and one which he intended to follow with a series of "Hymns of the Marshes",
which he left incomplete.

The summer of 1879 was spent at Rockingham Springs, Va.,
and here, in six weeks, was begun and finished his volume,
"Science of English Verse". Another severe illness prostrated him
in September, but the necessity of work allowed no time for such distractions.
In October he opened three lecture courses in young ladies' schools;
and through the winter, notwithstanding a most menacing illness
about January 1st, he was in continuous rehearsals and concerts
at the Peabody, and besides miscellaneous writings and studies,
gave weekly ten lectures upon English literature, two of them public
at the University, two to University classes, and the remaining six
at private schools. The University public lectures upon English Verse,
more especially Shakespeare's, in part contained, and in part
were introductory to, "The Science of English Verse".

The final consuming fever opened in May, 1880. In July he went
with Mrs. Lanier and her father to West Chester, Pa.,
where a fourth son was born in August. Unable to bear the fall climate,
he returned, alone, early in September to his Baltimore home.

This winter brought a hand-to-hand battle for life. In December he came
to the very door of death. Before February he had essayed the open air
to test himself for his second University lecture course.
His improvement ceased on that first day of exposure.
Nevertheless, by April he had gone through the twelve lectures
(there were to have been twenty), which were later published
under the title "The English Novel". A few of the earlier lectures
he penned himself; the rest he was obliged to dictate to his wife.