FOREWORD
My husband wrote his own Reminiscences in his two books—Some Eminent Victorians and Coasting Bohemia, and it might justly be brought up against me that I could have nothing to add to what he has said himself.
But a critic remarked at the time that there were few “Reminiscences” in which the pronoun “I” occurred so seldom; and it is upon this ground that I venture to take my stand.
His friends meant so much to him that his talk is all of them. But they also loved him, and the few who are left among those of whom he wrote, as well as the many more of the younger generation who testify to-day to the exhilaration of his presence and the tonic of his humour may, I hope, find in my effort something which may recall to them his urbane and inspiring personality.