-1841. RICHARD CLEASBY. Ixxxvii

ramble;' and on another by steamer up to Richmond, and then ascended the hill,
though they were disappointed in the view owing to the clouds and rain.

On the 8th of September the two friends set off by Great Western Railway to
Oxford, or rather to Steventon, accomplishing the remaining 10 miles by coach. They
were up betimes, starting at 6 A.M., and reaching the University by a quarter past 9.
There they saw the Bodleian, the fine hall at Christ Church, and many gardens.

'Nothing struck us upon the whole more than the back of Magdalen College, the beautiful
green open space between a newly-erected Gothic side and an elder one in plain modern style, with
the park on one side abounding in the grandest elms and plenty of deer, and the walks and meadows
on the other/

The same day they left by coach for Cheltenham, and on the following returned by
rail from Birmingham to London.

The next ten days of September were devoted to shewing Pjeturson the wonders
of London, and among others the British Museum, where, among the Icelandic MSS.,
he notes No. 11,127 ^o^ ^tne Additional MSS., 'a very middling copy of Sturlunga;' but
this is a mistake, as the MS. in question contains the best text of the Saga known. On
the 22nd Cleasby saw Pjeturson safe on board the ' Countess of Lonsdale' steamer for
Hamburg, and on taking leave of him says he was

' In all respects satisfied with his conduct during the whole of his sojourn both abroad
and at home in my company, in which time he sorted the whole of the words which I wrote
into the two large volumes for the Icelandic Dictionary, and also carefully went through Njáll and
took a list of all the words contained therein/

On the 22nd he ' penned a circular for his father, to be sent round to his connexion,
informing them of his intending to retire from business on the 2Qth inst/ On the
6th of October comes the following entry :

'Visited Copeland/ the famous surgeon, 'who, after my laying open to him my complaint, told
me what I knew and had long felt, that my nervous system was in a very deranged state, and that it
would take a long course of medicine to get it right again; and began by ordering me sarsaparilla
twice a day, with a little potash and manna/

On the 15th he saw Copeland again, who now ordered him blue-pill and colocynth,
and on the 20th calomel and senna -and magnesia. But these were minor evils. On
the 28th his mother was seized with paralysis, which deprived her of speech, and
though she rallied a little and lingered through the month of November, she died
on the 8th of December, surrounded by her family, by whom she was most tenderly
loved.

' We all deplored in tears the loss of an excellent wife, a most affectionate mother, and a good,
kind, and upright woman. She was born,' he adds, ' on the 25th of July, 1768, and therefore in her
74th year/

On the 14th she was buried in the burial-ground of the old church of St. Maryle-
bone.

' Where,' says her son, ' my poor mother's remains were placed upon those of my brother
Stephen, who had been deposited there in 1835 in a dry vault which runs under the street. In
addition to my present severe bereavement, I was not a little afifectecl at seeing for the first time