t and in any surroundings, and dismiss each occupation with equal
readiness. He found time, too, for a good deal of such society as he
loved. He heartily enjoyed little holiday tours, going occasionally to
the Continent, and more frequently to some of the friends to whom he
always adhered and to whom he could pour out his opinions frankly and
fully. Maine was almost his next-door neighbour, and frequently
consulted him upon Indian matters. He took his Sunday walks with
Carlyle; and he went to stay with Froude, in whose society he especially
delighted, in a summer residence in Devonshire. He frequently visited
his old friend Venables in Wales, and occasionally spent a few days with
members of his own family. Although ready to take up a bit of work,
literary or professional, at any moment, he never appeared to be
preoccupied; and could discourse with the utmost interest upon his
favourite topics, though he sometimes calls himself 'unsociable'--by
which he apparently means that he cared as little as might be for the
unsociable kind of recreation. He was a member of the 'Cosmopolitan'; he
belonged also to 'The Club' and to the 'Literary Society,' and he
heartily enjoyed meeting distinguished contemporaries. In 1874 he paid
a visit to his friends the Stracheys, who had taken for the summer a
house at Anaverna, near Ravensdale, Co. Louth, in Ireland. He liked it
so much that he resolved to become their successor. He took the house
accordingly, and there spent his holidays in the summer of 1875 and the
succeeding years so long as his strength lasted.

Anaverna is a village about five miles of Dundalk, at the foot of a
range of grassy hills rising to a height of some 1,700 feet, within a
well-wooded country below. The house stood in grounds of about sixty
acres, including a wood and traversed by a mountain-stream. Fitzjames
enjoyed walks over the hills, and, in the last years, drives in the
lower country. To this place, and the quiet life there, Fitzjames and
his family became most warmly attached. His letters abound in
enthusiastic remarks about the scenery, and describe his pleasure in the
intercourse with neighbours of all classes, and in the visits of old
friends who came to stay with him. A good deal of his later writing was
done there.

VIII. CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD LYTTON

I have now to speak of a new friendship which played a very important
part in his life from this time. In January 1876, Lord Lytton[174] was
app