markable even
than his genius was what biographers have called "the simple-minded and
child-like earnestness of his character," an earnestness which might be
perceived by the solemnity with which he spoke even about trifles. It is
hardly necessary to say he was on the Liberal side in politics.

His personal appearance was not particularly prepossessing. He was about
the middle height, portly, and had a couple of fierce grey eyes, that
flashed fire from beneath a pair of great bushy beetling eyebrows and
overawed all who came near him. It was in respect of his personal
appearance, however, that, if he was vulnerable at all, his weak place
was to be found. His hair when he was a young man was red, but after he
had taken his degree he had a brain fever which caused him to have his
head shaved; when he reappeared, he did so wearing a wig, and one which
was a good deal further off red than his own hair had been. He not only
had never discarded his wig, but year by year it had edged itself a
little more and a little more off red, till by the time he was forty,
there was not a trace of red remaining, and his wig was brown.

When Dr Skinner was a very young man, hardly more than five-and-twenty,
the head-mastership of Roughborough Grammar School had fallen vacant, and
he had been unhesitatingly appointed. The result justified the
selection. Dr Skinner's pupils distinguished themselves at whichever
University they went to. He moulded their minds after the model of his
own, and stamped an impression upon them which was indelible in after-
life; whatever else a Roughborough man might be, he was sure to make
everyone feel that he was a God-fearing earnest Christian and a Liberal,
if not a Radical, in politics. Some boys, of course, were incapable of
appreciating the beauty and loftiness of Dr Skinner's nature. Some such
boys, alas! there will be in every school; upon them Dr Skinner's hand
was very properly a heavy one. His hand was against them, and theirs
against him during the whole time of the connection between them. They
not only disliked him, but they hated all that he more especially
embodied, and throughout their lives disliked all that reminded them of
him. Such boys, however, were in a minority, the spirit of the place
being decidedly Skinnerian.

I once had the honour of playing a game of chess with this great man. It
was during the Christmas holidays, and I had come down to Roughborough
for a few days t