34 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



who could make his own rods, as well as tie his own flies. 

 He was a sailor who could build his own boats and sail 

 them, not on a pond, but in the Portugal seas or round 

 Achill. He was a carpenter who could finish his own 

 village school floor or build the organ in his church. 

 He was a carver in wood who could temper his own tools, 

 and did so by the dining-room fire. He was a practical 

 gardener who knew all there is to know about grafting. 

 He was a mathematician of the old type, interested mainly 

 in perspective, and other departments of accurate draughts- 

 manship, which he made very useful to the British Army 

 in the early days of big guns at Woolwich and Shoebury- 

 ness. He was a science man of the old days, when 

 there were few books and little apparatus. He was 

 one of the earliest examiners (1858) for the Natural 

 Science Tripos, which started in 1851. He was an 

 enthusiastic daguerreotypist, and was one of the first 

 star-photographers. I understand he was the very first 

 person to photograph on to a block, for engraving and 

 publication in a book." 



The above and much else is perfect truth about this 

 extraordinary man, who was a cousin of Charles Kingsley, 

 and an intimate friend of John Ruskin and J. W. M. 

 Turner. 



I have always regretted that my father did not live 

 long enough really to appreciate him, but it is easy to 

 understand how a college don of abnormal abilities, 

 dumped suddenly down in a village like Kilvington, 

 would not at first quite hit it off with a man who had 

 until then been supreme in the little community. 



One occasion of annoyance I remember well, when 

 Mr Kingsley took it into his head that he would like to 

 give my sister and myself gratuitous tuition in the morn- 

 ings. We had up to that point been taught by a governess, 

 but this offer was naturally enough accepted, and I can 

 recall the period when this teaching used to go on, for 

 one morning my mother, who had been to Thirsk, came 

 into the Rectory, while we were being taught, with the 



