— least I was willing to hope it was a glimpse—of heavenly Eght by the way; an answer, I suppose, to many fervent prayers of yours. Continue to pray for as and when anything occurs worth communicating let us know it."

By ten c'clock on the third evening they were safe at Eambam !

H

CHAPTER XXI.

EARTHAM.

(August and September, 1792.)

177. Hayley's House.

AYLEY received his visitors with the utmost cordiality, and Cowper was in raptures with all he saw. Here," he writes to Mr. Greatheed, "we are in the most elegant mansion that I ever inhabited, and surrounded by the most delightful pleasure-grounds that I have ever seen; but which, dissipated as my powers of thought are at present, I will not undertake to describe. It shall suffice me to say, that they occupy three sides of a hill, which in Buckinghamshire might well pass for a mountain, and from the summit of which is beheld a most magnificent landscape bounded by the sea, and in one part by the Isle of Wight, which may also be seen plainly from the window of the library, in which I am writing."

And again : "Here we are as happy as it is in the power of terrestrial good to make us. It is almost a paradise in which we dwell; and our reception has been the kindest that it was possible for friendship and hospitality to contrive."

He tells Mrs. Courtenay: "The inland scene is equally beautiful, consisting of a large and deep valley well cultivated, and inclosed by magnificent hills, all crowned with wood. I had, for my part, no conception that a poet could be the owner of such a paradise; and his house is as elegant as his scenes are charming."

To Newton he writes: "Here Mrs. Unwin walks more than she did or could be persuaded to do at Weston; the cheerfulness naturally inspired by agreeable novelty, I suppose, is that which enables her to do it; and when she is weary she gets into a chaise drawn by Socket r and little Hayley, and pushed behind either by me or my cousin Johnson; the motion of which differs indeed from that of walking, but on rough gravel, such as this country affords, is hardly less beneficial.

"Perhaps when I write again I shall be less hurried, though every day is crowded with employment."

In a letter to Mrs. King, written after his return, Cowper says: "Hayley is one of the most agreeable men, as well as one of the most cordial friends. His house is elegant; his library large, and well chosen ; and he is surrounded by the most delightful scenery. But I have made the experiment only to prove, what indeed I knew before, that creatures are physicians of little value, and that health and cure are from God only. Henceforth, therefore, I shall wait for those blessings from Him, and expect them at no other hand."

With Hayley's friend Guy, a medical practitioner of Chichester, who was frequently in their company, Cowper was also delighted.

'A lad Hayley had brought from Weston Underwood.