i2 4 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



over again hundreds and thousands of times. Fre- 

 quently, in the course of a hard morning's work 

 or after a long walk or an afternoon's visiting in 

 his parish, he could be heard in his study or else- 

 where singing these airs to his own accompaniment 

 on the guitar ; these seemed to refresh his mind, 

 and enabled him to go back to his writing with 

 redoubled energy. His ear for music was accurate, 

 and the tone of his voice had a peculiar combina- 

 tion of softness and depth ; of musical training, 

 however, he had received none. It would have 

 made a musician smile to look at his guitar and see 

 the devices that he adopted for learning to play by 

 note, which he once attempted, but soon abandoned 

 as hopeless, or not worth the trouble. He had 

 the name of every note, written on pieces of ivory, 

 inserted below each fret, which gave his guitar a 

 singular appearance. 



Although by no means a practised vocalist, in 

 his earlier days at Nunburnholme he would some- 

 times enjoy singing a song, but do what he would 

 he could never manage to join in part-singing, 

 unless it was that he sang the treble an octave 

 lower. He appeared to have little appreciation 

 for music that "had not an air in it," as he ex- 

 pressed it. The choicest harmonies and modula- 

 tions of themselves made little or no impression 

 upon him. The well-known and simple old English 

 songs and melodies were those that delighted him 

 most, and to these he was never weary of listening. 

 No music ever appealed to him so strongly, he said, 



