INTRODUCTION 



assigned to him. After returning home he gave all 

 the time that was lcft to study. Very often after 

 lunch— with him a light and easily digested meal, as 

 the fashion was in old days — in the summer, if he 

 had no engagements, he used to He in the sun and 

 have a book read to him, from which he made notes 

 and extracts ; he read nothing without making ex- 

 tracts from it — indeed he used to say that no book 

 is so bad but that some part of it has value. After 

 this rest in the sun he usually took a cold bath, and 

 then a snack of food and a very short siesta, and then 

 he put in what was virtually a second day's work, 

 going on with his studies till dinner-time. Over his 

 dinner a book was read aloud to him and notes were 

 made, and that at a rapid pace. I remember that one 

 of his friends, when the reader had rendered a passage 

 badly, called him back and had it repeated ; but 

 my uncle said to him, " Surely you got the sense ? " 

 and on his nodding assent continued, " Then what 

 did you call him back for .'' This interruption of 

 yours has cost us ten more hnes ! " Such was his 

 economy of time. He used to leave the dinner 

 table before sunset in summer and less than an hour 

 after it in winter — this rule had with him the force 

 of law. These were his habits when in the thick of 

 his eng-ao;ements and amid the turmoil of town. 

 In vacation, only the time of the bath was exempted 

 from study ; and when I say the bath I mean the more 

 central portions of that ritual, for while he was being 

 shampooed and rubbed down he used to have some- 

 thing read to him or to dictate. On a journey he 

 seemed to throw aside all other interests and used 

 the opportunity for study only : he had a secretary 

 at his elbow with book and tablets, his hands in 



