native wood-notes wild' and gather from the 'masques and antique
pageantry,' of the court revels, hints for his own 'Comus' and
'Arcades'."

Simon Bradstreet's year at Cambridge probably held much the same
experience, and if a narrowing faith in time taught him to write
it down as "all unprofitable," there is no doubt that it helped to
broaden his nature and establish the Catholic-mindedness which in
later years, in spite of every influence against it, was one of
his distinguishing characteristics. In the meantime he was a
delightful companion. Cut off by his principles from much that
passed as enjoyment, hating the unbridled licentiousness, the
"ornate beastliness," of the Stuart reign, he like others of the
same faith took refuge in intellectual pleasures. Like Colonel
Hutchinson--and this portrait, contrary in all points to the
preconceived idea, is a typical one--he "could dance admirably
well, but neither in youth nor riper years made any practice of
it; he had skill in fencing such as became a gentleman; he had
great love to music and often diverted himself with a viol, on
which he played masterly; he had an exact ear and judgment in
other music; he shot excellently in bows and guns, and much used
them for his exercise; he had great judgment in paintings,
graving, sculpture, and all liberal arts, and had many curiosities
of value in all kinds; he took great delight in perspective
glasses, and, for his other rarities was not so much affected with
the antiquity as the merit of the work; he took much pleasure in
improvement of grounds, in planting groves and walks and fruit
trees, in opening springs, and making fish-ponds."

All these tastes were almost indispensable to anyone filling the