1888 LETTER TO HOOKER 85 



The remaining letters of the year trace the gradual 

 bettering of health, from the "no improvement" of 

 October to the almost complete disappearance of bad 

 symptoms in December. He had renounced Brighton, 

 which he detested, in favour of Eastbourne, where 

 the keen air of the downs and the daily walk over 

 Beachy Head acted as a tolerable substitute for the 

 Alps. Though he would not miss the anniversary 

 meeting of the Royal Society, when he was to receive 

 the Copley medal, one more link binding him to his 

 old friend Hooker, he did not venture to stay for the 

 dinner in the evening. 



This autumn also he resigned his place on the 

 board of Governors of Eton College. "I think it 

 must be a year and a half," he writes, "since I 

 attended a meeting, and I am not likely to do better 

 in the future." 



4 Marlborough Place, 

 Oct. 28, 1888. 



My dear Hooker — Best thanks for your suggestion 

 about the cottage, viz. " that before you decide on Brighton 

 Mrs. Huxley should come down and look at the cottage 

 below my house" at Sunningdale, but I do not see my 

 way to adopting it. A house, however small, involves 

 servants and ties one to one jjlace. The conditions that 

 suit me do not seem to be found anywhere but in the 

 high Alps, and I can't afford to keep a second house in 

 the country and pass the summer in Switzerland as well. 

 We are going to Brighton (not because we love it, 

 quite t'other) on account of the fine weather that is to be 

 had there in November and December. "We shall be back 

 for some weeks about Christmas, and then get away some- 



