HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 327 



privations, and sufferings to bring out good ; disciplined and 

 schooled perhaps severely, yet it may be to everlasting profit. 



The August of 1859 was spent in company with some relatives 

 at Ballybunion, a small watering-place in the County Kerry at 

 the mouth of the Shannon. " Our days," he writes to Mrs. Gray, 

 " pass quietly and without much variety — little to be clone in 

 the Natural History line, and, as I know all the stupid Irish 

 plants ad nauseam, they don't amuse me ; but we have pleasant 

 walks over the cliffs and by the headlands, and when not 

 walking I copy MS, of Flora Capensis for the printer. Has 

 Tennyson's new book, ' Idylls of the King,' found its way across 

 the Atlantic? I have actually read it from cover to cover, 

 which is more than I have done with any book of poems for 

 many years. I like it much, particularly the first and third 

 stories. It is pleasant reading for a hot day stretched on the 

 grass under a tree. The old romantic spirit seems faithfully 

 rendered, and the language is simple and musical, without any of 

 the fantastic excrescences that deform so many of Tennyson's 

 poems and those of his imitators." 



From Ballybunion Dr. Harvey passed over to England, and in 

 a letter to Miss Harvey, New York, he gives an interesting account 

 of a visit to Cambridge, during which he had the pleasure of 

 being present at an agricultural fete given by Professor Henslow 

 to his parishioners. " It is," he writes, " very pleasant to witness 

 the greatly improved condition of the people since Mr. Henslow 

 took them in hand. In old times the parish was noted for 

 thieves and vagabonds, and the church was empty ; the only 

 frequented places of worship being a few dissenting meeting- 

 houses. The people are now steady and comfortable, and take 

 the greatest interest in their gardens, and in agricultural im- 

 provements, and both church and schools are well filled. Un- 

 fortunately the weather broke just before the fete-day, and we 

 had a cold dreary downpour most of the time, which greatly 

 spoiled the picturesque effect, and kept away strangers, but it 

 did not damp the spirits of the villagers, of whom about four 

 hundred came to the rectory. The show took place in the 

 pretty sloping lawn extending from the house to the church, 

 which with its old Norman tower is a handsome object, seen 

 through a vista among the trees. At one side of the lawn was a 



