CuAi-. X.] • THE WIDOW AND THE BABBITS.' 105 



CHAPTER X. 



1S70 TO IS75. 



' The Widow and the Babbits " — Letters to the ' Times ' — ' My Grarden,' seventh 

 book — Impromptu lecture — The marriage of his daughter — Attends an 

 International Botanical Congress — Letters to his daughter from abroad — 

 Address at Bochester — Letter to the Council of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, England. 



It would occupy too much space to insert all the anonymous 

 writings of Alfred Smee, for they were voluminous. I cannot, 

 howeyer, refrain from giving a few extracts from one more 

 of his little works, to which he did not attach his name, more 

 especially as it forms a link to show his vivid imagination, his 

 unwearying energy, and how numerous and various were his 

 puhlications. This was written in the autumn of 1871, when he, 

 myself, and my mother went for a short trip to Scotland. We 

 were hospitably entertained for a while at a friend's house, after 

 which we travelled over the wildest and most beautiful parts of 

 Scotland : — 



■■ So wondi'ous ■wild, the ■srhole might seem 

 The scenery of a f aii-y dream." 



Scott's Lady of the Lake. 



My father was an early riser, and was generally up before the 

 rest of the family. For two or three mornings before breakfast he 

 amused himself by writing ' The "Widow and the Babbits.' This 

 fairy legend by a Ferret, which is really a humorous skit, as the 

 following dedication shows, is very prettily illustrated.* 



* Published by Messrs. Rixon and Arnold, 2'J, Poultry, London. 



