immense ducking in a black mud ditch, which came up to my middle or higher, and Fremantle got a wetting too, but not so serious as mine." Things go on smoothly now for about a week; they receive several visits from neighbouring gentry, and the way in which the return to some of them is described gives us a fair specimen of the flow of spirits Spencer enjoyed at the time. "Saturday, Aug. 15.--We made ourselves greater bucks than usual to-day, and set off at two to call on Mr. Scott, near Aberdovey. He takes pupils there. We came home to dinner at half-past five; and after dinner (still greater bucks) we went to drink tea at Bodalog, with Mr. and Mrs. Jeffreys, and came home at half-past ten (14 miles walking)." The next adventure was one in which they tried their hands at shooting on the river with Mr. Jeffreys' long gun; whether the weight of the instrument, or an effort to reach the game that it killed, drew them nearer the water than they intended, he tells us that they "got quite soused in the water," and figured at the gentleman's dinner-table in two complete sets of the apparel of {47} the old man, to the no small amusement of the company. Nothing remarkable occurred after this to the two friends, except a trip to Aberystwyth, where they lodged a few days, met a few old acquaintances, and enjoyed a ball that was given to the ladies and gentlemen who were there for the season; until the 14th of September. This day they had a great battle of words with their landlord, who did not like their leaving him so soon: in this, however, they came off victorious. They both travel through Wales, visit Snowdon, Carnarvon, and meet a body of Cambridge men reading with a tutor at Conway. September 29th, he took the mail to London, and thus ended his long vacation. He stays at Wimbledon with his own family until the time for returning to Cambridge again. He relates in the journal that a man comes to teach Lady Spencer, his mother, how to bind books. This may be thought a strange kind of recreation for a lady of high rank; but it will not when we read that "this was the same person who set off the fashion of _shoemaking_!"