HARDSHIPS OF A LECTURER'S LIFE. 239 



hall-keeper seems to have been troublesome. So, at 

 least, I gather from the diary, where I find an entry to 

 the effect, " Very crusty janitor, who dodges off work 

 because of sprain in back. Query : in temper ? 



Next day came the old favourite, " Unappreciated 

 Insects," at Haverhill. " Pond Life," which about this 

 time seems to have been a specially popular lecture, 

 followed at South Norwood on the 13th; and on the 

 next day the second part of " Spider Life " was given at 

 Tonbridge Grammar School. Then came " Pond Life " 

 again, twice, the first time at Stamford, on the 16th, 

 and the second at Sheffield, on the following day. On 

 the 21st, the first part of " Ant Life " was given at 

 Dulwich College ; then came " The Horse," five days 

 later, at Marlborough College ; and this was followed 

 again on the 28th by the second part of " Ant Life," at 

 Dulwich. 



The Marlborough visit gives some idea of the hard- 

 ships that occasionally attend upon a lecturer. Leaving 

 home at 11.0 a.m., my father found upon arriving at 

 Paddington that the train by which he had intended to 

 travel had been taken off ; so that he had to wait at 

 the station for rather more than an hour and a half. 

 Arriving at the College at five o'clock, instead of at half- 

 past three, he made the far from pleasant discovery that 

 the preliminary letter which he invariably sent a few 

 days before every lecture had never been delivered, and 

 that consequently no arrangements had been made for 

 the preparation of the lecture-hall. This difficulty, how- 

 ever, was overcome, but with the inevitable consequence 



