xxx MEMOIR. 



freshness of everything, and the wild birds seemed 

 to enjoy it ; they did not appreciate it as I did, but 

 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 



