26 From 1850 to 1862 



II 



' So I'm aff and away to the muirs, mither, to hunt the deer, 

 Ranging far frae frowning faces and the douce folk here ; 

 Crawling up through bum and bracken, louping down the 



screes. 

 Looking out frae craig and headland, drinking up the simmer 



breeze.' 



' I am here,' he wrote from Lairg in SunJ^rland, 

 to Mr, Macmillan, apparently in answer to an 

 inquiry made by the publisher as to the progress 

 of his literary ventures, ' slaughtering salmon, stags, 

 and fowl at a most fearful rate. I am either in the 

 river or on the hill from six in the morning till nine 

 at night, so you can readily imagine that I have 

 not time left for mental work ; indeed, I am so 

 utterly insane about questions of wild Highland 

 sport that I can produce, think, and dream of 

 nothing else.' 



But in spite of the allurements of salmon, stags, 

 and fowl, he found time to write an article on 

 Marlowe, and to edit Francis Thynne's Anunadver- 

 sions upon the Annotations and Correctiotis of Im- 

 perfections atid Iinpressio7is of Chaucer's Workes for 

 the Early English Text Society ; and the Earl of 

 Ellesmere, who encouraged his young doctor's 

 strange enthusiasm for old books in every possible 

 way, made him the honorary librarian of the 

 Bridgewater Library, a position which brought 

 him into contact with all the foremost workers in 

 the field of Early English Literature, with many of 

 whom he formed intimate and enduring friendships. 



