IN MEMOKIAM. 73 



spirits, and frequently talked of the plans lie had formed of 

 returning to London to superintend the packing of his treasures 

 and of paying a round of final visits to his friends, before 

 settling down for the remainder of his life in that little York- 

 shire village. 



On the 24th, however, the same distressing symptoms 

 returned; he became very weak, and it was with great 

 difficulty he could be coaxed into taking any nourishment. In 

 a few days, with the cessation of the sickness, he again im- 

 proved, and his spirits revived, but he appeared unable to 

 recover the ground he had lost ; for seven or eight hours in the 

 day he would sit up in his bedroom, but was unable to get 

 downstairs. On March 15th he went out into the garden, only 

 remaining a few minutes, and he was glad to return within 

 doors. Shortly after he was seized with acute pain in the 

 stomach, and was helped to bed. On the following day all the 

 worst symptoms returned, and again on the 22nd, lasting each 

 time for two or three days. On the 29th he confessed that he 

 felt more ill than he had ever done before ; for a day or two 

 was in a very prostrate condition, quite unable to sit up in bed, 

 and took very little interest in anything. Shortly after this 

 he rallied, and from that time had no further return of the 

 sickness. Towards the end of April he was much better, and 

 it was arranged that his niece, who had been nursing him most 

 assiduously, should come up to London, and superintend the 

 packing of his herbarium, books, etc., and he gave special 

 instructions that one of his botanical presses should be sent off 

 at once, as he was contemplating pressing some plants. On 

 the last day of the month all his belongings arrived safely, and 

 he was relieved of the anxiety he had felt, lest any of his 

 apparatus, slides, books, or plants should be injured in the 

 transit. At this time I received two letters written to his 

 dictation, but signed by himself, though the contents were 

 quite in his old style, cheerful and, of course, botanical, when 

 I saw his signature I felt that there was great cause for alarm. 

 But when I heard on May 9th that he was in good spirits and 

 had been visited by some old friends, to whom he had been 

 s-howing plants and slides, and quite with his old fervour, that 

 he had had no return of the bad symptoms, 1 began to hope 

 that, as the weather got warmer, he might gain strength and 



