"I have been reading," he wrote to Alfred in 1865, "Pusey's _Daniel the Prophet_, which (thank God) completely--as I think and as very many will think with me--disposes of the rickety and crotchety arguments of those who vainly thought they had found a [Greek: pou stô] in him whereby to upheave all prophecy and miracle. It is a noble book from its learning and its logic. I knew he was a holy and noble-minded and erudite man, but for some reason I had not credited him with such 'act offence' and powers of righteous satire.... I have never in my old desultory reading days found such a charm and interest as in the study of the Queen Science, as Trench calls Theology, and those who assume that they will find there no food for the mature reason will be surprised at its large provision for the intellect and rich satisfaction of the highest imagination. It is reading round about a subject and not the subject itself which damages the intellect so much. Maurice said the study of the Prophets had saved him from the Tyranny of books." He and his wife also spent much time in the study of Italian, in which they were assisted by their occasional visits to and from the Frederick Tennysons. Charles's Italian Grammar is annotated with numberless quaint rhymes made to fix its rules in his memory. On one page one finds in his wonderfully neat fluent hand (strangely like those of Frederick and Alfred): From use of the following is no ban, "The fair of the fair is Mistress Ann" or "Smith's a learned, learned man" In English or Italian, Though the English use is far less common Speaking of Doctor or fine woman. On another: Say profeta, profeti Or else I shall bate ye. On another a couplet which has all the subtle romance of Edward Lear: Rare and changeless, firm and few, Are the Italian nouns in U. The life at Grasby Vicarage was of the simplest. The hall-floor rattled with loose tiles, the furniture was reduced to the barest necessities. Breakfast and lunch were movable feasts, for Charles had all a poet's carelessness of time, lingering over morning prayers while his agonized guest saw the bacon cooling to the consistency of marble before his eyes, and prolonging his mid-day walk to such distances in the study of flower and bird and butterfly that it sometimes took a half-hour's tolling of the outdoor bell to recall him. The cook (who in times of scarcity was at the service of the whole village) must have led a life of irritation, yet servants stayed long at the Vicarage.