xxiv MEMOIR. 
they enjoyed it more. The notes of many a 
songster rang out from the thick cover of the 
wood on my left, and amongst the well-known 
notes some strange music was mixed, now and 
then becoming louder and more distinct. These 
must have been the wonderful soft strains of the 
nightingale. The woodpeckers were laughing 
wildly, and the rooks returning to the tops of the 
elms, and talking as is their wont ; the youngsters 
responding eagerly, and seeming as if they were 
chattering and being fed at the same time. The 
cows were placidly grouped about the hedges, or 
wandering leisurely to and fro, favouring the passer- 
by with a whiff of their scented breath. On the 
other side, flooded fields were rich in the most 
luxuriant vegetation ; whilst continually, and, as it 
grew later, more continually, the cuckoos answered 
one another from many a deep shade. I was glad 
to think that you would be thinking me there, and 
hoped you would not fancy that I should give up 
the excursion." 
Nor, passing now from reminiscences of his 
Oxford life, was his love of the country and its 
associations, here sufficiently evinced, confined to 
one particular sort of scenery ; and the wild moor- 
lands of his native county attracted him as strongly 
as the quiet and peaceful beauties of Oxfordshire, 
or even more so. During the Easter vacation of 
