“In these robes Dr. Whewell escorted me to church—­and of course we were a great sight!

“Before dinner, on this Scarlet Sunday, there was an interval when the master was evidently tried to know what to do with me.  At length he hit upon an expedient.  ‘Boys,’ he said to the young Airys, ’take Miss Mitchell on a walk!’

“I was a little surprised to find myself on a walk, ‘nolens volens;’ so as soon as we were out of sight of the master of Trinity, I said, ’Now, young gentlemen, as I do not want to go to walk, we won’t go!’

“It was hard for me to become accustomed to English ideas of caste.  I heard Professor Sedgwick say that Miss Herschel, the daughter of Sir John and niece to Caroline, married a Gordon.  ’Such a great match for her!’ he added; and when I asked what match could be great for a daughter of the Herschels, I was told that she had married one of the queen’s household, and was asked to sit in the presence of the queen!

“When I hear a missionary tell that the pariah caste sit on the ground, the peasant caste lift themselves by the thickness of a leaf, and the next rank by the thickness of a stalk, it seems to me that the heathen has reached a high state of civilization—­precisely that which Victoria has reached when she permits a Herschel to sit in her presence!

“The University of Cambridge consists of sixteen colleges.  I was told that, of these, Trinity leads and St. John comes next.

“Trinity has always led in mathematics; it boasts of Newton and Byron among its graduates.  Milton belonged to Christ Church College; the mulberry tree which he planted still flourishes.

“Even to-day, a young scholar of Trinity expressed his regret to me that Milton did not belong to the college in which he himself studied.  He pointed out the rooms occupied by Newton, and showed us ’Newton’s Bridge,’ ’which will surely fall when a greater man than he walks over it’!

“Milton first planned the great poem, ‘Paradise Lost,’ as a drama, and this manuscript, kept within a glass case, is opened to the page on which the dramatis personae are planned and replanned.  On the opposite page is a part of ‘Lycidas,’ neatly written and with few corrections.

“The most beautiful of the college buildings is King’s Chapel.  A Cambridge man is sure to take you to one of the bridges spanning the wretched little stream called the ‘Silver Cam,’ that you may see the architectural beauties of this building.

“It is well to attend service in one or the other of the chapels, to see assembled the young men, who are almost all the sons of the nobility or gentry.  The propriety of their conduct struck me.

“The fellows of the colleges are chosen from the ‘scholars’ who are most distinguished, as the ‘scholars’ are chosen from the undergraduates.  They receive an income so long as they remain connected with the college and unmarried.