LEAVES THET HAVE TOUCHED. 



627 



«' wMch make the English language of so small extent, and put 

 strangers out of conceit to learn it, one is, That we do not pronounce 

 as we write, which proceeds," he thinks "from divers superfluous 

 letters, that occur in many of our words, which adds to the difficulty 

 of the language. Therefore the author hath taken pains to retrench 

 such redundant, unnecessary letters in this work (though the printer 

 hath not bin so carefull as he should have bin), as amongst multitudes 

 of other words may appear in these few, done, some, come ; which, 

 though wee, to whom the speech is connatural, pronounce as mono- 

 syllables, yet when strangers com to read them, they are apt to make 

 them dissilibls do-ne, so-m,e, co-me ; therefore such an e is superfluous," 

 ■etc. etc. 



The parsonage at Hurstmonceux, in Hare's time, is thus described: 

 " You entered and found the whole house one huge library — books 

 overflowing in all corners, into hall, on landing places, in bedrooms, 

 and in dressing-room^. Their number was roughly estimated at 

 14,000 volumes, and though it would be too much to say that their 

 owner had read them all, yet he had at least bought them all with a 

 special purpose ; knew where they were, and what to find in them ; 

 ^nd often, in the midst of discussion, he would dart off to some 

 remote corner, and return in a few minutes with the passage that 

 was wanted as an authority or illustration. Each group of books 

 (and a traceable classification prevailed throughout the house) repre- 

 sented some stage in the formation of his mind — the earlier scholar- 

 ship, the subsequent studies in European literature and philosophy, 

 the later in patristic and foreign theology. The pictures which he 

 had brought from Italy, and for which he had almost a personal 

 affection, gave their brightness to the rooms in chiefest use. Busts 

 also were there, not as art-furniture merely, but as memorials of men 

 whose names he honoured, or in whose friendship he rejoiced — his 

 brother Augustus, Schleiermacher, Niebuhr, Bunsen, Wordsworth. 

 Seldom has any house been so in harmony with the mind and char- 

 acter of its occupant. Seldom also, we may add, has any one house 

 been the meeting-place of so many of those whose names have been 

 conspicuous in our own time, and will live in the times that follow." 

 As a companion picture, I give a description by a writer in the 

 London Guardian, of the study of Hare's collaborateur Connop 

 Thirlwall. The scene is in Abergwili Palace, Carmarthen, and time, 

 just before Thirlwall's resignation of the See of St. David's. — " Past 



