t times not very distinct.
This was disappointing as his conversation was always interesting, not
only for its intrinsic value, but also by reason of his charmingly varied
and copious vocabulary, and his perfectly balanced phrases. Naturally
and without the least effort the aptest words sprang to his lips in
perfect order and sequence. His letters, too, were always exceedingly
well expressed. He wrote a neat, sloping, rather flowing and somewhat
old-fashioned hand, which greatly resembled the writing of Beau Brummell,
and, like the illustrious Beau's, his numerals, which is rare nowadays,
were very clearly and very beautifully formed. The Prince of Beaux was
fastidious in his penmanship as in everything else. Sir Ralph's half-
yearly speeches to the shareholders, though delivered extempore, were
models of perspicuity. He used the scantiest notes, mere headings of
subjects, and a few scraps of paper containing figures which he usually
remembered without their aid. Of his memory he was proud. One day, at a
meeting of the Board, after recalling particulars of some old transaction
which no one else could in the least recollect, he turned to me and said:
"Well, Tatlow, you see I sometimes remember something." I rejoined:
"Well, Sir Ralph, my only complaint is that you never forget anything."
The little compliment pleased him. Never in his whole life, he said, had
he written out a speech, and hoped he never would, but he lived to do so
once. As he advanced in years his voice grew weaker, and on the last
occasion on which he presided at a meeting of shareholders, he wrote his
speech, or partly wrote it and, at his request, I read it to the meeting.
Reported verbatim his addresses read as though they had been composed and
written with the utmost care, so precise and correct was the language and
so consecutive the matter. Though few could hope to do so well as he, I
have always thought that in addressing shareholders, railway chairmen
might trust less to formally prepared speeches and more to their powers
of extemporaneous exposition. Some chairmen do this I know, but others
still read from manuscript. However able the matter, the reading, in my
judgment, is much less effective than the spontaneous expression of the
speaker. The atmosphere created by the meeting, often a valuable
adjunct, cannot be taken advantage of when the speech is read, nor can
the chance of improvising a telling point, of enforcing an argument,