His household was larger than might have been expected in his reduced circumstances; he had a man-servant, Greene, and a maid, named Fisher.

That true hero-worshipper, Aubrey, tells us that he generally rose at four, and was even then attended by his "man" who read to him out of the Hebrew Bible.

Such erudition in a serving-man almost surpasses credibility: the English Bible probably sufficed both.

It is easier to believe that some one read to him or wrote for him from seven till dinner time: if, however, "the writing was nearly as much as the reading," much that Milton dictated must have been lost.

His recreations were walking in his garden, never wanting to any of his residences, where he would continue for three or four hours at a time; swinging in a chair when weather prevented open-air exercise; and music, that blissful resource of blindness.