92 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



give her child than this. It is the very ideal God's acre. 

 The little church, too, is perfect. How fine is Gray's 

 inscription upon his mother's tomb ! I avoid ceme- 

 teries whenever possible, but this seemed more like a 

 place where one revisits those he has once known than 

 that where, alas ! we must mourn those lost forever. 

 Gray's voice — the voice of one that is still, even the 

 touch of the vanished hand, these seemed to be found 

 there, for after our visit the poet was closer to me than 

 he had ever been before. It is not thus with such as 

 we have known and loved in the flesh — their graves let 

 us silently avoid. He whom you seek is not here ; but 

 the great dead, whom we have known only through 

 their souls, do come closer to us as we stand over their 

 graves. The flesh we have known has become spiritual- 

 ized ; the spirits we have known become in a measure 

 materialized, and I felt I had a firmer hold upon Gray 

 from having stood over his dust. 



Here is the inscription he put upon his mother's 



grave : 



" Dorothy Gray. 

 The careful, tender mother of many children, one of whom alone 

 had the misfortune to survive her." 



The touch in the last words, " the misfortune to 

 survive her ! " — Carlyle's words upon his wife's tomb 

 recur to me : 



" And he feels that the light of his life has gone out." 



These were men wailing for women. I cannot be- 



