MEMOIR. xxxi 



the quiet and peaceful beauties of Oxfordshire, or even 

 more so. During the Easter vacation of 1 864 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." 



