1844-54. WHAT MAKES PATEIOTS. 375 



sent back to their racing. To-day the sun is sleepy, and late of 

 showing himself, and the lambs are very quiet. 



" I have some fine light reading in the shape of a ponderous 

 MS. folio of Evidence before the House of Lords. It was sent 

 after me, to be studied in reference to an action for compensation. 

 I read a little of it now and then, but I am saving my brains, 

 and leading altogether such a life as an owl in easy circumstances 

 may be supposed to do." 



" May 5th. 



" Three weeks of idleness are now nearly ended ; weeks of as 

 sheer idleness as I ever spent ; and I do not feel a bit conscience- 

 stricken for all that. . . . Yesterday we had a delightful 

 drive. The day was the brightest and warmest we have had. 

 We went by out-of-the-way, picturesque roads, new ones, not 

 afflicted with toll bars. A novel and most splendid view of the 

 Valley of the Forth repaid Greybeard for a climb at one point. 

 Such a panorama ! I will not spoil it by trying to describe it. 

 I felt strongly in looking at it, that it was a landscape like the 

 one I gazed at, with prominent, marked-out hills, great moun- 

 tains girdling the horizon, sunny slopes gliding down to the 

 water-side, and a silvery stream reflecting the sky in its bosom 

 [take a breath whilst I get a dip of ink] ; it was this that made 

 men patriots. I could not fight stoutly for the marshes I saw 

 about Cambridge, but I would fight ' a bit' for a countryside 

 like this. But what have I to do with fighting ? Nothink ! 

 Therefore let me go on to say that we visited a colony of those 

 lively pretty birds, the jackdaws ; and that I saw a bird I never 

 saw before, namely, a jay, a beautiful creature, prettily parti- 

 coloured, and active on the wing. We got but a glimpse of him, 

 for he was not sure of us." 



Each spring and autumn afforded a few weeks of relaxation ; 

 but the furthest limit attained was a visit to Dublin in 1857. 

 Continental trips were frequently planned, but as the time 

 approached, he felt his strength unequal to the demands they 

 were likely to make on it, and medical advisers invariably 

 counselled the avoidance of travelling, especially by sea. Busi- 

 ness journeys occasionally called him from home, and they were 

 undertaken with a cheerful readiness, that trust in God alone 



