i862.] 



BRISTOL. 



261 



accept an arrangement to lecture in Devon and Cornwall on 

 his American travels (illustrated by photographic slides in the 

 magic-lantern), and then to plead for the United Kingdom 

 Alliance. He wrote, for " dear people all," " Rambles of a 

 Lecturer in quest of Sovereigns and Change : the latter being 

 much more easily got than the former." It was as long as a 

 lecture, and written with his usual graphic power. Much of it 

 would be generally interesting, but there is only room for two 

 or three extracts : — 



At Bristol, "it was curious to wander through the old 

 streets as a traveller : every gable and turn familiar to me, as 

 when I rambled in boyhood as my father's ' little Mercury/ but 

 now unknown, and taking stock of things after the experience 

 of twenty thousand miles. How narrow and unhealthy the 

 streets are, and yet where will you see such quaint artistic 

 beauty? I went to Redcliffe Church to see the restorations 

 ... it seems to me more than ever unrivalled in its exquisite 

 beauty. [Thence he went to Arno's Vale Cemetery, where his 

 mother was buried.] The spot is lovely as ever, more beautiful 

 than any I know, except the Montreal mountain one, bounded 

 by the forest and the St. Lawrence. It calmed one's tired 

 mind, to wander alone among the tombs of friend and stranger. 

 . . . I climbed the hill, and encountered the gardener, who 

 remembered ' the old Doctor ' — had heard his funeral sermon 

 for the Rajah. We talked over the old days, when the 

 Worsleys lived there. Those were happy days, when Sam and 

 I worked at the Dundry fossils, ate fruit in the garden, and 

 walked round the hill, the cattle grazing on what now are 

 graves. It seems like yesterday, and all one's Northern life 

 a dream. I could become a Bristol boy again, at very short 

 notice ; and then Robbie and I would have fine times together 

 over the rocks, as Russell and I used to have. My boy life 

 seems to me the most real part of my existence, and my boy 

 sympathies are still the strongest. Query, whether I shall 

 become a boy again in the spiritual world ? Back again to the 

 Cathedral [to meet Mary and W. L. C], dear old place, none 

 the less beautiful for the memories of York and Rouen, and 



