Arthur Waugh

"An affection for animal life was one of 's earliest characteristics. One of the rooms on the second floor was set apart as his den, and here he would sit of an evening, pondering his verses. One night, as he leant from the window, he heard an owl hooting; and, with a faculty for imitation which was strong in him, he cried back to the bird. The poet's 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' was so natural that the owl flew to the wind, and into the room, where it was captured and kept for a long while as a pet. Ingenuity has traced to this story the origin of the later poem 'The Owl,' which catches with singular fidelity an echo of the bird's cry."

"The summer of 1855, when next the were in London, was one of uncommon literary agitation. ... ... Above all other books, was the poem of the year. When the Brownings reached London, the critical bombardment of had begun; and all the various passions of mankind were being exercised in his condemnation and defence."

"To begin with, in the amusement nearest my heart, there was the theatre; and no one with a passion for the play could have arrived at Oxford in a more favourable hour. In the month of my first term the long struggle for the drama at Oxford was crowned with success; and the opened its doors to a performance of Twelfth Night by the ..."