i8 



COLLEGE LIFE. 



[Chap. II. 



Revealed Religion, which we are now doing, I find more 

 interesting." Some of his fellow-students were ready to read 

 to him ; he taught what we called a " gamut club," to practise 

 the scales— for a time he treated himself to a piano \ and 

 backgammon often shortened the evenings. The great treat 

 of the year was his Christmas vacation at Leeds. Part of the 

 time he spent with the family of his fellow-student, Mr. Arthur 

 Lupton, junior, whose excellent mother was an enthusiastic 

 teetotaler; and part with the Buckton family, who were very 

 musical, and to one of whom, Mr. George Buckton, who was 

 younger than himself, he felt specially drawn. They retained 

 their affectionate friendship to the last. He wrote to him on 

 his return : " Everything I play, I try to think whether you 

 would like it or not ; and every glee the students sing recalls to 

 my mind days — now, alas ! past — of sweet singings and flutes 

 and pianos : and (last but not least) people. Excuse sentimen- 

 tality. ... I am very happy, very ; but of course I could not 

 expect to be so happy as I was in your house, and with my 

 other Leeds friends." 



The chapel organ was undergoing repairs, and Philip soon 

 made acquaintance with the organ-builder, who invited him to 

 see the Minster organ, which he was " voicing." Of this he sent 

 a full description to his brother William. To Mary he wrote 

 (March, 1838): " My own situation is curiously different from 

 what it was last year. . . . Then I was in the midst of a very 

 large world, with beautiful and romantic scenery, and every- 

 thing suited to keep me in a state of gentle excitement. Now 

 my ideas are exceedingly confined ; there is nothing (leaving 

 the Minster out of the question) to call me out : my acquaint- 

 ance exceedingly limited, the scenery in general the very acme 

 of straight-road, flat-country stupidity. I feel extremely unin- 

 terested about most things : science is buried in oblivion ; 

 mollusca * are hardly recovered from their winter torpidity ; 

 Greek, Latin, and Hebrew engage little attention, and alto- 

 gether I am extremely placid. But the Minster is enough to 



* When he found how flat the country was, he had comforted himself 

 on learning that it was a particularly favourable place for fresh-water shells. 



