ABSTRACT
I have known in the course of my life many eminent men and women, from Victorian times to the present day. The quality of being unforgettable, or personally impressive, has not, in my experience, been greatest in those who have made the greatest mark in history, except in a few cases. My only encounter with Queen Victoria was at the age of two, and unfortunately I do not remember it, but my elders noted with surprise that my behaviour was quite respectful. On the other hand, it was at the same age that I first met Robert Browning, whom many considered the best poet of his age; I interrupted his discourse by saying in a piercing voice ‘I wish that man would stop talking.’ I met him frequently in the last years of his life, and found nothing in him to command reverence. He was a pleasant, kindly old gentleman, very much at home at tea-parties of middle-aged ladies, dapper, suave, and thoroughly domesticated, but without the divine fire that one expects of a poet.
