After having douched, which process was over by eleven, we had till one o’clock without further treatment.  We soon came to feel that indisposition to active employment which is characteristic of the system; and these two hours were given to sauntering, generally alone, in the green avenues and country lanes about Ham and Twickenham; but as we have already said something of the charming and thoroughly English scenes which surround Sudbrook, we shall add nothing further upon that subject now—­though the blossoming horse chestnuts and the sombre cedars of Richmond Park, the bright stretches of the Thames, and the quaint gateways and terraces of Ham House, the startled deer and the gorse-covered common, all picture themselves before our mind at the mention of those walks, and tempt us sorely.

At one o’clock we returned to our chamber, and had a head-bath.  We lay upon the ground for six minutes, if we remember rightly, with the back of our head in a shallow vessel of water.

Half-past one was the dinner hour.  All the patients were punctually present; those who had been longest in the house occupying the seats next those of Dr. and Mrs. Ellis, who presided at either end of the table.  The dinners were plain, but abundant; and the guests brought with them noble appetites, so that it was agreed on all hands that there never was such beef or mutton as that of Sudbrook.  Soup was seldom permitted:  plain joints were the order of the day, and the abundant use of fresh vegetables was encouraged.  Plain puddings, such as lice and sago, followed; there was plenty of water to drink.  A number of men-servants waited, among whom we recognized our friend William, disguised in a white stock.  The entertainment did not last long.  In half an hour the ladies withdrew to their drawing-room, and the gentlemen dispersed themselves about the place once more.

Of the Malvern dinners, Mr. Lane writes as follows:—­

At the head of the table, where the doctor presides, was the leg of mutton, which, I believe, is even’ day’s head dish.  I forget what Mr. Wilson dispensed, but it was something savoury of fish.  I saw veal cutlets with bacon, and a companion dish; maccaroni with gravy, potatoes plain boiled, or mashed and browned, spinach, and other green vegetables.  Then followed rich pudding, tapioca, and some other farinaceous ditto, rhubarb tarts, &c.  So much for what I have heard of the miserable diet of water patients.

Dinner being dispatched, there came the same listless sauntering about till four o’clock, when the pack and plunge of the morning were repeated.  At half-past six we had another head-bath.  Immediately after it there was supper, which was a fac simile of breakfast.  Then, more sauntering in the fading twilight, and at half-past Bine we paced the long corridor leading to our chamber, and speedily were sound asleep.  No midnight tossings, no troubled dreams; one long deep slumber till William appeared next morning at five, to begin the round again.