H6 REMINISCENCES. 



advantage. At Shrewsbury, he used to say, it was his father's 

 wish that the guests should be attended to constantly, and in 

 one of the letters to Fox he speaks of the impossibility of 

 writing a letter while the house was full of company. I think 

 he always felt uneasy at not doing more for the entertainment 

 of his guests, but the result was successful ; and, to make up 

 for any loss, there was the gain that the guests felt perfectly 

 free to do as they liked. The most usual visitors were those 

 who stayed from Saturday till Monday ; those who remained 

 longer were generally relatives, and were considered to be 

 rather more my mother's affair than his. 



Besides these visitors, there were foreigners and other 

 strangers, who came down for luncheon and went away in 

 the afternoon. He used conscientiously to represent to them 

 the enormous distance of Down from London, and the labour 

 it would be to come there, unconsciously taking for granted 

 that they would find the journey as toilsome as he did him- 

 self. If, however, they were not deterred, he used to arrange 

 their journeys for them, telling them when to come, and prac- 

 tically when to go. It was pleasant to see the way in which 

 he shook hands with a guest who was being welcomed for the 

 first time ; his hand used to shoot out in a way that gave one 

 the feeling that it was hastening to meet the guest's hands. 

 With old friends his hand came down with a hearty swing 

 into the other hand in a way I always had satisfaction in see- 

 ing. His good-bye was chiefly characterised by the pleasant 

 way in which he thanked his guests, as he stood at the door, 

 for having come to see him. 



These luncheons were very successful entertainments, 

 there was no drag or flagging about them, my father was 

 bright and excited throughout the whole visit. Professor De 

 Candolle has described a visit to Down, in his admirable and 

 sympathetic sketch of my father.* He speaks of his manner 

 as resembling that of a "savant" of Oxford or Cambridge. 



* ' Darwin considere au point de vue des causes de son succs.' 

 Geneva, 1882. 



