One of the chief features in the restored Rectory of Combe Florey was a
library, twenty-eight feet long and eight high, ending in a bay-window
supported by pillars, and looking into a brilliant garden. This room had
been made by "throwing a pantry, a passage, and a shoe-hole together."
Three sides of it were covered with books. "No furniture so charming as
books," said Sydney, "even if you never open them, or read a single word."
He passionately loved light and colour, sunshine and flowers; and all his
books were bound in the most vivid blues and reds. "What makes a fire so
pleasant is that it is a live thing in a dead room," A visitor thus
describes him at his literary work:--

"At a large table in the bay-window, with his desk before him--on one
end of this table a case, something like a small deal music-stand,
filled with manuscript books--on the other a large deal tray, filled
with a leaden ink-stand, containing ink enough for a county; a
magnifying glass; a carpenter's rule; several large steel pens, which
it was high treason to touch; a glass bowl full of shot and water, to
clean these precious pens; and some red tape, which he called 'one of
the grammars of life'; a measuring line, and various other articles,
more useful than ornamental. At this writing establishment, unique of
its kind, he could turn his mind with equal facility, in company or
alone, to any subject, whether of business, study, politics,
instruction, or amusement, and move the minds of his hearers to
laughter or tears at his pleasure."

The daily life at Combe Florey was eminently patriarchal. He lived
surrounded by children, grandchildren, and friends; chatting with the poor,
comforting the sick, and petting the babies of the village. Old and young
alike he doctored with extraordinary vehemence and persistency, "As I don't
shoot or hunt, it is my only rural amusement." He wrote to a friend--"The
influenza to my great joy has appeared here, and I am in high medical
practice." "This is the house to be ill in," he used to say, "I take it as
a delicate compliment when my guests have a slight illness here. Come and
see my apothecary's shop." The "shop" was a room filled on one side with
drugs and on the other with groceries. "Life is a difficult thing in the
country, I assure you, and it requires a good deal of forethought to steer
the ship, when you live twelve miles from a lemon."

The church of