78 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



him at this time that I should Hke to quote : "... A bold 

 thinker, a bold rider, a most chivalrous gentleman — sad, shy 

 and serious habitually ; in conversation at one moment brilliant 

 and impassioned, the next reserved and unapproachable ; by 

 turns attracting and repelling, but pouring forth, to the friend 

 whom he could trust, stores of thought, feeling, and informa- 

 tion on every sort of unexpected subject which seemed 

 boundless." 



Presently his " have a good time " mood began to change, 

 and in his restlessness he walked from Cambridge to London, a 

 distance of fifty -two miles, in a day, thereby doubtless working 

 off a little more spiritual indigestion. 



He was physically a very strong man, and a quick walker, 

 his impetuosity plainly discernible ; many young men found 

 difficulty in keeping up with him. 



Soon after this he refers to himself as " Saved," and exults 

 in the calm repose of settled convictions. It was now that he 

 met his fate in the shape of Miss Fanny Grenfell, whom he 

 ultimately married and loved with lifelong devotion, saying 

 prettily that his first day of real wedded life was the first day he 

 saw her. It is to her admirable Life of her husband that I am 

 indebted for these extracts from his letters. At times he 

 worked hard, and gained a scholarship in 1839, when he was 

 first of his year at the May examinations. His letter home on 

 the subject is a little pathetic : " Pardon the wildness of my 

 letter, for I am so happy I hardly know what to say. You 

 know I am not accustomed to being successful." 



In another letter written to his mother while he was at 

 Cambridge, he says : 



" My heart is much older than my years. ... I feel that 

 within which makes me far more happy or more miserable than 

 those about me. ... I shall be an old man before I am forty. 

 My heart is veiy full and I am rather lonely. . . . God bless 

 you . . . God bless you, and if you rejoice that you have born 

 a man into the world, remember that he is not one like common 

 men, neither cleverer nor wiser, nor better than a multitude, but 

 utterly different to them in heart and mind . . . legislate for 

 him accordingly. 



" Your own boy, 



"C. KiNGSLEY." 



