These English gardens delight me much; they unite variety, quaintness, and an imitation of the wildness of nature with the utmost care and cultivation.  I was particularly pleased with the rockwork, which at times formed the walls of certain walks, the hollows and interstices of which were filled with every variety of creeping plants.  Mr. Sturge told me that the substance of which these rockeries are made is sold expressly for the purpose.

On one side of the grounds was an old-fashioned cottage, which one of my friends informed me Mr. Sturge formerly kept fitted up as a water cure hospital, for those whose means did not allow them to go to larger establishments.  The plan was afterwards abandoned.  One must see that such an enterprise would have many practical difficulties.

At noon we dined in the house of the other brother, Mr. Edmund Sturge.  Here I noticed a full-length engraving of Joseph Sturge.  He is represented as standing with his hand placed protectingly on the head of a black child.

We enjoyed our quiet season with these two families exceedingly.  We seemed to feel ourselves in an atmosphere where all was peace and good will to man.  The little children, after dinner, took us through the walks, to show us their beautiful rabbits and other pets.  Every thing seemed in order, peaceable and quiet.  Towards evening we went back through the arched passage to the other house again.  My Sunday here has always seemed to me a pleasant kind of pastoral, much like the communion of Christian and Faithful with the shepherds on the Delectable Mountains.

What is remarkable of all these Friends is, that, although they have been called, in the prosecution of philanthropic enterprises, to encounter so much opposition, and see so much of the unfavorable side of human nature, they are so habitually free from any tinge of uncharitableness or evil speaking in their statements with regard to the character and motives of others.  There is also an habitual avoidance of all exaggerated forms of statement, a sobriety of diction, which, united with great affectionateness of manner, inspires the warmest confidence.

C. had been, with Mr. Sturge, during the afternoon, to a meeting of the Friends, and heard a discourse from Sibyl Jones, one of the most popular of their female preachers.  Sibyl is a native of the town of Brunswick, in the State of Maine.  She and her husband, being both preachers, have travelled extensively in the prosecution of various philanthropic and religious enterprises.

In the evening Mr. Sturge said that she had expressed a desire to see me.  Accordingly I went with him to call upon her, and found her in the family of two aged Friends, surrounded by a circle of the same denomination.  She is a woman of great delicacy of appearance, betokening very frail health.  I am told that she is most of her time in a state of extreme suffering from neuralgic complaints.  There was a mingled expression of enthusiasm and tenderness in her face which was very interesting.  She had had, according to the language of her sect, a concern upon her mind for me.