The Prince of Beaux was
fastidious in his penmanship as in everything else. Sir Ralph's half-
yearly speeches to the shareholders, though delivered extempore, were
models of perspicuity. He used the scantiest notes, mere headings of
subjects, and a few scraps of paper containing figures which he usually
remembered without their aid. Of his memory he was proud. One day, at a
meeting of the Board, after recalling particulars of some old transaction
which no one else could in the least recollect, he turned to me and said:
"Well, Tatlow, you see I sometimes remember something." I rejoined:
"Well, Sir Ralph, my only complaint is that you never forget anything."
The little compliment pleased him. Never in his whole life, he said, had
he written out a speech, and hoped he never would, but he lived to do so
once. As he advanced in years his voice grew weaker, and on the last
occasion on which he presided at a meeting of shareholders, he wrote his
speech, or partly wrote it and, at his request, I read it to the meeting.
Reported verbatim his addresses read as though they had been composed and
written with the utmost care, so precise and correct was the language and
so consecutive the matter.
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