ican. This was not because I thought he would convert me, nor
because I shrank from hearing him preach a doctrine to which I did not
adhere, nor for any sectarian reason. Indeed, I regret not having heard
him preach and speak oftener; it would have interested me, and it would
have been kinder and more brotherly; but one is apt not to do the things
which one thinks one can always do, and the fact that I did not hear him
was due to a mixture of shyness and laziness, which I now regret in
vain.

But I think that his life as a Roman Catholic ought to be written fully
and carefully, because there were many people who trusted and admired
and loved him as a priest who would wish to have some record of his
days. He left me, by a will, which we are carrying out, though it was
not duly executed, all his letters, papers, and manuscripts, and we
have arranged to have an official biography of him written, and have
placed all his papers in the hands of a Catholic biographer, Father C.
C. Martindale, S.J.

Since Hugh died I have read a good many notices of him, which have
appeared mostly in Roman Catholic organs. These were, as a rule, written
by people who had only known him as a Catholic, and gave an obviously
incomplete view of his character and temperament. It could not well have
been otherwise, but the result was that only one side of a very varied
and full life was presented. He was depicted in a particular office and
in a specific mood. This was certainly his most real and eager mood, and
deserves to be emphasized. But he had other moods and other sides, and
his life before he became a Catholic had a charm and vigour of its own.

Moreover, his family affection was very strong; when he became a
Catholic, we all of us felt, including himself, that there might be a
certain separation, not of affection, but of occupations and interests;
and he himself took very great care to avoid this, with the happy result
that we saw him, I truly believe, more often and more intimately than
ever before. Indeed, my own close companionship with him really began
when he came first as a Roman Catholic to Cambridge.

And so I have thought it well to draw in broad strokes and simple
outlines a picture of his personality as we, his family, knew and loved
it. It is only a _study_, so to speak, and is written very informally
and directly. Formal biographies, as I know from experience, must
emphasise a different aspect. They deal, as they are bound to