1 30 A Walk from 



in the heart of his family. Here, indeed, the best 

 graces of his character had their full play and beauty. 

 He was the centre and soul of one of the happiest of 

 earthly homes, attracting to him the affections of every 

 member of the hearth circle that moved in the sleepless 

 light of his life. Here he did not rule, but led by love. 

 It alone dictated, and it alone obeyed. It inspired its 

 like in domestic discipline. Spontaneous reverence for 

 such a father's wish and will superseded the unpleasant 

 necessity of more active parental constraint. To bring 

 a shade of sadness to that venerated face, or a speech- 

 less reproach to that benignant eye, was a greater 

 punishment to a temporarily wayward child than any 

 corporal correction could have inflicted. 



No one of the hundreds that were present at the 

 sale and dispersion of the Babraham flock could have 

 thought that the remaining days of the great and good 

 man were to be so few on earth. He was then about 

 sixty-five years of age, of stately, unbending form and 

 face radiant and genial with the florid flush of that 

 Indian Summer which so many Englishmen wear late 

 in those autumnal years that bend and pale American 

 forms and faces to "the sere and yellow leaf" of life. 

 But the sequel proved that he did not abdicate his 

 position too early. In a little more than a year from 

 this event, his spirit was raised to higher fellowships 



