HABITS AND APPEARANCE. 



89 



cut sections of roots and leaves. His hand was not steady 

 enough to hold the object to be cut, and he employed a 

 common microtome, in which the pith for holding the object 

 was clamped, and the razor slid on a glass surface in making 

 the sections. He used to laugh at himself, and at his own 

 skill in section-cutting, at which he would say he was "speech- 

 less with admiration," On the other hand, he must have had 

 accuracy of eye and power of co-ordinating his movements, 

 since he was a good shot with a gun as a young man, and as 

 a boy was skilful in throwing. He once killed a hare sitting 

 in the flower-garden at Shrewsbury by throwing a marble at 

 it, and, as a man, he once killed a cross-beak with a stone. 

 He was so unhappy at having uselessly killed the cross-beak 

 that he did not mention it for years, and then explained that 

 he should never have thrown at it if he had not felt sure that 

 his old skill had gone from him. 



When walking he had a fidgetting movement with his 

 fingers, which he has described in one of his books as the 

 habit of an old man. When he sat still he often took hold of 

 one wrist with the other hand ; he sat with his legs crossed, 

 and from being so thin they could be crossed very far, as 

 may be seen in one of the photographs. He had his chair in 

 the study and in the drawing-room raised so as to be much 

 higher than ordinary chairs ; this was done because sitting on 

 a low or even an ordinary chair caused him some discomfort. 

 We used to laugh at him for making his tall drawing-room 

 chair still higher by putting footstools on it, and then neu- 

 tralising the result by resting his feet on another chair. 



His beard was full and almost untrimmed, the hair being 

 grey and white, fine rather than coarse, and wavy or frizzled. 

 His moustache was somewhat disfigured by being cut short 

 and square across. He became very bald, having only a 

 fringe of dark hair behind. 



His face was ruddy in colour, and this perhaps made 

 people think him less of an invalid than he was. He wrote 

 to Dr. Hooker (June 13, 1849), " Every one tells me that I 

 look quite blooming and beautiful ; and most think I am 



