80 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1834. name I forget. I also ascertained which of all my cousins in 

 India she had danced with in her day, which was instructive to 

 know. These, and a great many other things, did I ascertain ; 

 so you may see that if I am not communicative myself, I know 

 how to make other people so when they do not know what I am 

 at. At Cambridge I found Sheepshanks, Peacock, and several 

 new builiings, the former of whom drove me to Madingley, a 

 place I never saw ir^ my life before, so you may judge how far 

 my walks extended as an undergraduate. Came home as tired 

 as a city mouse of hedgerows and cottages, and was more 

 nearly in a good humour with the fiddler who stands opposite 

 my window on a Saturday night than I could previously have 

 thought possible. If the locomotives ever come to go so quick 

 that one tree shall not be distinguishable from another, then, and 

 not before, do I become a traveller. Mr. Stephenson (engineer) 

 says he shall never be satisfied till two hours take us from 

 London to Liverpool. Blessings on his heart, but either he or, 

 better still, one of the minority who can be spared, shall try it 

 first. I have not got a large organ of caution for nothing. I am 

 delighted with the House of Lords for throwing out the hard 

 bargain of 80 per cent, of Irish tithes to be secured upon the 

 land. The I. P. 1 will never get so good a composition again. I 



perfectly agree now with Lord that the Commons would 



sometimes blunder if it were not for the Lords. Can you imagine 



Lord , the quondam Liberal, instigating the House of 



Lords to put it in the power of Commissioners to hinder any 

 pauper's religious instructors from having access to him unless 

 he were of Parliament principles ? No letters from you, from 

 which I conclude that your thoughts are of trees, only interrupted 

 by the slopping of the waves, which are always fiddling at the 

 sand till I long to give them a thump, and tell them to be easy. 

 The prettiest thing about the sea is the straight horizon and the 

 isochronism of the waves in deep water, but near the shore they 

 do not keep time like my pendulum. . . . We have got our 

 rooms (in part) given up to me, and about the end of September 

 shall begin to stir in getting them ready. All the people are oufc 

 of town except myself, and they might as well make me Secretary 

 of State as set me painting, plastering, and whitewashing. 

 Stratford is gone to Bamsgate with Mrs. S (as he calls her I 

 abominate initial letters) tratford, Baily to Edinburgh, Hender- 

 son, &c., ditto. There is not a soul left that I know of, which is 



1 Quaere Irish People I I cannot interpret these political allusions. 



