i6
tunity of hearing him recite from memory The
Bard of Thomas Gray at one of our Poetry Society
meetings in a very impressive manner. He was
then past 60 and I have since heard that he could
repeat from memory nearly 80 Suras of the
Qur'an, short and long. 'He remembered hund-
reds of lines of Englishj^JPersian and Latin
poetry and told us how he and some friends who
had similar tastes used to meet and spend hours
together naming words and quoting lines from the
English poets in which those words occurred.
I have no doubt that his perfect intonation
and accent, so much admired by his English
friends, owed much to his favourite habit of
recitation. His study of the life and thought of
past ages has given him that wide outlook
and cosmopolitan culture which distinguishes him
from the majority of his countrymen.
During his residence in London (1892-1895) he
continued his legal studies and extended his
acquaintance with Latin and English authors of
repute besides indulging in amateur verse-writing.
For some time he .worked in the chambers of a
practising Barrister, M£^attinsQn (who became
a K.C. afterwards).