Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/24

18 of the man can read in these pages the Memoir contributed by Mr. J, A. Hobson in affectionate remembrance of his friend. Many, no doubt, are already acquainted with the Memoir written by M. Maurice Paillon in "Mes Escalades dans les Alpes et la Caucase," where he testifies to his enthusiastic admiration for the author. It is particularly gratifying that these Memoirs should be written by friends who knew him under entirely different aspects, the one as a student in economic science, the other as a mountaineer.

Much might be written of his social and domestic life, for it was here that his individuality was most strongly marked, and here also, as among the peaks, it was absolutely impossible for him to walk in the "beaten tracks." For society and its conventionalities he cared little, and although by no means an ascetic he loved most of all, during his leisure hours, to surround himself with books and maps, and even now the lines traced on his maps testify to projected journeys and ascents that he had hoped to carry through in future years.

My husband's greatly honoured and respected friend and adviser, Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield, addressed the following words to the members of the Alpine Club in December, 1895:—

"I had never climbed with Mummery, but I regarded it as one of the greatest compliments ever paid me that he asked me to go to the Himalayas with him.