Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume III Part 15

4 Marlborough Place, October 28, 1888.

My dear Hooker,

Best thanks for your suggestion about the cottage, namely "that before you decide on Brighton Mrs. Huxley should come down and look at the cottage below my house" at Sunningdale, but I do not see my way to adopting it. A house, however small, involves servants and ties one to one place. The conditions that suit me do not seem to be found anywhere but in the high Alps, and I can't afford to keep a second house in the country and pa.s.s the summer in Switzerland as well.

We are going to Brighton (not because we love it, quite t'other) on account of the fine weather that is to be had there in November and December. We shall be back for some weeks about Christmas, and then get away somewhere else--Malvern possibly--out of the east winds of February and March.

I do not like this nomadic life at all, but it appears to be Hobson's choice between that and none.

I am sorry to hear you are troubled by your ears. I am so deaf that I begin to fight shy of society. It irritates me not to hear; it irritates me still more to be spoken to as if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being irritated on the last ground irritates me still more.

I wish you would start that business of giving a competent young botanist with good legs 100 pounds to go and study distribution in the Engadine--from the Maloja as centre--in a circle of a radius of eight or ten miles. The distribution of the four princ.i.p.al conifers, Arolla pine, larch, mountain pine and spruce, is most curious, the why and wherefore nowise apparent.

I am very sorry I cannot be at x on Thursday, but they won't let me be out at night at present.

Ever yours,

T.H. Huxley.

4 Marlborough Place, October 28, 1888.

My dear Foster,

No fear of my trying to stop in London. Hames won't have it. He came and overhauled me the other day. As I expected, the original mischief is just as it was. One does not get rid either of dilatation or its results at my time of life. The only thing is to keep the pipes clear by good conditions of existence.

After endless discussion we have settled on Brighton for November and December. It is a hateful place to my mind, but there is more chance of sunshine there (at this time) than anywhere else. We shall come up for a week or two on this side of Christmas, and then get away somewhere else out of the way of the east winds of February and March.

I do not think that the Hazlemere country would do for us, nor indeed any country place so long as we cannot regularly set up house.

Heaven knows I don't want to bother about anything at present. But I should like to convince -- that he does not yet understand the elements of his subject. What a copious ink-spilling cuttlefish of a writer he is!

Ever yours,

T.H. Huxley.

4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., November 2, 1888.

My dear Skelton,

Best thanks for the second volume of "Maitland of Lethington." I have been in the Engadine for the last four months, trying to repair the crazy old "house I live in," and meeting with more success than I hoped for when I left home.

Your volume turned up amidst a mountain of acc.u.mulated books, papers, and letters, and I can only hope it has not been too long without acknowledgment.

I have been much interested in your argument about the "Casket letters." The comparison of Crawford's deposition with the Queen's letter leaves no sort of doubt that the writer of one had the other before him; and under the circ.u.mstances I do not see how it can be doubted that the Queen's letter is forged.

But though thus wholly agreeing with you in substance, I cannot help thinking that your language on page 341 may be seriously pecked at.

My experience of reporters leads me to think that there would be no discrepancy at all comparable to that between the two accounts, and I speak from the woeful memories of the many Royal Commissions I have wearied over. The accuracy of a good modern reporter is really wonderful.

And I do not think that "the two doc.u.ments were drawn by the same hand." I should say that the writer of the letter had Crawford's deposition before him, and made what he considered improvements here and there.

You will say this letter is like Falstaff's reckoning, with but a pennyworth of thanks to this monstrous quant.i.ty of pecking.

But the grat.i.tude is solid and the criticism mere two-dimension stuff.

It is a charming book.

With kind remembrances to Mrs. Skelton.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

10 Southcliff Terrace, Eastbourne, November 9, 1888.

My dear Foster,

We came here on Tuesday, on which day, by ill luck, the east wind also started, and has been blowing half a gale ever since. We are in the last house but one to the west, and as high up as we dare go--looking out on the sea. The first day we had to hold on to our chairs to prevent being blown away in the sitting-room, but we have hired a screen and can now croon over the fire without danger.

A priori, the conditions cannot be said to have been promising for two people, one of whom is liable to bronchitis and rheumatism and the other to pleurisy, but, as I am so fond of rubbing into Herbert Spencer, a priori reasonings are mostly bosh, and we are thriving.

With three coats on I find the air on Beachy Head eminently refreshing, and there is so much light in the southern quarter just now, that we confidently hope to see the sun once more in the course of a few days.

As I told you in my official letter, I am going up for the 30th. But I am in a quandary about the dinner, partly by reason of the inevitable speech, and partly the long sitting. I should very much like to attend, and I think I could go through with it. On the other hand, my wife declares it would be very imprudent, and I am not quite sure she is wrong. I wish you would tell me exactly what you think about the matter.

The way I pick up directly I get into good air makes me suspect myself of malingering, and yet I certainly had grown very seedy in London before we left.

Ever yours,

T.H. Huxley.

10 Southcliff Terrace, Eastbourne, November 13, 1888.

My dear Foster,

We are very sorry to hear about Michael Junior. [Sir M. Foster's son was threatened with lung trouble, and was ordered to live abroad. He proposed to carry his medical experience to the Maloja and practise there during the summer. Huxley offered to give him some introductions.] Experto crede; of all anxieties the hardest to bear is that about one's children. But considering the way you got off yourself and have become the hearty and bucolic person you are, I think you ought to be cheery. Everybody speaks well of the youngster, and he is bound to behave himself well and get strong as swiftly as possible.

Though very loth, I give up the dinner. But unless I am on my back I shall turn up at the meeting. I think that is a compromise very creditable to my prudence.

Though it is blowing a gale of wind from south-west to-day there is real sunshine, and it is fairly warm. I am very glad we came here instead of that beastly Brighton.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

10 Southcliff Terrace, Eastbourne, November 15, 1888.

My dear Evans,