Sir Heydon Erskine Starke had a reputation for his undirected and irascible wit. One -- strictly unreported and anecdotal -- quotation that is attributed to his Honour concerns a comment made at the funeral of Sir Isaac Isaacs. Reportedly, he was walking beside his colleague Rich J, who was 85 years old at the time (this being, of course, prior to the introduction of mandatory retirement ages for federal judges). When the pair encountered an open gravesite, Starke apparently leant over to Rich and asked him: