184 Life and Times of " The Druid." 



absence, stoop down and twitch off a lady's 

 shoe. He would amaze a drawing-room by 

 suddenly ejaculating a clause of the Lord's 

 Prayer. He would conceive an unintelligible 

 aversion to a particular alley and perform a 

 great circuit rather than see the hateful place. 

 He would set his heart on touching every 

 post in the streets through which he walked. 

 If by any chance he missed a post he would 

 go back a hundred yards and repair the 

 omission." 



Those who knew " The Druid" best and 

 passed most time in his company were of 

 opinion that his eccentricities and oddities 

 were, to say the least, as strange and startling 

 as those of the great lexicographer for whom 

 he entertained so great a reverence. As 

 years settled down upon " The Druid," he 

 became so absent-minded that it was difficult 

 to maintain a conversation with him upon 

 any subject for more than two or three 

 minutes. He had lived so much in the 

 solitude of his own thoughts that he passed 

 half his time in total unconsciousness that 

 others were in the room and trying to talk 

 with him. So inattentive and unobservant 



