CHAP. XL] HOME OCCUPATIONS. 321 



up a good deal of energy. Some measure of it is 

 afforded by the fact that a "pillar "-box was let into 

 the rough stone wall on the roadside, across the Urr, 

 for the sole use of Glenlair House. Maxwell would 

 himself carry the letters to and from this rustic post- 

 office in all weathers, at the same time giving the 

 dogs a run. 



Both now and afterwards, his favourite exercise 

 as that in which his wife could most readily share 

 was riding, in which he showed great skill. Mr. 

 Fergusson remembers him in 1874, on his new black 

 horse, " Dizzy," which had been the despair of previous 

 owners, "riding the ring," for the amusement of the 

 children at Kilquhanity, throwing up his whip and 

 catching it, leaping over bars, etc. 



A considerable portion of the evening would often 

 be devoted to Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, or a play of 

 Shakespeare, which he would read aloud to Mrs. 

 Maxwell. 



On Sundays, after returning from the kirk, he 

 would bury himself in the works of the old divines. 

 For in theology, as in literature, while reckoning 

 frankly with all phases, his sympathies went largely 

 with the past. Not that he would have checked the 

 real progress of thought on the subject of religion, but 

 he did not share the sanguine hopes of some who 

 have sought to hasten these " slow -paced " changes ; 

 nor did he believe in progress by ignoring differences, 

 or by merging the sharp outlines of traditional sys- 

 tems in the haze of a " common Christianity." He 

 was one of those in whom physical studies seem to 



