out in the sunshine of his presence. 



" I do not think his exaggerated sense of our good qualities, 

 intellectual or moral, made us conceited, as might perhaps 

 have been expected, but rather more humble and grateful to 

 him. The reason being no doubt that the influence of his 

 character, of his sincerity and greatness of nature, had a much 

 deeper and more lasting effect than any small exaltation 

 which his praises or admiration may have caused to our 

 vanity." 



As head of a household he was much loved and respected ; 

 he always spoke to servants with politeness, using the expres- 

 sion, "would you be so good," in asking for anything. He 

 was hardly ever angry with his servants ; it shows how seldom 

 this occurred, that when, as a small boy, I overheard a servant 

 being scolded, and my father speaking angrily, it impressed 

 me as an appalling circumstance, and I remember running up 

 stairs out of a general sense of awe. He did not trouble 

 himself about the management of the garden, cows, &c. 

 He considered the horses so little his concern, that he used 

 to ask doubtfully whether he might have a horse and cart 

 to send to Keston for Drosera, or to the Westerham nurseries 

 for plants, or the like. 



As a host my father had a peculiar charm : the presence of 

 visitors excited him, and made him appear to his best ad van- 



