Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/105

 Australia at least thirty times, his interest in the various stopping places remained as fresh as ever. He could never understand the attitude of the blasé traveller who refuses to be awakened at dawn to see Mount Etna smouldering, or to watch the passage through the Straits of Messina. That anyone should choose an unbroken night's slumber in preference to seeing or doing anything even mildly interesting was to H. H. utterly incomprehensible.

Throughout his busy life he had the enviable faculty of dropping asleep at any time, anywhere, and after five minutes' light slumber waking up refreshed and invigorated. It was only after his serious illness in 1991 that he learnt the misery of sleepless unending nights, and the slow coming of the longed-for morning. In speaking of insomnia one day at luncheon, at the Bath Club, Sir Josiah Symon, the Chief Justice of South Australia, quoted A. L. Storrie's verses:

H. H. repeated the last line, and those who were fond of him were struck with the sadness in his voice. In his early days of travel H. H. had many exciting adventures, including three days in a cyclone