His Character and Last Days
Stuart was physically a small wiry man with a great fondness for strong drink, able to endure privations and possessing a fierce determination which overrode any thought of personal comfort. He has not gregarious; he had some good friends but was happiest away from crowds. He cared little for dress; he had a full dark beard and habitually wore grubby moleskin trousers and an unfashionable long-tailed blue coat with brass buttons and cabbage-tree hat.
His eyesight was failing when he embarked on his sixth expedition but by the time he returned the many days of travelling into the fierce sun had rendered him practically blind, in pain and in such poor health that he spent much of the return journey being carried on a litter between two horses. After preparing his diaries for publication he returned to Britain, where he died and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. There is a museum dedicated to him in the house where he once lived, in Dysart, Scotland.
Read more about this topic: John McDouall Stuart
Famous quotes containing the words character and/or days:
“A quality is something capable of being completely embodied. A law never can be embodied in its character as a law except by determining a habit. A quality is how something may or might have been. A law is how an endless future must continue to be.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.”
—Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)