LATER WORKS AND FRIENDSHIPS 173 



took place around him. He was no recluse, but 

 fully alive to his social duties, and endeavoured to 

 fulfil them at all times. Of all the friendships, how- 

 ever, which he formed through life, there was none 

 more enduring nor more highly prized than those 

 which dated from his school and college days. In 

 these cases years only tended to bind the knot 

 more tightly. There was but one thing, indeed, 

 which was strong enough to separate these early 

 alliances, and it is a power which none of us can 

 withstand. 



Whether it was through a natural disinclination 

 to do so, or through the constant and increasing 

 activities of his literary work, certain it is that from 

 middle life onwards my father did not make many 

 close friends ; possibly, however, those that he did 

 so make were on that account the more thought of 

 and appreciated. Of these friends of his later years 

 there was none for whom he had a greater regard 

 and affection than his near neighbour and brother 

 clergyman, the Rev. R. Wilton, now Canon of York, 

 to whom I just now referred. The two had much 

 in common, especially on those subjects which were 

 nearest to the hearts of both. In religious views 

 there were no wide divergencies between them, and 

 in their love of country scenes and country pursuits 

 and tastes they were entirely at one. 



It was a delightful and invigorating walk over the 

 breezy wold from Nunburnholme to Londesborough. 

 The few hundred feet of ascent was as nothing to 

 one who was so light of foot as Mr. Morris, even 



