Reminiscences. 201 



it was possible for any one thus to resist 

 the absorbing attractions of "The Battle of 

 Waterloo," " The Siege of Delhi," or what- 

 ever equestrian drama happened to be in 

 the bill. Such incessant application would 

 have been a terrible tax on the strongest 

 constitution, and it will readily be imagined 

 how marvellous must have been the will- 

 power ceaselessly exercised by a chronic 

 invalid, and kept up by him unflaggingly 

 through a long series of years. 



From his early boyhood " The Druid " was 

 never free from illness of one kind or another 

 for long together. For many years his eyes 

 gave him an immensity of trouble, necessitat- 

 ing constant visits to the leading oculists of 

 the day, and often obliging him to spend long 

 periods of seclusion in a darkened room. 

 Then came a veritable plague of boils, from 

 which he must have endured tortures, and 

 these only left him to be succeeded by 

 asthma, from w T hich he suffered so severely 

 that for weeks together he could never lie 

 down, but passed night after night in the old 

 arm chair in which he ultimately died. In 

 addition to all these troubles he had to 



