i6 Ellen Key clares that she had inherited from her grand- father her passion for soHd buildings. He also made his own drawings of substantial and useful furniture. He did not care for display, yet an old- fashioned splendour always showed itself, not the least in the black four-in-hand which was always used in driving the family and their guests. He worshipped his wife, and vowed at eighty that he had never seen a more beautiful woman. When he was absent dur- ing the War of 1813, his wife sent him a heart- locket of silver, containing locks of her own and their firstborn's hair. The only arrange- ment he made, concerning his obsequies, was that this remembrance of the love of his youth should accompany him to his grave, Ellen Key received her earliest historic impressions from the many large steel engravings of the War of 1 813, which hung on the walls in her grandfather's room, and the first historic name she dreamt about was Napoleon. The grandmother was a tall and remarkably handsome woman, with a soul of "pure good- ness. " She taught the four-year-old Ellen to read from large charts, after the method of the day. The lessons were made so pleasant, through the graciousness of the teacher, that