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him who knows how to take a walk. Was not my author right, then, in saying that few had that knowledge ?"

I willingly deferred to all this, which only excited me more and more to put in execution the plan for the pedestrian expedition he had proposed, on which I was now impatient to set out, and named the day when I would first go home to communicate with my family.

"A parting observation," said he, "before you go. Recollect you will, according to this scheme, have little to do with the upper ranks; and in what you may call this abasement, you must count upon some mortifications. These you must laugh at, or give up the undertaking. At any rate, you have only to imagine yourself (indeed it will be only true, and a great deal more romantic, and therefore more to your taste) a gentleman in disguise. Only recollect that, however you travel, every little incident that occurs may, with proper powers of mind, be turned to account."

I quite fell in with these suggestions, and was almost as eager for my first sally as Don Quixote.

I went home to Bardolfe to announce my intention, and my father did not oppose it, especially when he heard it was by Fothergill's recommendation. My brothers, indeed, thought it a queer thing for "t' young doctor to set off after a Willy-with-a-wisp," as they called it, with no object of business, and nothing to see but the same creatures as our own market town supplied nearer home. But as I could afford to pay my way, they agreed I had a right to please myself.

So, after a few days' visit to my family at the commencement of the long vacation, I returned to Oxford to equip myself for my expedition, which I meant to direct southward through the neighbouring counties. Here my adventures furnish very different scenes from those I have reported, and some of them, as will be seen, led to most important changes in my prospects, as well as my ultimate fate.

CHAPTER X.

I START ON A TOUR OF OBSERVATION. - THE FEEL

INGS OF A YOUTH ABOUT TO VIEW THE WORLD.

This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins by times.

SHAKSPEARE. Antony & Cleopatra.

It was not five o'clock in the morning, in the first week in August, when I started from my cell in the old quadrangle of the venerable Maudlin, to commence my novel excursion. In my way, passing Queen's, I beheld my old friend the porter already opening his gates, and preparing to wash them, for he was proud of, and loved them seemingly with a lover's fondness. Hence let none of us suppose that there are no interests (and exciting ones too) except among great ones. The porter of Queen's was as eagerly occupied in furbishing up his gates, as the duchess of Q. in cleaning her diamonds. Perhaps his pride in them was the least selfish, and therefore the more respectable of the two. This earliest of my academical friends had always treated me with great respect, which was not a little increased by my election to Maudlin, a demy of which he considered as the high road to a fellowship, the acmé, in his eyes (with the sole exception of the head of a house), of all earthly dignity.

What was my old friend's wonder, when he saw the equipments for my pedestrian journey-a small knapsack strapt to my shoulders, a short coat with many pockets, and, for convenience in walking, denuded of skirts. Trowsers, half-gaiters, and thick shoes (which, in those days of buckskin breeches, cordovan boots and pumps, were by no means condescended to by the Oxford dandies, among whom, by the porter at least, I had been reckoned), completed my appearance. Thus equipped, with about thirty guineas in my pocket, and staff in hand, like an old patriarch (I mean in regard to the staff, not the guineas), I was proceeding on my way.

The janitor, who knew nothing of romance, or that I was so well furnished, beheld me with consternation; and when he learned that I was quitting Oxford for the vacation, I saw he suspected me of poverty, nor could my assurances that I walked for pleasure undeceive him. I am afraid, notwithstanding my own romance, I was fool enough to be annoyed at this, and glad not only that the various colleges had been emptied of their inhabitants by the vacation, but that the few who remained were wrapt in sleep. I had, in fact, at first thought of going in a gig, in order not to disparage the demy of Maudlin by the appearance of a tramper. But I grew ashamed of the feeling, and rallied like a brave fellow, resolved to defy prejudice; though even the honest porter, I thought, touched his hat less reverently than usual; but such is the world!

Be that as it will, I never felt in better spirits than when I set out. The prospect before me was one of hope, of adventure; and hope, as Lord Bacon says, is a good breakfast though a bad supper; but be it noted, I was then twenty years old, and thought only of breakfast. Fothergill's prognostics, too, in regard to Lord Castleton, still tingled in my ears; and meanwhile, to use his words, it was holiday time, and I was to see a little of the world with my own eyes, instead of those of the book-men. What could be more taking to a sanguine youth, who thought that world all his own?

The weather, too (no small ingredient in a scheme of happiness), was opportunely propitious; nay, it seemed bespoke. It had rained in the night, not in torrents, that sweep and lash the plains, but in mild and gentle showers, just sufficient to cool the earth, and by their genial moisture to wake every thing into freshness. Sweet indeed was this breath of morn; for the meadows were full of butter-cups, the grass emitted perfume, the hedges and their wild-flowers breathed fragrance, and the birds sang pæans. Could a young collegian fail to think of his Virgil?

"Lucifero primo cum sidere frigida rura

Carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent,
Et ros in tenerâ pecori gratissimus herba est."*

* Before the sun when Hesperus appears,
First let them sip from herbs the pearly tears
Of morning dews, then let them break their fast,
On greensward ground, a cool and grateful taste.

DRYDEN.

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