CHARACTERISTICS. 143 



he delighted to gather his grandchildren about him ; the 

 playfulness which had been repressed under the strain 

 of early days, found vent ; and the ways and wants of an 

 infant went straight to his heart. On one of his Scotch 

 rambles, in the autumn of 1878, he wrote to his wife 

 (of whose travelling companionship he was that season 

 deprived) from the Bridge of Allan : — 



Yesterday, after a morning shower, the day was very bright 

 and beautiful, and I greatly enjoyed the journey, not the less 

 for there being in the carriage a fifteen-months- old baby, the 

 brightest, most good-tempered, and one of the prettiest I ever 

 saw. Though the journey was more than six hours, she did 

 nothing but laugh, sing, and play the whole time, except when 

 she was sucking her bottle, and made great friends with me. I 

 also amused myself with watching my aneroid, which went down 

 an inch and a quarter in going over the highest watershed, that 

 above Killiecrankie, and then rose visibly as we descended the 

 steep incline. 



The sympathy which he felt for children readily ex- 

 tended itself also to animals. The proximity of his house 

 to the Zoological Gardens made him a frequent visitor on 

 Sunday afternoons. There he was often to be found in the 

 monkey-house, especially in the private room of the first 

 chimpanzee, in whom he took a lively interest. He was 

 always pleased to relate its educational progress, and would 

 constantly take friends to see a display of its accomplish- 

 ments. This grew almost into the pride of ownership ; and 

 when the poor animal succumbed under its second teething, 

 he genuinely regretted its decease. 



No less marked was the force of his feeling at the other 

 end of the scale. In all that related to the conduct and 

 character of those with whom he was most nearly connected, 

 or even of those with whom he was brought only into 

 official relations, his sensitiveness was extreme. Anything 

 that seemed like moral wrong caused him the most stinging 



