54 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



his bed. This room was sacred. Here he 

 read ; here he spent all his leisure time in 

 reading. He read during this period an im- 

 mense quantity. Shakespeare, Chaucer, Scott, 

 Byron, Dryden, Voltaire, Goethe he was 

 never tired of reading Faust and it is said, 

 but I think it must have been in translation, 

 that he read most of the Greek and Latin 

 masters. It is evident from his writings that he 

 had read a great deal, yet he ]acks the touch of 

 the trained scholar. That cannot be attained 

 by solitary and desultory reading, however 

 omnivorous. His chief literary adviser in 

 those days was Mr. William Morris, of S win- 

 don, proprietor and editor of the North Wilts 

 Advertiser. Mr. Morris is himself the author 

 of several works, among others a " History of 

 Swindon," and, as becomes a literary man with 

 such surroundings, he is a well-known local 

 antiquary. Mr. Morris allowed the boy, who 

 was at school with his own son, the run of his 

 own library ; he lent him books, and he talked 

 with him on subjects which, one can easily 

 understand, were not topics of conversation at 

 Coate. Afterwards, when Jefferies had already 



