SIX WEEKS IN A TOWER. 99 



his poetical and drinking powers." "Who is it," 

 says another, " except the bard who daily returns 

 home full of wine from the booths on the banks of 

 the river ? " A third proverb enters into the rationale 

 of the subject even better than Anacreon and Burns 

 have done: "The bard will put off his vests of fur 

 to exchange them for wine. He seeks the wine-shop 

 to soothe his passions. He always satisfies his poet- 

 ical cravings with wine." Here the moralist appears to 

 recognise the fact that it is something more than a mere 

 sensual impulse which renders the poet peculiarly 

 open to this species of dissipation. Intoxication is 

 pleasant to him only because it " satisfies his poetical 

 cravings," by transporting him, in its confusion, 

 beyond the boundaries of the actual into his own 

 peculiar ideal world, when the actual presses too close 

 for him to escape unaided from it. 



The occupations of the country gentry among whom 

 we stayed were not very varied or exciting. They 

 never appeared to take exercise for its own sake, and 

 only rode out, on ponies or in chairs, in order to 

 transact business or pay visits. They were fond of 

 firing off gingalls and revolvers, and were pretty fair 

 marksmen, but engaged in no kind of hunting. They 

 took some superintendence of the cultivation of the 

 land, and of the various little works going on about, 

 or in connection with, their houses. Lengthy dinner 

 parties, at which much conversation was held, ap- 

 peared to be their chief amusement ; and they were 



