n by Brooklands, through the second wood, and
by the Fairies' Oak. O Lord King, Lord King (we were riding through
the property of the Earl of Lovelace, then Lord King), if I was one
of those bishops whom you do not love, I would curse,
excommunicate, and anathematize you for cutting down all those
splendid trees and laying bare those deep, dark, leafy nooks, the
haunts of a thousand "Midsummer Night's Dreams," to the common air
and the staring sun. The sight of the dear old familiar paths
brought the tears to my eyes, for, stripped and thinned of their
trees and robbed of their beauty, my memory restored all their
former loveliness. On we went down to Byefleet to the mill, to
Langton's through the sweet, turfy meadows, by hawthorn hedges
musical as sweet, over the picturesque little bridge and along that
deep, dark, sleepy water flowing so silently in its sullen
smoothness. On we went a long way over a wide common, where the
coarse-grained peaty earth and golden glory of the flowering gorse
reminded me of Suffolk's motto--

"Cloth of gold, do not despise
That thou art mix'd with cloth of frieze;
Cloth of frieze, be not too bold
That thou art mix'd with cloth of gold."

Back by St. George's Hill, snatching many a leaf and blossom as I
rode to carry back to A---- mementoes of our dear Weybridge days,
and so home by half-past seven, just time to dress for dinner. As
we rode along, Lord Francis and I discussed poets and poetry _in
general_--more particularly Byron, Keats, and Shelley; it was a
very pretty and proper discourse for such a ride.

In the evening heard all manner of delicious ghost stories;
afterward made music, Lady Francis and I trying all sorts of duets,
my mother keeping up a "humming" third and Lord Francis listening
and applauding with equal zeal and discretion....

_Saturday, May 21st._--My brother John come home from Spain....

_Sunday, 22d._--What a very odd process dreaming is! I _dreamt_ in
the night that John had come home, and flung myself out of bed in
my sleep to run downstairs to him, which naturally woke me; and
then I remembered that he was come home and that I had seen and
welcomed him, which it seems to me I might as well have dreamed too
while I was about it, and saved myself the jump out o