e' in the letter to Lady Egerton will be
understood. Leisure in his mouth meant an opportunity for doing more
than his duties required. He calculated on a previous occasion that, if
he were a judge, he should have at his disposal three or, by good
management, four working hours at his own disposal. I find him,
characteristically enough, observing in an article of about the same
date that the puisne judges have quite enough work without imposing any
extra labour whatever upon them. But he tacitly assumed that he was to
carry a double burthen. How he turned his time to account will appear
directly. I need only say here that he unfeignedly enjoyed his new
position. He often said that he could imagine nothing more congenial to
all his wishes. He observes frequently that the judicial work is the
only part of our administrative system which is still in a thoroughly
satisfactory state. He felt as one who had got into a safe place of
refuge, from which he could look out with pity upon those who were
doomed to toil and moil, in an unhealthy atmosphere, as politicians,
public officials, and journalists. He could learn to be philosophical
even about the fate of his penal code.

NOTE

***My nephew, Sir Herbert Stephen, has kindly sent me the enclosed note
in regard to my brother's life in Ireland.

L. S.

In 1869 my father took for the long vacation a house called
Dromquina, on the northern bank of the Kenmare River, about three
miles from Kenmare. The 'river' is an arm of the sea, something
like forty miles long, and at Dromquina, I suppose, not above half
a mile wide. He had heard of the place by reason of his friend, Mr.
Froude, living at that time at Lord Lansdowne's house, Derreen, in
Killmakalogue Harbour, about fifteen miles lower down on the
opposite shore. In a thickly populated country this would not
constitute a near neighbourhood, but we made excursions to Derreen,
either in a boat or in Mr. Froude's yacht, several times in the
course of the summer. It is in the neighbourhood of the Kenmare
River and Bantry Bay that Mr. Froude laid the scene of 'The Two
Chiefs of Dunboy.'

Dromquina stands close to the water's edge, and we had several
boats and the services of some half-dozen fishermen at our command.
My father had learnt to row at Eton, and during this summer he
always took an oar--and