do a thing that very minute. He was fair of complexion, with grey-blue
eyes and a shock head of light hair, little brushed, and uncut often too
long. He was careless of appearances, and wore clothes by preference of
great shabbiness. He told me in 1909 that he had only bought one suit in
the last five years. I have seen him, when gardening at Hare Street,
wear a pair of shoes such as might have been picked up in a ditch after
a tramp's encampment. At the same time he took a pleasure of a boyish
kind in robes of state. He liked his Monsignor's purple, his red-edged
cassock and crimson cincture, as a soldier likes his uniform. He was in
no way ascetic; and though he could be and often seemed to be wholly
indifferent to food, yet he was amused by culinary experiments, and
collected simple savoury recipes for household use. He was by far the
quickest eater I have ever seen. He was a great smoker of cheap
cigarettes. They were a natural sedative for his highly strung
temperament. I do not, think he realised how much he smoked, and he
undoubtedly smoked too much for several years.

He was always quick, prompt, and decisive. He had an extraordinary
presence of mind in the face of danger. My sister remembers how he was
once strolling with her, in his cassock, in a lane near Tremans, when a
motor came down the road at a great pace, and Roddy, the collie, trotted
out in front of it, with his back turned to the car, unconscious of
danger. Hugh took a leap, ran up hill, snatched Roddy up just in front
of the wheels, and fell with him against the hedge on the opposite side
of the road.

He liked a degree of comfort, and took great pleasure in having
beautiful things about him. "I do not believe that lovely things should
be stamped upon," he once wrote to a friend who was urging the dangers
of a strong sense of beauty; adding, "should they not rather be led in