1886 AT ILKLEY 447 



etc., and back, which is a matter of sixteen miles, without 

 being particularly tired, though the afternoon sun was as 

 hot as midsummer. 



It is the old story a case of candle-snuff some 

 infernal compound that won't get burnt up without 

 more oxygenation than is to be had under ordinary condi- 

 tions. . . . 



I want to be back and doing something, and yet have 

 a notion that I should be wiser if I stopped here a few 

 weeks and burnt up my rubbish effectually. A good deal 

 will depend upon whether I can get my wife to join 

 me or not. She has had a world of worry lately. 



As to his fortunate choice of an hotel, " I made up 

 my mind," he writes, " to come to this hotel merely 

 because Bradshaw said it was on the edge of the moor 

 but for once acting on an advertisement turned out 

 well." The moor ran up six or seven hundred feet 

 just outside the garden, and the hotel itself was well 

 outside and above the town and the crowd of visitors. 

 Here, with the exception of a day or two in May, and 

 a fortnight at the beginning of June, he stayed till 

 July, living as far as possible an outdoor life, and 

 getting through a fair amount of correspondence. 



It was not to be expected that he should long 

 remain unknown, and he was sometimes touched, 

 more often bored, by the forms which this recognition 

 took. Thus two days after his arrival he writes 

 home : 



Sitting opposite to me at the table d'htite here is a 

 nice old Scotch lady. People have found out my name 

 here by this time, and yesterday she introduced herself to 

 me, and expressed great gratitude for the advice I gave to 



