LIFE OF THE AUTHOR xxvii 



He was superbly unselfish, and his idea of 

 pleasure in spending was to give and to share. 

 It was a delight to him to cater for home. He 

 provided dainties for us, particularly local ones, 

 such as simnel and Eccles cakes, parkins, or 

 Melton Mowbray pork pies, on the most lavish 

 scale, and it became a commonplace that the 

 quality of the meat he took habitual pains to 

 secure for home consumption entirely spoilt one 

 for ordinary grades. Hospitable he was to a 

 degree which scarcely appears in ordinary ideals, 

 let alone ordinary practice. No one, if he could 

 help it, ever came to see him without being enter- 

 tained with the best he had to offer. 



Of his charity and kindness to all and any 

 needing help, I will only say that it was as 

 painstakingly sensible and discriminate as it was 

 generous and wide. To take one small instance, 

 in his walks abroad he was always on the look- 

 out to give a few coppers and a pleasant word 

 — neither trifles to the recipient — to any honest 

 tramp — the man looking for work who does not 

 beg, or when pushed to it begs reluctantly ; or, 

 indeed, to any decent plodder who looked as if 

 he ** could do with a bit." 



The loafer who pretends to want a job and 

 invariably shirks it when given, he detested. 

 Equally he disliked and despised the incredibly 

 low dodges of landgrabbers, the mean rich — of 



