MEMOIR. XXV 
1864 he had been on a short walking tour into the 
Yorkshire dales with one of his brothers and some 
other friends. 
"There is always a sense of freedom," he writes 
from near Leeds soon afterwards, " in getting away 
to the moors and mountains which surround us, and 
lie so near that they seem to invite Leeds men to 
visit them. For though the river at Kirkstall is 
sadly changed from the stream that leaves Malham 
Tarn, and the mountain air has lost somewhat of 
its freshness when it sweeps over this place, the 
sight and sound of railways are a constant reminder 
that a few minutes' consignment to the train, and 
the payment of a few shillings, are sufficient charm 
to place one in the world of nature. May those 
moors and valleys long continue desolate, if desola- 
tion may be understood to mean no presence but 
that of the spirit of nature. I care not what that 
spirit may be, but I feel a breathing life and 
an unsurpassable harmony, where man has not 
utterly defiled the face of the country. What I 
long for," he concludes, " is a fishing tour in the 
neighbourhood of Kilnsey or Wensleydale. I must 
be incorrigibly idle, and born to hate anything that 
even looks like work ; and yet I want to be active, 
to do something, to find a field for my energies, such 
as they are." 
In the last passage the writer did himself some 
