^V ENTERPRISING REPORTER. 143 



21st at Newbury, in each case meeting with great 

 success. 



Judging by a note in the ledger, dated October 21st, 

 my father does not seem to have carried away a very 

 high opinion of the latter town. " Utterly dull and 

 stupid place," he writes ; "no one seemed to know or 

 care about anything. Partly private room in Com- 

 mercial Hotel : bad fire ; draughts. Had to hail 

 omnibus for myself." 



Three days later followed the same lecture at Maid- 

 stone, of the large Natural History and Philosophical 

 Society at which town my father was for many years 

 president. On the 29th he was at Newport-Pagnell, 

 still with the same subject ; and on November 3rd he 

 gave " Life Underground " at the Bow and Bromley 

 Institute. Then followed a short tour, beginning with 

 Angell Town (2nd lecture), on November 19th, and 

 including lectures at Chelmsford, Huntingdon, Cam- 

 bridge, Huddersfield, Saltaire, Sheffield, and Gloucester 

 (two). At Chelmsford he was greatly struck by the 

 extreme enterprise of a local reporter, who interviewed 

 him in the private room as soon as the doors were 

 opened, wrote an account of the lecture before it was 

 delivered, and actually had it printed before the lecturer 

 had left the platform ! The second of the two lectures 

 at Gloucester was delivered in Dr. Needham's private 

 lunatic asylum, and was listened to by the patients 

 with great interest and atention. 



Before the end of the year further lectures were 

 given at Gosport, Bexley, and the Royal Naval School, 



