When we took up the study of Italian in order to be able to read Dante--moved thereto by the attractions of the long volume of Flaxman's illustrations of the 'Divina Commedia'-- we had to "fall back" a good deal on Mrs.Arkwright's scholarship.

And this in spite of all the helps the library afforded us, the best of dictionaries, English "cribs," and about six of those elaborate commentaries upon the poem, of which Italians have been so prolific.
During the winter the study of languages was commonly uppermost; in summer sketching was more favoured.
I do think sketching brings one a larger amount of pleasure than almost any other occupation.

And like "collecting," it is a very sociable pursuit when one has fellow-sketchers as well as fellow-naturalists.

And this, I must confess, is a merit in my eyes, I being of a sociable disposition! Eleanor could live alone, I think, and be happy; but I depend largely on my fellow-creatures.
Jack and I were talking rather sentimentally the other day about "old times," and I said: "How jolly it was, that summer we used to sketch so much--all four of us together!" And Jack, who was rubbing some new stuff of his own compounding into his fishing-boots, replied: "Awfully.

I vote we take to it again when the weather's warmer." But Jack is so sympathetic, he will agree with anything one says.
Indeed, I am sure that he feels what one feels--for the time, at any rate.
Clement is very different.