Next morning, Sunday, he came to fetch us at 9. H decided that he would rather go to church so Dr M and I went off together in his Peking cart drawn by a big mule. He took me to the top of the Tartar Wall and there for 2 hours we walked about and he told me tales of the siege. It was awfully interesting - that adverb is for once admissible. At one point he stopped and related how after the siege an English maxim was trained against a great crowd of Chinese hurrying across an open space 1000 yards or so away who were trying to escape.
War stories sound terrible in peace.
He spoke very warmly, by the by, of Backhouse, said he was the ablest person he had ever come across, a great friend of his, his knowledge of Chinese extraordinary. He is engaged on a Chinese dictionary which is to be the wonder of the age. Dr M. is going to try and get him to meet me, which is seems will be difficult as he has foresworn the world. He's also ill, fever or something. He lives in a charming house and is entirely absorbed by his work, but it's not a bit true that he lives the life of a Chinaman.