urns all heads, and his own would be if
it was to last more than a week longer. His dancing _fait fureur_."

In October, 1837, he went up to Christ Church, then rather languishing
under Dean Gaisford's mismanagement. Here for three years he enjoyed
himself thoroughly. He rode with the drag, was President of the
Archery Club, played whist, gave and received a great deal of
hospitality, and made some lifelong friendships. Among his
contemporaries was Ruskin, of whom his recollection was certainly
depressing. "He seemed to keep himself aloof from everybody, to
seek no friends, and to have none. I never met him in anyone else's
rooms, or at any social gathering. I see him now, looking rather
crazy, taking his solitary walks."

That Freddy Leveson was "thoroughly idle" was his own confession;
and perhaps, when we consider all the circumstances, it is not
surprising. What is surprising, and what he himself recorded with
surprise, is that neither he nor his contemporaries paid the least
attention to the Oxford Movement, then just at its height, although--and
this makes it stranger still--they used to attend Newman's Sermons
at St. Mary's. They duly admired his unequalled style, but the
substance of his teaching seems to have passed by them like the
idle wind.

After taking a "Nobleman's Degree," Frederick Leveson spent an
instructive year in France, admitted, by virtue of his father's
position, to the society of such men as Talleyrand and Thiers,
Guizot and Mole, Berryer and Eugene Sue; and then he returned to
England with the laudable, though uninspiring, intention of reading
for the Bar. His profession was chosen for him by his father, and
the choice was determined by a civil speech of George Canning, who,
staying at the British Embassy at Paris, noticed little Freddy,
and pleasantly said to Lord Granville, "Bring that boy up as a
lawyer, and he will one day become Lord Chancellor." As a first
step towards that elevation, Frederick Leveson entered the chambers
of an eminent conveyancer called Plunkett, where he had for his
fellow-pupils the men who became Lord Iddesleigh and Lord Farrer.
Thence he went to a Special Pleader, and lastly to a leading member
of the Oxford Circuit. As Marshal to Lord Denman and to Baron Parke,
he acquired some knowledge of the art of carving; but with regard
to the total result of his legal training, he remarked, with
characteristic simplicity, "I cannot say I learnt much law." When
living i