112 REMINISCENCES. 



a slap. I think, generally speaking, he was given to gesture, 

 and often used his hands in explaining anything (e.g. the 

 fertilisation of a flower) in a way that seemed rather an aid 

 to himself than to the listener. He did this on occasions 

 when most people would illustrate their explanations by 

 means of a rough pencil sketch. 



He wore dark clothes, of a loose and easy fit. Of late years 

 he gave up the tall hat even in London, and wore a soft black 

 one in winter, and a big straw hat in summer. His usual out- 

 of-doors dress was the short cloak in which Elliot and Fry's 

 photograph represents him leaning against the pillar of the 

 verandah. Two peculiarities of his indoor dress were that 

 he almost always wore a shawl over his shoulders, and that 

 he had great loose cloth boots lined with fur which he could 

 slip on over his indoor shoes. Like most delicate people he 

 suffered from heat as well as from chilliness ; it was as if he 

 could not hit the balance between too hot and too cold ; 

 often a mental cause would make him too hot, so that he 

 would take off his coat if anything went wrong in the course 

 of his work. 



He rose early, chiefly because he could not lie in bed, 

 and I think he would have liked to get up earlier than he 

 did. He took a short turn before breakfast, a habit which 

 began when he went for the first time to a water-cure esta- 

 blishment. This habit he kept up till almost the end of his 

 life. I used, as a little boy, to like going out with him, and 

 I have a vague sense of the red of the winter sunrise, and a 

 recollection of the pleasant companionship, and a certain 

 honour and glory in it. He used to delight me as a boy by 

 telling me how, in still earlier walks, on dark winter mornings, 

 he had once or twice met foxes trotting home at the dawning. 



After breakfasting alone about 7.45, he went to work at 

 once, considering the i hour between 8 and 9.30 one of his 

 best working times. At 9.30 he came into the drawing-room 

 for his letters rejoicing if the post was a light one and being 



