One , well attested , relates to his encounter with a pompous Dean , now deceased , who addressed him with the air of a dignitary :sx " My good man , I do not think I know you .sx Who are you ?sx " and received the astonishing reply :sx " Oh , I'm just myself .sx Are you anybody ?sx " He could be grave or gay , witty or wise in lecture , speech or sentiment on almost any theme .sx His eulogy of James Martineau in the Memorial Hall , Manchester , shortly after the death of that scholar in 1900 , was an exquisite blend of thought and feeling expressed in chaste and dignified language .sx In an historical sketch of the Manchester Literary Club ( 1908 ) the writer says :sx " There is always the keen anticipation of something uncommonly good , with a choice seasoning of humour , when the Rev. Alexander Gordon , M.A. , rises ( all too rarely ) to speak .sx His speech on Sir Thomas Browne , for example , at the time of the tercentenary of the author of the Religio Medici ( 1905 ) , was a fine tribute , beautifully expressed , and spoken in a manner the remembrance of which is as of something perfect .sx " Another speech which lived in the memory of those who heard it was his tribute to Queen Victoria , 11 January 1901 , at a meeting of the Club .sx In advanced age he could greatly move his hearers , and an hour's extemporaneous address on " The Pilgrim Fathers " at a Teachers' Summer School at Summerville in 1920 brought them to their feet in admiration of his eloquent eulogy of these early seekers after freedom .sx Gordon's' correspondence was always heavy .sx He never used a typewriter and answered letters promptly in a hand firm and clear to the last .sx He complained that " every post brought him letters typewritten ( with the usual flaws ) and at the foot a formless scrawl meant for a signature " , and commended the courage of a friend who , in such circumstances , addressed the reply :sx " Illegible Signature .sx Esq .sx " He had a preference for post cards , and could get as much on one as any man and more than most .sx Applicants for pulpit supplies were advised that " Post cards were preferred " , and one who ventured to suggest the name of an acceptable student received a card which ran :sx " Date booked , no picking and choosing " .sx His Christian name Gordon always wrote in three letters " Alx :sx " , and once ( 31 October 1874 ) pleaded with the editor of the Inquirer that he might be " afforded the innocent gratification of seeing his poor signature spelled in the form which he invariably adopted in writing it " .sx A paragraph or two from a letter to an old pupil ( the late Edgar Thackray ) , 16 June 1924 , replying to birthday greetings , illustrates his humour and his interests .sx No two chance acquaintances might seem more ill met ormatched than the future Pope and the Unitarian Principal .sx But both were bibliophiles at home in a library , both belonged to the Church and the world using these words in their best and broadest sense , and both , though for different reasons it may be , were lovers of Rome and Italy .sx Scholars at home and abroad sought Gordon's counsel and guidance , and seldom appealed to him in vain .sx Dr. Joseph Henry Allen , the American historian , corresponded with him prior to the publication in 1894 of An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the Reformation .sx Writing from Cambridge , Mass .sx ( 4 May 1894 ) , he said :sx " I have directed to be sent to your address a copy of my historical sketch .sx .. I offer it to you with some misgiving , as in the longest portion of the field I regard you as the best qualified man alive to tell the story , which I live in hopes of your telling some day as it should be told .sx Where I could , as you will see , I have availed myself , with due acknowledgment , of the help you have given me either privately or in your published papers , and I have taken your word as final when it appeared to decide any point in question .sx " After receiving Gordon's criticism of the book he wrote :sx " I am greatly indebted to you for your criticisms , most of which will be easily introduced in the regular edition of the book , which will appear bound up , as you may have noticed , with a history of Universalism by another hand , some time in the fall .sx " Occasionally a contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography would refer an inquirer to Gordon for further information respecting his own article , as Dr. A. F. Pollard did in 1903 , or an antiquary like W. D. Pink would request his help in the preparation of a lecture on someone whose life he had written .sx A Quaker scholar ( John S. Rowntree ) writes 20 February 1902 , giving " cordial thanks for the .sx help you have repeatedly given me respecting seventeenth-century literature " , and a Congregationalist historian , Mr. Bryan Dale , writing 23 February 1903 , acknowledged his indebtedness to Gordon's articles in the Dictionary , outlined the work on Yorkshire nonconformity on which he was engaged , and gave as his excuse for troubling one with whom he had no personal acquaintance :sx " Not many are interested in the inquiry , and fewer still able to furnish any assistance .sx You are , I think , almost the only one in the North really able to deal with the subject .sx " Gordon was " pestered at short intervals by ministers who wanted help in making out their chapel histories " , as one remarked in an apologetic preface to ten pages of inquiry .sx Others submitted to him the printed page for his comments thereon , and an old pupil , who had written the history of Hope Street Church , Liverpool , received such a sheaf of corrections after Gordon had , as he said , glanced at the book , that he observed ( 30 Nov .sx 1909 ) :sx " My wife wants to know , if this is merely the result of not reading the book , what will be the result of your reading it ?sx Will anything be left of it ?sx " .sx Many university students compiling theses on Nonconformist history , with the connivance of their tutors , levied toll on his time and learning .sx A Wesleyan minister , for example , writing on Thomas Hall ( 1610-1665 ) , ejected minister , received through Professor F. M. Powicke a letter from Sir Charles Firth commending Gordon as the authority to be consulted .sx Descendants of those whose lives he had written , not excluding Americans gratified to learn that their ancestors had not been forgotten , wrote to him for something more , or for his authority for statements he had made .sx Moreover , inquisitive persons discovered from experience that it was easier and more pleasant to extract information from him by letter than by personal interrogation , for he was apt to discomfit over-zealous seekers after knowledge by his own questions .sx Points of theology he often discussed in his correspondence with his old friend Dr. James Gairdner , who wrote ( 12 May 1899) :sx " It is really a pleasure to converse with one like you even on paper ; for I must own my Unitarian friends generally never inquire of me about anything , and I thought Unitarians professed to be inquirers .sx But I suppose they consider that I have stepped from light into darkness , and it is no use seeking for community of thought any longer .sx Now I am just as much a free thinker as ever I was in my life , and whatever I may say about authority , it does not bind my private judgment more in theology than in other things .sx " He then went on to defend the via media of the Church of England against Gordon's strictures upon it .sx Gordon's foreign correspondents wrote in French , German , Italian , Dutch , Spanish , Hungarian and Latin .sx Henri Wilhelm Nathaniel Tollin of Magdeburg ( 1833-1902 ) , a German scholar of Huguenot descent and an authority on Servetus , who exchanged opinions with Gordon for many years in Belfast and Manchester , addressed him in the English city as " Director of the Unitarian Home , Albert Memorial Place " , a quaint confusion of the College over which Gordon presided ( Unitarian Home Missionary College ) , of the Hall in which it was then housed ( Memorial Hall ) , and of the place in which that Hall is situated ( Albert Square) .sx Gordon was entertained at Magdeburg by his correspondent in September 1879 .sx Gordon's simplicity of mind and tenderness of heart were shown in many a letter to old students upon the gift of a child , the loss of kith and kin , or changes in their ministerial career .sx In a tribute to one who had fallen in the Great War he .sx spoke of " an open and chivalrous character , which it had been my privilege to know and profit by .sx .. The news of the stroke of fate brought a pang to many hearts .sx Though now a memory , to many of us he is a living memory .sx " Congratulating another past student on the birth of a son , he concluded :sx " Children , I have often said , are the greatest nuisances and the greatest blessings that the Almighty has been pleased to vouchsafe .sx You will doubtless have occasion to discover the verity of the former half of this remark ; may the truth of the latter never fail you .sx " His kindly disposition towards his pupils may be illustrated by two incidents , trifling in themselves but meaning much to those whom they concerned .sx Meeting one who was spending a long vacation in Manchester pre-paring for a University examination , Gordon commented on his appearance , pressed three sovereigns into his hand , and bade him spend a week in the Lake District .sx Hearing that another was staying in Manchester , over the Christmas vacation , he invited him to spend Christmas Day in his own family circle , and , amongst other surprises for his guest , revealed himself as an expert narrator of ghost stories .sx Few men so blithe of spirit bore so heavy a burden for so many years as Alexander Gordon .sx The story of his domestic circle reads almost like a tragedy by schylus or Sophocles .sx A family of six included two sons who died for their country , one in the Boer War ( 10 Jan .sx 1902 , aged 26 ) , the other in the Great War ( 30 April 1915 , aged 33 ) .sx his only daughter passed on , in early womanhood ( 25 May 1904 , aged 24 ) ; his wife for many years before her death was away from home under medical care ( d. 23 Feb .sx 1902 , aged 5 5 ) ; his eldest son , who served in the last war , pre-deceased him ( 30 Aug .sx 1927 , aged 53 ) , and the youngest was a cripple hand and foot .sx What marks these blows , .sx separately or together , made on the inner and outer life of Gordon is not apparent .sx No scars were seen .sx But amongst his beloved books were treasured until his death the silent witnesses of his affection :sx the music of the sweet singer who had changed her name for his nearly sixty years before , the schoolboy exercises of one who died at Mafeking , the pressed flowers and toys of the maiden whose early womanhood was spent under the shadow of a mother lost ere she passed from sight , and the gowns of the graduate of Aberdeen and Cambridge who from India heard the call of Kitchener in 1914 , and fell near Ypres .sx For almost twenty years Gordon did not possess even so much as the outer semblance of a home .sx He lived in London ( 33 Upper Bedford Place , W.C.1 ) and in Chelsea ( 11 Sydney Road ) , in a Belfast hotel , the Mourne Hotel , Rostrevor , the Grand Hotel , Manchester , or wherever else a wanderer might find rest .sx His postal address was a Book Depository , 35 Rosemary Street , Belfast , in a block of buildings belonging to his old church .sx Holding in some disdain the creature comforts , conventions and amenities of life , even when visiting churches as preacher or lecturer he rarely accepted private hospitality , preferring the freedom and isolation of the hotel .sx As he " kept to himself " whilst a student of University Hall , so he continued to the end of life , making plans and executing them without soliciting advice or counsel of any , or ever suffering personal sorrow to break the straight line of duty .sx He was the last of his father's family .sx His mother died in 1896 at the age of 88 .sx Of his brothers , John died in 1864 , Thomas Hodgetts , a London graduate and for long Town Clerk of Dukinfield , in 1921 , and Walter , an Oxford tutor who bequeathed his estate for the benefit of poor students , in 1929 .sx