Both brothers were great readers, but widely different in their methods. The elder, though exceedingly careful and thorough, read with great rapidity, and formed his opinions on what he read quickly and decidedly, delighting to discuss what he had just finished. He kept up his taste for good fiction to the last, and it was surprising how late he would sometimes postpone his usual hour for going to bed if the fate of the heroine were hanging in the balance. The younger was, on the contrary, an exceedingly slow reader, and would compare passages, and ponder over them, and read portions over and over again, before he satisfied himself that he had mastered all that the writer intended to convey. Up to the last he could read (and without spectacles) his favourite authors and his newspaper Shakespeare he knew thoroughly and had constantly in his mind, so that apt quotations often illustrated his talk. Dickens was one of the few writers of fiction he would read in his old age, new works only appealing to him if either the author or the subject had some special personal attraction. Such books as Mrs. Ewing's Jackanapes delighted both brothers, but Alice in
Wonderland was a sealed book to them. What seemed too fantastic and fanciful repelled them.
As a young man Sir Frederick could write slight and amusing verses and stories, and in one of the latter, which unfortunately has been lost, he described his father under the guise of a German Baron of Romance. It was always said to be a most exact portrait, but all I can recollect is that the Baron wore Hessian boots, and that is a fact which a cousin still living perfectly remembers. Sir Benjamin was said to be the last man to wear them in England, with their little tassels hanging over the top of the boot in front.
Sir Frederick was fond of the society of young people and was an immense favourite \vith them, for his sympathy with their aspirations as with their weaknesses was always ready.
It will be remembered that on his brother's death he wrote to that brother's daughters that he hoped to be of use and comfort to them. " Try me," he said. This hope was amply fulfilled, for his three unmarried nieces went to live with him after the death of his eldest sister, which took place on the night after his brother's funeral. The arrangement was a happy one for all concerned. They kept house for him and made him a cheerful home, and were able to watch over his declining years and to soothe and comfort him at the last. What his society and protection were to them can readily be imagined.
Sir Frederick was very easy and pleasant to live with, and conversation with him was always delightful, for he would willingly discuss all sorts of subjects, social, political, or religious. Quite latterly, when new topics were fatiguing and when political disturbances depressed him, it was better to lead his mind back to the past, and many pleasant reminiscences resulted.
In politics he was always a strong Conservative, and the growing democratic tendency of the present day was a serious grief to him. Still, his courtesy to those who differed from him and his attention to what they had to say on their side were unfaihng.
Of his services it was difficult to make him talk freely, but once, when dining with only two or three other people, he gave a most stirring description of the storming of the heights of the Alma. The movements of the troops, the rush of the guns were pictured to his audience with a clearness of detail that showed all was as fresh in his mind as if the events had just occurred, though nearly thirty years had passed since that date. Then, in a few terribly explicit words, he described the battlefield afterwards. It was seldom indeed that he referred to the horrors of war, for his peculiarly wholesome and reasonable mind always avoided morbid details, but the few words he used then made an impression on his hearers not to be forgotten, and showed how deeply such things affected him.
His religious views and feelings were reverent, earnest, and very unconventional. He was fond of quoting the Psalms, especially the 19th, which, as he once said, " has got it all in a nutshell, my dear "; and he hated gush or sentimentality on such a subject. People who did not know him might easily have been offended at his vehement rejection of what gave any appearance of being merely formal or outward in religious service, and on one or two occasions this may be observed in his letters.