332 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



among good-liearted people of our own family, as it 

 were ; in Sweden we are in polite yet friendly company. 

 I hardly know which I found the more pleasant : there 

 is a charm in both. 



Linnasus had now to present his Oxford credentials, 

 and see what could be gathered for Clifford there, and 

 to try if he might there plant his system. He had, 

 besides, to advertise it personally. These things were 

 not then managed by circulars and letters to the 

 Times. Linnaeus multiplied himself in travel. 



How he must have admired towered Windsor's 

 stately glory and the rich vale of Thames c England's 

 golden eye' after the tedious flats of Holland, the 

 wastes of Sweden ! He had never seen anything to 

 equal the scenery from Richmond to the spires of 

 Oxford. It was the very opposite to the grandest 

 scenery he knew, and in its way as fine. This was 

 emerald magnificence, that was .crystal splendour. 



( Hark, the merry Christchurch bells ! ' These 

 * agreeable strains of aerial music ' were as yet a novelty 

 to him ; at Amersfoort only had he heard sweet carillons. 

 There are few carillons in Holland, none in Sweden. 

 Oxford with its domes, spires, and minarets lay before 

 him, ' its rows of shady trees and still monastic edifices 

 in their antique richness and intricate seclusion. ' I 

 never saw a place,' says Hay don the painter, ' that 

 has so much the air of opulence and ease as Oxford. 

 After the bustle, anxieties, fatigue, and harass of a 

 London life, the peace and quiet of those secluded 



