122 STUDIES OF NATURE 



deep purple ; nearer the land it is blue ; inshore 

 it is green. The young folks are sitting on the 

 rocks in the open sunshine ; we elders are out of 

 doors also, but in the protecting shadow of the 

 house. On the earth, on the sea, in the sky 

 there is no jarring note ; and it would be shame 

 to us if we ourselves were out of tune. One 

 who sits beside me on the bench recalls to my 

 mind a passage a favourite one with both of 

 us which is appropriate to the occasion and the 

 hour. It will be found in that brief memoir of 

 Keats prefixed by Lord Houghton to the edition 

 of the Poems published in 1854. It has some- 

 how slipped out of the later and more complete 

 ' Life and Letters ' by the same writer. The Mr. 

 Bailey alluded to was an early acquaintance of 

 the poet's who afterwards became Archdeacon 

 of Colombo, iii Ceylon. ' In September, Keats 

 visited his friend Bailey, at Oxford, and wrote 



thence as follows : " Believe me, my dear , 



it is a great happiness to me that you are, in the 



