In the year 1847 he returned to his clerkship in the Treasury, and gradually attained to the highest post in that office, at that time called Principal Clerk Assistant. " This," he writes to his mother, " is the highest office in the Treasury any clerk can aspire to — the salary being;^i 100 a year at once. It is very flattering to have been selected for it, and I am proud and grateful accordingly. I think that under the peculiar circumstances you will excuse my adding anything more than that I am your affectionate son, William H. S."
During his earlier years in the Treasury, he and three friends kept a four-oared boat on the Thames at Whitehall Stairs, and found time for an almost daily row on summer evenings, while in holiday- times they went considerable distances. As I have said before, rowing and driving were the only kind of sport or game that he seems ever to have cared for, and it was indeed one of his strongest characteristics that he never needed any set form of occupation or amusement for his leisure moments. A walk out of doors or a book at home was enough. I believe his best and favourite relaxation was conversation with someone whose mind was akin to his own; and what racy and inspiring conversation it was to listen to, those who were privileged to hear can never forget.
He never had a club, even as a young unmarried man, though he lived in London all his life. In fact, I am inclined to think that he never did nor had anything for himself alone. That when his children were young their father should come home from a long day at his office and straightway sit down to read aloud to them, or on fine summer evenings should take them for a walk, was accepted as a most natural condition of things. Any deviation from the custom would have caused dire consternation and disappointment; but he never did disappoint them. An hour's reading before the dressingbell rang, from Walter Scott or Shakespeare on weekdays, and from Paradise Lost or the Pilgrim's Progress on Sundays, was an almost invariable practice, and
SIMPLE TASTES ii on summer evenings a walk in Hyde Park was as invariable.
He was simple in his tastes and habits, and never spent more than he could help on his own person, having a remarkable capacity for looking well dressed in clothes of considerable antiquity, and such things as hats and gloves had occasionally to be removed by force or fraud. A good carriage and an upright figure, together with scrupulous personal nicety, gave a general impression of smartness whatever clothes he wore. Astonishment was sometimes expressed by other men at his being ready to appear in society without any change of dress, after walking to and from his work, and spending the day in his office. A certain quiet dignitj'" seemed to resist the very dust and dirt itself that will cling to the fretful and impatient man.
Anything like ostentation or show was extremely distasteful to him. At the date of his father's death very elaborate funerals were the custom, with as many plumes and horses to the hearse as possible. My father, however, having to make all the arrangements, had everything done simply, and on being remonstrated with by some of the family who considered that not enough respect was shown by this simplicity, he only observed, " A man who can't afford one horse to draw him when he is alive doesn't need four when he is dead! "
Looking back, my father's life seems to have been one of continued work and self-sacrifice, but I believe he was a very happy man. A most beautiful spirit of contentment possessed him, and the older he grew the more forbearing and patient and broad-minded he became. He had much to contend with, much to try him, and was by nature fiery and impatient. In early days he was sometimes upset and angry over what seemed to the onlooker as the merest trifles; but as age came on all was mellowed and softened, while the strength of character, and the clear outlook, and the power of quick decision never left him to the very last.
A letter from Sir Charles Trevelyan, written after he left his post of Assistant Secretary to the Treasury to go to India as Governor of Madras, emphasises what I am trying to express here — my father's unselfish devotion to duty whether public or private — the absolute setting aside of self in the interests of others. The letter is dated " Off Ceylon, March 24, 1859."