346 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS, 1886-1897 



To T. H. Huxley 



The Camp, Sunningdale : Nov. 3, 1890. 



I should have gone to Mrs. Busk's funeral, but I get so 

 bronchitic this weather, that I am ' defended.' To-morrow 

 I ought to go to Gifford Palgrave's, on every account. . . . 



The bringing Palgrave's body from Monte Video is a 

 curious episode in his history after all his vagaries he died 

 in the arms of Mother Church ! and to bury a full blown 

 Ambassador of that creed in Buenos Ayres would cost an 

 enormous sum so large indeed that it could not be afforded. 



Mrs. Busk's death is a great shock to us a truer and 

 better friend never lived ; but I am getting almost case- 

 hardened to deaths. One feels them awfully, on wakening 

 every morning especially ; I suppose jecur [liver] has some- 

 thing to do with morning melancholia. 



To* Francis Palgrave 



November 9, 1890. 



Poor Giffy ! one can only think now of his noble qualities. 

 I was indeed gratified by finding I could attend at his inter- 

 ment, though it was accompanied with a flood of memories 

 some painful, and some peaceful. It brought back Hamp- 

 stead days most vividly, and all that was grateful. How kind 

 your dear mother was to me ! 



In 1892 correspondence with Mrs. Lyell resuscitates the 

 picturesque but disreputable figure of Jorgen Jorgensen. She 

 had been reading a book about him, published in 1891. Enquiry 

 of Sir Joseph as to the journey to Iceland and the real part 

 played by Jorgensen led to the following : 



To Mrs. Lyell 



April 11, 1892. 



Oddly enough only the other day Miss Cracroft sent 

 me a letter of Jorgen Jorgensen's addressed to Sir J. 

 Franklin [her uncle] when Governor of Tasmania. My 

 father, Mrs. Fry, and Sir Joseph Banks stood his friends 

 when sentenced to death for robbing with violence, if I 

 recollect aright, in England after his return from Iceland, 

 and had his punishment commuted to transportation for 

 life. 



