He was a born historian, and loved research.

He had opportunities of acquiring knowledge opened to no one before, and it concerned those events which above all others attracted him.

His second wife was the most sympathetic of companions, thoroughly understanding all his moods.
She was fond of society, and induced him to frequent it.

Froude was disinclined to go out in the evening, and would, if he had been left to himself, have stayed at home.

He wrote to Lady Salisbury: "I must trust to your kindness to make allowance for my old-fashioned ways.
I am so much engaged in the week that I give my Sunday evenings to my children, and never go out." But when he was in company he talked better than almost any one else, and he had a magnetic power of fascination which men as well as women often found quite irresistible.