1887 AT SHANKLIN 21 



an' 'appy." You need not tell him that my pride and 

 happiness are contingent on having nothing to do for the 

 honour. 



In the meantime, the ups and downs of his health 

 are reflected in various letters of these six months. 

 Much set up by his stay in the Isle of Wight, he 

 writes from Shanklin on April 11 to Sir E. Frank- 

 land, describing the last meeting of the x Club, 

 which the latter had not been able to attend, as he 

 was staying in the Riviera : — 



Hooker, Tyndall, and I alone turned uj) last Thursday 

 Lubbock had gone to High Ehns about used up by the 

 House of Commons, and there was no sign of Hirst. 



Tyndall seemed quite himself again. In fact, we 

 three old fogies voted imanimously that we were ready to 

 pit ourselves against any three youngsters of the present 

 generation in walking, climbing, or head-work, and give 

 them odds. 



I hope you are in the same comfortable frame of 

 mind. 



I bad no notion that Mentone had suffered so seriously 

 in the earthquake of 1887. Moral for architects: read 

 your Bible and build your house upon the rock. 



The sky and sea here may be fairly matched against 

 Mentone or any other of your Mediterranean places. 

 Also the east wind, which has been blowing steadily for 

 ten days, and is nearly as keen as the Tramontana. Only 

 in consequence of the long cold and drought not a leaf 

 ia out. 



Shanklin, indeed, suited him so well that he had 

 half a mind to settle there. "There are plenty of 

 sites for building," he writes home in February, 



