1825-1830.] HOME LIFE IN OXFORD. 105 
I recollect a dish of crocodile, which was an utter failure. 
The Dean’s experiment in quaint gastronomy used to 
remind me of the dinner on garden snails at which Black, 
Hutton, and Playfair determined to get over their natural 
prejudice; but though the three philosophers took one 
mouthful, they could not be persuaded to swallow it, and 
rejected the morsel with strong language. The crocodile 
at your father’s table had a similar fate." 
On the opposite side of the Christ Church Quadrangle 
lived Dr. Pusey, who was a most kind friend and neighbour 
to both Dr. and Mrs. Buckiand, and his spiritual minis¬ 
trations afforded much comfort to Mrs. Buckiand at the 
time of the death of her son Adam when only nine years 
old. Adam, also called Conybeare Sedgwick after his 
godfathers Dr. Conybeare, Dean of Llandaff, and Professor 
Sedgwick, was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, in a 
vault where already lay two elder children—by name 
Willie and Eva. 
Buckiand was a kind and affectionate father, and always 
liked to have his children about him. The return from 
his frequent journeys was awaited by them with eager 
expectation, for from the famous blue bag would be turned 
out for them on the dining-room floor some strange (in 
those days) foreign fruit, such as a bundle of bananas, 
or a cocoanut in its big outside shell, or a “ forbidden 
fruit ” (lime), which the little ones fondly imagined might 
have grown in the Garden of Eden. On one occasion, 
in addition to the blue bag, a large mysterious bundle 
was brought in, wrapped in a travelling rug. The children 
were told that it was a “ wild beast ” of some sort, that 
it would not hurt them, and that whoever guessed what 
