difficulty found a chair, for almost every square foot of surface in
the place--floor, chairs, tables, shelves, and every other "coign
of vantage"--was piled up with books, reports, law papers, printers'
proofs, and other literary matter, begrimed with dust, and apparently
in the most hopeless condition of muddle. On the table itself was
the opened correspondence of the day, and although it was very
early morning, a separated portion, consisting of fifteen or twenty
documents, and an equal number of letters already written, folded,
and neatly addressed, showed that he had been early at work; whilst
a large quantity of manuscript, thrown, sheet upon sheet, upon the
floor, and the stump of a candle, that had burnt very low in a very
dirty candlestick, proved conclusively that he had been hard at work
until late on the previous night.

He received me with courteous politeness, read my note, and said how
happy he should be to comply with the request it contained; "but,"
said he, "you must excuse me now. I have to finish my correspondence,
get my breakfast, and make myself a little more presentable. Will you
call again in an hour?"

Of course I was punctual. I found him completely metamorphosed, and
he now--in a soberly-cut coat of black, a brilliant black satin
waistcoat, and white necktie--looked, as he always did in this dress,
like a well-to-do English country clergyman. He was quite ready for
me; handed me a very cordial recommendation to Dr. Jephson; and asked
if he might trouble me with a small parcel for the doctor. I found
afterwards that, in order to secure attention from a man whose time
was so fully occupied, he had entrusted me with a presentation copy of
a work he had just published, on "The Amputation of a Leg at the Hip
Joint," an operation which, he had recently, I believe for the first
time in English surgery, successfully performed.

Such was my introduction to William Sands Cox, and such the
commencement of an acquaintance which resulted in intimacy of many
years' duration, in the course of which I had frequent opportunities
of studying his character, and becoming acquainted with his many
peculiarities.

The family to which he belonged was one of the oldest in Warwickshire.
His ancestors for many generations resided in the neighbourhood of
Stratford-on-Avon. His father, the late Edward Townsend Cox, came
to Birmingham in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was
articled to Mr. Kennedy of S