The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

1854-186o] Mrs. Cradock's Rose-garden

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intervals of social enjoyment. The Greenhills, before
settling at Hastings, remained in Oxford for a while.
George Butler of Exeter had married, and was for a time
settled there with his young wife: their house was
a pleasant centre of reunion for the younger dons.
Mrs. Josephine Butler, in her memoir of her husband, has
given us her impression of the Oxford society of that
day, with its curious limitations and its intellectual
interests, tempered with ignorance of the world. Another
oasis in the wilderness of celibates was the home of the
Principal of Brasenose, Dr. Cradock, whose wife was sisterin-law to Lord John Russell. Mrs. Cradock was a lady
of decided originality, and loved to bring young people
together in her drawing-room and her rose-garden.
A. P. Stanley was much at home there, and brought
Jowett with him when he could. Charles Wood (Lord
Halifax), Augustus Hare, Charles Bowen, and Lyulph
Stanley, then a junior undergraduate, were also frequent
visitors at the house. There was hymn-singing on
Sunday evenings, and little fetes champetres in summer,
especially on June I8 —Waterloo day-which was the
genial hostess's birthday. On these occasions Jowett's
unworldly simplicity sometimes amused the younger men:
as when he gave a rose that had been plucked for him
by one young lady to another who happened to have
none! Mrs. Cradock's young friends were expected to
provide entertainment for these birthday fetes by writing
short stories or poems. One day when the party were
driven in from the garden by rain, these compositions,
which had been thrown into a bag, were taken out at
random and read aloud. One story greatly struck Jowett's
fancy; he asked to be allowed to take it home, and had
it copied.
It was here that Jowett made some friendships which,