morning at eleven
o'clock for "a fifteen-mile ride out, ditto in, and a lunch on the road"
with a wind-up of six o'clock dinner in Doughty Street, I could not
resist the good fellowship. His notion of finding rest from mental
exertion in as much bodily exertion of equal severity, continued with
him to the last; taking in the later years what I always thought the too
great strain of as many miles in walking as he now took in the saddle,
and too often indulging it at night; for, though he was always
passionately fond of walking, he observed as yet a moderation in it,
even accepting as sufficient my seven or eight miles' companionship.
"What a brilliant morning for a country walk!" he would write, with not
another word in his dispatch. Or, "Is it possible that you can't,
oughtn't, shouldn't, mustn't, _won't_ be tempted, this gorgeous day?"
Or, "I start precisely--precisely, mind--at half-past one. Come, come,
_come_, and walk in the green lanes. You will work the better for it all
the week. Come! I shall expect you." Or, "You don't feel disposed, do
you, to muffle yourself up and start off with me for a good brisk walk
over Hampstead Heath? I knows a good 'ous there where we can have a
red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine:" which led to our
first experience of Jack Straw's Castle, memorable for many happy
meetings in coming years. But the rides were most popular and frequent.
"I think," he would write, "Richmond and Twickenham, thro' the park, out
at Knightsbridge, and over Barnes Common, would make a beautiful ride."
Or, "Do you know, I shouldn't object to an early chop at some village
inn?" Or, "Not knowing whether my head was off or on, it became so
addled with work, I have gone riding the old road, and should be truly
delighted to meet or be overtaken by you." Or, "Where shall it be--_oh,
where_--Hampstead, Greenwich, Windsor? WHERE?????? while the day is
bright, not when it has dwindled away to nothing! For who can be of any
use whatsomdever such a day as this, excepting out of doors?" Or it
might be interrogatory summons to "A hard trot of three hours?" or
intimation as laconic "To be heard of at Eel-pie House, Twickenham!"
When first I knew him, I may add, his carriage for his wife's use was a
small chaise with a smaller pair of ponies, which, having a habit of
making sudden rushes up by-streets in the day and peremptory standstills
in ditches by night, were changed in the following year for a more
suita