290 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xx 



the centre of it, and leave the half open to the road, making 

 a gravel walk and possibly a seat. One objection is that 

 the place does not belong to me but to the executors. 



Nov., 1890. 



I am vexed about Pepper. 1 I feel it quite sad to ex- 

 tinguish such a quantity of enjoyment as lived in that little 

 body. Thank goodness I have nearly finished [Stanley's] 

 Darkest Africa and it must be the most tiresome book in 

 the world, so confused and diffuse, with immense long con- 

 versations verbatim that end in nothing. His contempt 

 for Emin's taste for Natural History is very comical, and 

 certainly he does not fall into that mistake himself. He 

 observed nothing. 



THE GROVE, Dec. 3, 1890. 



I set Matheson reading the Nineteenth Century and I 

 almost make a vow never to read a. review again. There 

 is one of Huxley's answering Gladstone's animadversions on 

 the former "Pig " article. W. E. G. by his blunders gives 

 him an excellent opportunity, but the article would really 

 have more effect if he had stated the case simply, with no 

 "chortling." 



1890 91 was a very severe winter. Much bird-feeding went 

 on at the Grove, cocoanuts, fat and hemp were provided for 

 titmice, nuts and pea-nuts for the nut-hatches, and middlings 

 in basinsful for the rooks, starlings, and jackdaws. 



Jan. 13, 1891. 



I did so enjoy the dirty snow and the departure of the 

 rooks yesterday (I wonder what they could find the 1st day 

 and before the snow was gone). I believe the real reason 

 of the departure of the frost is my giving skates to the young 

 P.'s, or it might have been John's fur cape. 



1 Pepper, a little dog who was condemned because he would bite 

 gardeners. However, he was tried in London, where he bit children. 

 He was then sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Addington, 

 where we may hope he reformed his ways. 



