A new edition of some favourite classic; his weekly _Athenaeum_; occasional correspondence with a French or Italian scholar--( he did not read German, and disliked the race)--these were his pleasures.

For the rest he was the landlord of a considerable estate, as much of a sportsman as his position required, and his Conservative politics did not include any sympathy for the more revolutionary doctrines--economic or social--which seemed to him to be corrupting his party.

In his youth, before the death of an elder brother, he had been trained as a doctor, and had spent some time in a London hospital.

In no case would he ever have practised.

Before his training was over he had revolted against the profession, and against the "ugliness," as it seemed to him, of the matters and topics with which a doctor must perforce be connected.