we
have never ceased to correspond, though at irregular intervals. I had
once the satisfaction of receiving Stahl as my guest at Cambridge. He is
still Professor of Botany at Jena, and in spite of rather weak health has
published a mass of good work.

I am sorry to think that my relationship with Sachs came to an unhappy
ending. I published what seemed to me a harmless paper, in which I
criticised some of his researches. I wrote to him on the subject but
received no answer. Partly on account of his silence and partly to pay a
visit to a friend, I travelled to Wurzburg. I found Sachs in the Botanic
Garden; he seemed to wish to avoid me, but I went up to him and asked him
why he was angry with me. He replied: "The reason is very simple; you
know nothing of Botany and you dare to criticise a man like me." I had
no opportunity of replying, for at that moment one of his co-professors
addressed him, asking if he could spare a moment. "Very willingly, Herr
Professor," said Sachs, and walked off without a word to me. And that
was the last I saw of the great botanist. I was undoubtedly stupid, but
I do not think he showed to advantage in the affair.

I continued to work with my father at Down, and in spite of the
advantages I gained by seeing and sharing in the work of German
laboratories, I now regret that so many months were spent away from him.

OLD INSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC {71}

Mr Galpin has written an admirable book on old musical instruments. His
knowledge, which is first hand, is the harvest of many years' research;
and, like the best type of learned authors, he has the power of sharing
his knowledge with the ignorant.

His book begins with a study of stringed instruments, which occupies
about half the book, the remainder being given up to the wind band.

My own experience of instruments of music is confined to the latter
division. I remember as a small boy at school struggling with an
elementary flute: or was it a penny whistle? I believe it was a flute,
for I have a dim recollection of pouring water into it before it would
sound. I tried to teach the instrument--whatever it was--to a friend,
and wrote down the fingerings by a series of black and white dots, in the
manner quoted from Thomas Greeting's _Pleasant Companion_, 1675, by Mr
Galpin (p. 146). Then when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old I
began under that admirable teacher, the late R. S. Rockstro, to work
regularly at the flute.