When asked by a visitor why two holes were needed, he replied that the bigger cat could obviously not get through the smaller hole. The visitor pointed out that the smaller cat could, however, go through the bigger hole. Barrett exclaimed, ‘I never thought of that!’ For all his peculiarities, Barrett attained the post of vice provost of Trinity. On his death he was found to have accumulated £86,000, which he left in his will ‘to feed the hungry and clothe the naked’.
Mr. Punch face, he wore ragged, greasy clothes, a tattered professor’s gown, and an old pair of leather slippers far too big for his feet. He refused to buy a wig — the natural accoutrement of all gentlemen of the day — and when the occasion demanded it, powdered his own hair (afterwards combing the powder out onto a piece of paper for later use). He lived on bread and milk during the day, and took his evening meals in the commons room because they were free. He lived in a dingy apartment with little more than piles of books in it. During winter, he refused to light a fire, and snuck down to the college’s kitchen to warm himself there, until the kitchenhands objected to his shabby appearance and he was barred. The students nicknamed him ‘Sweep’. His lack of knowledge of the outside world was legendary. On one of his rare excursions into the country, he was baffled by the sight of a herd of sheep, and delighted to learn he was looking at ‘live mutton’. After being taken to see the sea for the first time, he described it as ‘a broad, flat superficies, like Euclid’s definition of a line expanding itself into a surface, and blue, like Xenophon’s plain covered with wormwood’. He was also notoriously impractical. According to one story, he kept two cats, and had holes cut into the bottom of his door so they could go in and out.
BARRET T-LENNARD, SIR THOMAS (1826 –1919) Animal lover Barrett-Lennard could not bear to see any animals killed on his estate, Belhus in Essex, and had his servants set down bowls of water for the rats. He was master of the local hunt, but used to lay false trails so that the foxes would escape. When horses, dogs and cats on the estate died, they were given a funeral service by the vicar of Avely, and buried in the Barrett-Lennard family plot. Barrett-Lennard had little concern for his personal appearance, and his shabby clothing meant he was often mistaken for a servant or grounds keeper. On one occasion, having left Brentwood mental hospi23