6

CHRIST CHURCH.

"Christ Church, April 30.

“MY DEAR L.,

"Conceive a room about eighteen feet long by fifteen broad; at one end the door, with a bookcase on one side, at the opposite end a long row of cupboards, painted yellow and white, or rather by this time having degenerated into no colour at all. On one side is a Saxo-Gothic fireplace, with a bookcase, and at each extremity a door, more suited to a barn, one leading into a servants' room, and another into my bedroom. On the opposite side the ceiling falls in a direct slope on a wall of a few feet in height. In the slope are two windows, against one of which rises an angle of stone and mortar, perfectly excluding all apology for a view, and through the other a few square inches of the 'empyrean vault of heaven' is discernible through a plenitude of iron bars. . . . The fireplace is exceedingly hot and the windows very cold, so I have the advantage of a West Indian sun and a Siberian frost, concentrated into me. My bedroom affords just room enough to turn in. The bed is too short by a considerable number of inches, but that is a trifle. Altogether I shall be very comfortable by next term. I have now settled myself, and shall begin to read to-morrow. By-the-by, I find my books scratched very much, by what I know not, except it may be bad packing; also be it known, that, instead of twelve bottles of Bucellas, I have only received eleven.

"I am now very nearly settled, but I must own that I feel rather solitary, having always been accustomed to the pleasures of home; and in addition to that, though I know a great many men as Eton men, yet I scarcely know one intimately, and indeed have not found one of my most particular Eton friends. That will come round in time. Pusey, Freshfield, et cetera, have called on me, and even the gaunt form of Plumptre's cousin made his way very kindly up into my room yesterday, and asked me to breakfast to-morrow. About a fortnight ago I was asked to go down in the Christ Church boat; I accordingly went, and I found myself imperceptibly brought into a regular course of training. Coming up the same evening, I was put between the stroke and a man who is general teacher. Since that I have been down every day, and am to pull in the second boat. The other day we went down to Abingdon. I have got to know by this several very pleasant men, and have found it altogether very satisfactory. Consequently I have not opened my bats, and I do

not know whether I shall, as playing here is very inconvenient. . . . The other day I wined with one of the Goulds" (afterwards his brothers-in-law), "and met Merivale; my father will know who I mean. Also tell him that I heard Durnford1 up in the schools, and he did capitally, I believe, in everything, and is reckoned certain of his class. . . . Pray write as soon as you can, as you cannot tell the pleasure it is to me. I look forward to Montem most anxiously."

Soon after, he writes to his eldest sister, then staying with the parents of her future husband, the Rev. W. Oxenham, in Devonshire.

"Christ Church, May 11.

"By degrees I have been entirely reconciled to this life, and now like it very much, as I have become acquainted with various very agreeable men, though I find scarcely any Eton friend. As cricket is particularly inconvenient, I have become a sailor. I am rather tired of the boat, as it has become a bore, and I shall shirk it when I can. The races have begun, and continue twice every week, and I am obliged to pull in them, as I at first agreed. So much for myself. Your letter was sent to me from Eton, and I pitied your situation greatly, though you must feel differently. . . . I expect to go (to Eton) to-morrow. I went a short time ago to Short, and he told me that he certainly would not give me leave till Monday, even if the Dean did, and told me I was a great fool for going at all. So I put him down in my estimation next to the Provost and Polehampton; but, however, he told me to-day that the Dean had given somebody else leave for a longer time, and thought I might get it also. So he is an angel. I have been to one large party at Mrs. W.'s, and I was so sickened that I will never go to another. . . . I thought of proposing blind-man's buff; but, however, the ladies looked over prints, and the gentlemen played with their fingers, till there was some music, which was amusing."

To the same sister he wrote in the year following—

"MY DEAREST M.,

"Christ Church, March 22, 1827.

"Most humble and contrite I have taken up the

pen, trusting for forgiveness to your generosity alone, as I 1 Richard Durnford, afterwards Bishop of Chichester.

8

CONTEMPORARIES.

in

have nothing to say for myself. . . . My conscience was pricked immensely at the receipt of your parcel last week, but I did not write immediately, that I might give you my opinion of your first essay in preserves, and for that reason dared to transgress your positive order. I am really much obliged to you for thinking of me, for I did not deserve it. The contents were very good, considering you are young the world. . . . I have been going on in the old monotonous way, except now and then a stupid party at 's. I was greatly disgusted a short time ago at not being able to get a ticket for the Woodstock ball. W. had promised me one, but on the Sunday before, when I went to demand it, he had not even one for himself. The consequence was, it was too late to get one anywhere else. . . . Of course, you know that I am singing away like a nightingale, and that I have a tenor voice, and that I already come one octave and a half with great effect. . . . Tell Oxenham by his recommendations I have been attending Buckland, to my great amusement, though this (mineralogy) is the less interesting of the two."

'I went to Christ Church in 1827.1 The same loving care that had watched over me all my earlier years then decided for me what has always been a cause of great thankfulness. Dr. Pusey was then, or just afterwards (1828), Hebrew Professor, living, where he always remained, in the corner house of Tom Quad. Gladstone was in the year behind me. So also was Hamilton, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, and Charles Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of St. Andrews. Vowler Short, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, was my tutor; Longley, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, the Fellow and Senior Censor. Newman was at Oriel, and for the last (about) two years of my time Vicar of St. Mary's. But it was the object of the College authorities to prevent our going to hear him preach, and the Chapel services were so arranged as to make it impossible. Hurrell Froude once came to my rooms to meet Nutcombe Oxenham" (brother of W. Oxenham, and for many years Vicar of Modbury), "otherwise I knew nothing of the Oriel men. Their fame had not as yet begun to be thought of among undergraduates. Pusey, my father's pupil at Eton, was kind to me. I was occasionally at his house. But I was unconscious at that time of

1 The absence of letters is made up for by an account of these years written by himself many years afterwards in a precious volume of notes compiled for his children.-ED.