724 REMINISCENCES OF HT^XLEY. 



on one occusion. with my wife, spent a fortnight or so at their home 

 in M:irll»oroiiij;ii PUico. The Sunday evenings had come tt) ])e a time 

 for receiving friends, without any of the formality that often attaches 

 to ''receptions/' Half a dozen or more would drop in for the "high 

 tea." I then noticed the change in the adjective, and observed that 

 the phrase and the institution were not absolutely confined to the Hux- 

 \oy household: liut their origin is still for me enshrouded in mystery, 

 like the ''empire of the Toltecs," After the informal and jolly sup- 

 l)er others would come in, until the company might number from 

 twenty to thirty. Among the men whom I recall to mind (the married 

 ones acconn)anied by their wives, of course), were Mark Pattison, 

 Lecky, and .1. R. Green, Burdon Sanderson and Lauder Brunton, 

 Alma Tad(Mna. Sir James Stephen and his brother Leslie. Sir Frederick 

 Pollock, Lord Arthur Russell, Frederic Harrison, Spencer Walpole, 

 Romanes, and Ralston. Some of these I met for the first time; others 

 wen* old friends. Nothing could be more charming than the graceful 

 simplicity with which all were (Mitertained, nor could anything be 

 more evident than the atlectionate veneration which (nerybody felt for 

 the host. 



The last time that 1 saw my dear friend was early in 1.S88, just before 

 coming home to America. I found him lying on the sofa, too ill to 

 say much, but not too ill for a j<»st or two at his own ex])ense. The 

 series of ailments h:id begun which were to follow him for the rest of 

 his days. ] was much concerned about him. but journeys to England 

 had come to seem such a sim])le matter that the thought of its being 

 our last meeting never entered my mind. A few letters passed back 

 and forth with the lapse of years, the last one (in 189-i) inquiring when 

 1 was lik(*ly to be able to come and visit him in the |)retty home which 

 he had made in Sussex, where he was busy with '•digging in the gar- 

 den and spoiling grandchildren." When the news of the end came, it 

 was as a sudden and desolating shock. 



There werc^ few magazines or newspapers which did not contain 

 articles about Huxley, and in general those articles were considerabl}^ 

 ULore than the customary ol)ituary notice. They were apt to ])e more 

 animated than usual, as if they had caught something from the blithe 

 spirit of the man; and the}" gave so many details as to show the warm 

 and widespread interest with which he was regarded. One thing, how- 

 ever, especialh' struck me. While the writers of these articles seemed 

 familiar with Huxley's philosophical and literary writings, with his 

 popular lectures on scientitic subjects and his controversies with sundry 

 clergymen, thej' seemed to know nothing whatever about his original 

 scientitic work. It was realh' a singular spectacle, if one pauses to 

 think aliout it. Here are a score of writers engaged in pacing tribute 

 to a man as one of the great scientific lights of the age, and vet, while 

 they all know something about what he would have considered his 



