158 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, ix 



single-handed against the wind, asked them each to take an 

 oar; but when they landed and Huxley tendered the fare, 

 the honest fellow gave him back two sixpences, saying, " I 

 canna tak' it : you have wrocht as hard as I." Each took 

 a coin ; and Huxley remarked that this was the first six- 

 pence he had earned by manual labour. Dr. Dohrn, I be- 

 lieve, still carries his sixpence in memory of the occasion. 



WELLS HOUSE, ILKLEY, YORKSHIRE, Dec. i, 1886. 



MY DEAR DOHRN You see by my address that I am en 

 retraite, for a time. As good catholics withdraw from the world 

 now and then for the sake of their souls so I, for the sake of 

 my body (and chiefly of my liver) have retired for a fortnight 

 or so to the Yorkshire moors the nearest place to London 

 where I can find dry air 1500 feet above the sea, and the sort of 

 uphill exercise which routs out all the unoxygenated crannies 

 of my organism. Hard frost has set in, and I had a walk over 

 the moorland which would have made all the blood of the Ost- 

 see pirates which I doubt not you have inherited alive, and 

 cleared off the fumes of that detestable Capua to which you are 

 condemned. I should like to have seen the nose of one [of] 

 your Neapolitan nobilissimes after half-an-hour's exposure to 

 the north wind, clear and sharp as a razor, which very likely 

 looked down on Loch Leven a few hours ago. 



Ah well ! " fuimus " I am amused at the difficulty you find 

 in taking up the position of a " grave and reverend senior " ; 

 because I can by no means accustom myself to the like dignity. 

 In spite of my grey hairs " age hath not cooled the Douglas 

 blood ' : altogether, and I have a gratifying sense that (liver 

 permitting) I am still capable of much folly. All this, however, 



has not much to do with poor Dr. to whom, I am sorry to 



say, your letter could do no good, as it arrived after my col- 

 leagues and I had settled the business. 



But there were a number of strong candidates who had not 

 much chance. If it is open to me to serve him hereafter, how- 

 ever, your letter will be of use to him, for I know you do not 

 recommend men lightly. 



After some eighteen months of misery the first thing that 

 did me any good was coming here. But I was completely set up 

 by six or seven weeks at Arolla in the Valais. The hotel was 

 6400 feet up, and the wife and daughters and I spent most of 

 our time in scrambling about the 2000 feet between that and the 



