1824-27. RICHARD CLEASBY. Ixiii

be said that there was no learned man in either country whom he had not seen and
known. Most of his friends, both at home and abroad, have now ceased to live, but
still, in England, it will be sufficient to mention the names of Sir John Shaw Lefevre
and Henry Reeve to prove that, though he was best known to foreigners, there were
not wanting those among his own countrymen who yet survive to appreciate his worth.
It would take volumes to exhaust the notices of men and manners and science that
might be drawn from twelve thick volumes of Diaries; but the following extracts from
them and from his letters will at once present a sketch of Richard Cleasby's life,
and shew what manner of man he was. The first years of his foreign pilgrimage must
be passed over lightly. Thus, though in the years 1824, 1825, and 1826 he was in
Italy and Switzerland, we only pause at the 2ist of March in the last year to note his
words on entering Rome :

' I entered the city standing, and with my head uncovered, a feeble tribute to the memory of
the great writers and men of all descriptions whom she nursed. I had Byron in my hand, and felt
the force of his beautiful line—

" Oh Rome, my country, city of the soul! "'

On the 18th of May he makes the following entry :

' Wrote a very long letter to my father in answer to his, telling him that, as far as my present
feelings went, I had no idea of returning to business; that I was in a few days about to leave
Florence for Carlsbad by the Tyrol .... and that I should require a letter either on Dresden or
Leipzig.'

This is the first mention of his many visits to Carlsbad, rendered necessary by
rheumatism and an affection of the liver, which seemed to yield to no other treatment.

On the 7th of June we find him for the first time at Munich, and on the loth at
Carlsbad, consulting Dr. Leo, and confessing that the place would be much more
agreeable if he could speak German. On the 22nd of July he left Carlsbad 'without
regret/ and went by way of Prague to Dresden, where he paid due homage to the
pictures, of which he seems to have been an excellent judge. On the 12th of August
he left Dresden for Berlin, arriving on the I3th. He did not make a very long stay in
the Prussian capital, for on the igth he was at Leipzig, and on the 2ist attended
a lecture in Latin on Theocritus, by Hermann, the famous Greek Professor, of whom
an entry in the Diary gives us the following glimpse :

' Hermann lectured in Latin, in which language indeed almost the whole business of the
University of Leipzig is carried on. . . . There were about 70 young men present, a sadly raffish-
looking set; Hermann himself, with a stand-up collar, blue coat, and woollen winter-looking
waistcoat, had all the appearance of a little mechanic—a man one would expect to see at a turning-
machine.'

On the 22nd he left for Dresden, where he determined to learn German, and for
that purpose settled at Tharandt, about ten miles from the capital, in the house of the
clergyman, a charming man named Prietsch. This was on the 2Qth of August, where he
stayed, delighted with his master and the neighbourhood, till the 3Oth of February,
when a letter from Florence induced him to recross the Alps. At Florence he stayed
till the 5th of April, 1827; receiving there the news of his brother Anthony's success

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