and--
2.30. P. M. Weymouth.--The result was the upset of my ink, whereof
you see the remains; and our last moments were spent in reparations
and apologies. My two squires are in different plight from what they
were ten weeks ago, racing up hills that it then half killed them to
come down, and lingering wistfully on the top for last glimpses of
our bay. I am overwhelmed with their courtesies, and though each is
lugging about twenty pounds weight of stones, and Mab besides in
Leonard's pocket, I am seldom allowed to carry my own travelling bag.
Hector has been walking us about while his horses are resting after
their twenty miles, but we think the parade and pier soon seen, and
are tantalized by having no time for Portland Island, only contenting
ourselves with an inspection of shop fossils, which in company with
Hector is a sort of land of the "Three Wishes," or worse; for on my
chancing to praise a beautiful lump of Purbeck stone, stuck as full
of paludinae as a pudding with plums, but as big as my head and much
heavier, he brought out his purse at once; and when I told him he
must either enchant it on to my nose, or give me a negro slave as a
means of transport, Leonard so earnestly volunteered to be the
bearer, that I was thankful for my old rule against collecting
curiosities that I do not find and carry myself.
'August 30th. Maplewood.--I wonder whether these good children can be
happier, unless it may be when they receive you! How much they do
make of us! and what a goodly sight at their own table they are!
They are capable in themselves of making any place charming, though
the man must have been enterprising who sat down five-and-twenty
years ago to reclaim this park from irreclaimable down. I asked
where were the maples? and where was the wood? and was shown five
stunted ones in a cage to defend them from the sheep, the only things
that thrive here, except little white snails, with purple lines round