Untitled - Electric Scotland

1827-33] BALLIOL 39
we beheld on entering the Thames towards sunset, ships from
every quarter of the world, representing all nations, and the river
alive with boats. We steamed into the jostling crowd of vessels
of every size and description. It was quite dark when we reached
the Artichoke Stairs at Blackwall. For a moment I felt very
desolate, alone, and for the first time in great London. The
way to Leonard Homer s house in Gower Street seemed to me
interminable, but at length I found myself in the hospitable
home of my kind friends, with whom I was already intimate.
"
In the morning I was provided with the names of the places
I ought to see, and with all necessary advice and directions ;
and in the next few days I lionised London far more thoroughly
than I have ever done since, even pushing my researches, for
the first and last time, into the ball of St. Paul s. I much en
joyed this week. I was but eighteen, but Leonard Horner treated
me as a man, asking pleasant people to dinner, and introducing
me to them. It was at this table that I first made the acquaint
ance of Herman Merivale, afterwards my life-long friend.
"Arrived at Oxford, I took possession of my rooms in the
top attics of Balliol, as completely a garret as could be imagined.
I was at once introduced to George Moberly, Tutor of Balliol,
whose favour had been bespoken for me. He asked me to break
fast with him next morning, which was Sunday. The party con
sisted of Herman Merivale whom I had already begun to know,
Manning,
Denison.
whom I never did know well, and Stephen
"
Dr. Jenkyns followed up his first kindness by giving me
excellent advice, cautioning me as to the young Scotchmen from
Glasgow, who formed a set by themselves, not, in his fastidious
opinion, of the most desirable or creditable description, and
advising me to go in at once for the Balliol scholarship, which
was to be given in November. This advice I followed with
success, and the having obtained a scholarship after scarcely a
month s residence gave me an important standing in the College ;
and Jenkyns looked with increased benignity on the young
undergraduate, notwithstanding that he had been led to his
beloved Balliol by the helping hand of John Snell, to whom he
bore no good-will, looking upon his liberality in creating the
Glasgow exhibitions more as an impertinence than as a good
deed.
"The scholars of Balliol, when I first joined them, were-