74 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, v 



year or two hence, and having an Indian summer together in 

 peace and quietness. 



April 15, Sunday, Falmouth. I went out at ten o'clock this 

 morning, and did not get back till near seven. But I got a cup 

 of tea and some bread and butter in a country village, and by the 

 help of that and many pipes supported nature. There was a 

 bitter east wind blowing, but the day was lovely otherwise, and 

 by judicious dodging in coves and creeks and sandy bays, I 

 escaped the wind and absorbed a prodigious quantity of sun- 

 shine. 



I took a volume of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 

 pire with me. I had not read the famous I5th and i6th chapters 

 for ages, and I lay on the sands and enjoyed them properly. A 

 lady came and spoke to me as I returned, who knew L. at 

 Oxford very well can't recollect her name and her father and 

 mother are here, and I have just been spending an hour with 

 them. Also a man who sat by me at dinner knew me from 

 Jack's portrait. So my incognito is not very good. I feel quite 

 set up by my day's wanderings. 



May n, Torquay. We went over to Brixham yesterday to 

 hold an inquiry, getting back here to an eight-o'clock or nearer 

 nine dinner. . . . Dalhousie has discovered that the officer now 

 in command of the Britannia is somebody whom he does not 

 know, so he gave up going to Dartmouth and agreed to have a 

 lazy day here. It is the most exquisite summer weather you can 

 imagine, and I have been basking in the sun all the morning 

 and dreamily looking over the view of the lovely bay which is 

 looking its best but take it all round it does not come up to 

 Lynton. Dalhousie is more likeable than ever, and I am just 

 going out for a stroll with him. 



June 24. I left Keswick this morning for Cockermouth, 

 took the chair at my meeting punctually at twelve, sat six mortal 

 hours listening to evidence, nine-tenths of which was super- 

 fluous and turning my lawyer faculty to account in sifting the 

 grains of fact out of the other tenth. 



June 25, Leeds. . . . We had a long drive to a village called 

 Harewood on the Wharfe. There is a big Lord lives there 

 Earl of Harewood and he and his ancestors must have taken 

 great care of their tenants, for the labourers' houses are the best 

 I ever saw. ... I cut out the enclosed from the Standard the 

 other day to amuse you, but have forgotten to send it before.* 



* Apparently announcing that he was about to accept a title. I 

 have not been able to trace the paragraph. 



