Eccentricities and Absence of Mind. 185 



had he become towards the close of his 

 laborious and self-denying life that it was 

 not uncommon for him to pass old friends 

 in the street without giving them any sign 

 of recognition. As he stalked along, taking 

 enormous strides, his gesticulations and soli- 

 loquies resembled those in which Dr. John- 

 son, Charles Lamb, and Thomas Carlyle 

 habitually indulged. The Rev. R. F. Lynes, 

 " The Druid's " still surviving brother-in-law, 

 has been good enough to confide to me the 

 two following anecdotes which, better than 

 anything that I can myself write, will show 

 what " The Druid " was in the last few years 

 of his life. 



The first is as follows : — 



4< In September, 1865, ' The Druid ' went 

 down to Rushton, a country village in North- 

 amptonshire, not far from Market Har- 

 borough, where I was in temporary charge 

 of the parish, to spend a Sunday with me. 

 He had been told to get out of the train 

 at Kettering, and to take the main road for 

 a mile or so, until he came to a stile whence a 

 pleasant path through the fields would bring 

 him direct to the village, and be a consider- 



