ks and choughs circle about their
battlements and spires. As he said, he was not formed for an indoor
student, and outdoor life had ever a greater charm for him than the
library or the study. Often with rod and gun (he had an old Tower musket
nearly eighty years old) he would go down amongst the marshes to angle or
shoot as the fancy took him and the season gave him sport. Fortunately,
the old fowling-piece was sound, although condemned on account of its
age, and he never came to harm by it; indeed, if we may believe him in
this matter--and it is always hard to put implicit faith in a solitary
sportsman or angler--he did considerable execution amongst the birds of
the Broadland.

Still there were times when even the attraction of the rod and gun were
not sufficient to keep him from dreaming. Then, he would throw himself
down on some mossy bank and let his mind wander back into the mists and
mysteries of the days of yore. There was one favourite spot of his,
where, from beneath an arch, "the waters rush garrulously into a blue
pool, and are there stilled for a time, for the pool is deep, and they
appear to have sunk to sleep. Further on, however, you hear their voice
again, where they ripple gaily over yon gravelly shallow. On the left,
the hill slopes gently down to the margin of the stream. On the right is
a green level, a smiling meadow; grass of the richest decks the side of
the slope; mighty trees also adorn it, giant elms, the nearest of which,
when the sun is nigh its meridian, fling a broad shadow on the face of
the pool; through yon vista you catch a glimpse of the ancient brick of
an old English hall." This old hall stood on the site of an older
hearthstead called the Earl's Home, where lived some "Sigurd or Thorkild"
in the days "when Thor and Freya were yet gods, and Odin was a portentous
name." Earlham stands to-day as it did in Borrow's time, and, no doubt,
other Norwich lads at times lie out on the hillside dreaming of the
sea-rovers of Scandinavia who ravaged the hearths and homes of the
marshland folk of East Anglia.

Amongst the Norwich celebrities whom Borrow met, was Joseph John Gurney
of Earlham, the large-hearted Quaker brother of Elizabeth Fry. Mr.
Gurney seems to have come across him one day while he was fishing, and to
have remonstrated with him for taking pleasure in such "a cruel
diversion." He was a tall man, "dressed in raiment of a quaint and
singular fashion, but of goodly mate