306 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xvii 



my mother used to remind me painfully of them in my later 

 years, looking at me mournfully and saying, " And you were 

 such a pretty boy ! ' 



Much as he would have liked to visit the Maloja again 

 this year, the state of his wife's health forbade such a long 

 journey. He writes just after his attack of influenza to Sir 

 M. Foster, who had been suffering in the same way : 



HODESLEA, May 12, 1891. 



MY DEAR FOSTER I was very glad to hear from you. Pray 

 don't get attempting to do anything before you are set up again. 



I am in a ridiculous state of weakness, and bless my stars 

 that I have nothing to do. I find it troublesome to do even that. 



I wish ballooning had advanced so far as to take people to 

 Maloja, for I do not think my wife ought to undertake such a 

 journey, and yet I believe the high air would do us both more 

 good than anything else. . . . 



The University of London scheme appears to be coming to 

 grief, as I never doubted it would. Ever yours, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



So instead of going abroad, he stayed in Eastbourne 

 till the end of August, receiving a short visit from his old 

 friend Jowett, who, though sadly enfeebled by age, still per- 

 sisted in travelling by himself, and a longer visit from his 

 elder son and his family. But from September n to the 

 26th he and his wife made a trip through the west country, 

 starting from Salisbury, which had so delighted him the 

 year before, and proceeding by way of the Wye valley, which 

 they had not visited since their honeymoon, to Llangollen. 

 The first stage on the return journey was Chester, whence 

 they made pious pilgrimage to the cradle of his name, Old 

 Huxley Hall, some 9 miles from Chester. Incorporated 

 with a modern farm-house, and forming the present kitchen, 

 are some solid stone walls, part of the old manor-house, now 

 no longer belonging to any one of the name. From here 

 they went to Coventry, where he had lived as a boy, and 

 found the house which his father had occupied still standing. 



A letter to an old pupil contains reflections upon the 

 vears of work to which he had devoted so much of his 



energies. 



