COLLEGE APP OINTMENT. 14 1 



If the doctors would now consent to my going home, it would 

 be all that I want to bring me round to the full measure of usual 

 health. I am weary of having nothing to engage my mind, or 

 keep me from falling back into listlessness or ennui. I struggle 

 against it as best I can, but find it often very difficult. Since I 

 have seen a few of my friends, I get on better, and letters are 

 some little food ; but unless you keep up a supply of this penny 

 post chat, a stray letter is soon put aside, and I roll back on my 

 hinges like a creaking door. I have very few books, nor do I 

 employ much time in regular reading. 



Sir William Hooker has been very ill — I fear alarmingly so — 

 but is now much better. I had a note from him on Friday ; I 

 fear it will be some days before I am allowed to go to see him. 

 Poor old Menzies died of apoplexy in February last. I just 

 missed seeing nim ; he had reached his ninetieth birthday, but 

 his spirit was so bright and active that his death seems like that 

 of a much younger contemporary. 



To N. B. Ward, Esq. 



Ventnor, Isle of Wight, May 18, 1842. 



You may well be surprised that I have hopped away here 

 unknown to you, but it was a sudden thought, and I had no time 

 after decision to call and tell you I was going. 



Dr. F. and I left town on the 11th, and got to Newport yester- 

 day, after seeing the wonders of Carisbrook Castle. . . . We 

 are rather disappointed in this said Ventnor. It is a pretty 

 little place — quiet and cool, with a view of the Channel, but 

 there are very few sea-side walks, and no strand. As for Alga3, 

 they are seemingly none but the commonest ; some may lie hid 

 that escape a stroller's casual glance. I should soon get tired of 

 the sameness of this place, so very different from our own fine 

 shores on the West of Ireland. 



The soil of the hills is chalky, and they are beginning to turn 

 brown in anticipation of summer. There is but little water in 

 the Chines or gullies that form the chief lions of the place. 

 On the whole, we think they make quite enough of the beauties 

 and fetrility of this " Garden of England." The rage for build- 

 ing has already spoiled some of the prettiest nooks. 



