His father, while efficient in his work in the Bank, was a wide and exact reader of literature, classical as well as modern.

We are told by Mrs Orr of his practice of soothing his little boy to sleep "by humming to him an ode of Anacreon," and by Dr Moncure Conway that he was versed in mediaeval legend, and seemed to have known Paracelsus, Faustus, and even Talmudic personages with an intimate familiarity.

He wrote verses in excellent couplets of the eighteenth century manner, and strung together fantastic rhymes as a mode of aiding his boy in tasks which tried the memory.

He was a dexterous draughtsman, and of his amateur handiwork in portraiture and caricature--sometimes produced, as it were, instinctively, with a result that was unforeseen--much remains to prove his keen eye and his skill with the pencil.

Besides the curious books which he eagerly collected, he also gathered together many prints--those of Hogarth especially, and in early states.