The gift of narrative was his, and he had had thoughts of turning novelist.

But to write a novel, or at least a successful novel, was a thing he could never do.

He had not the spirit of romance.

If there was anything romantic in him, it was love of England, and of the sea.

From the ocean rovers of Elizabeth to the colonial path-finders of his own day, he delighted in men who carried the name and fame of England to distant places of the earth.
He was an advocate rather than a judge.