1889 RETURN HOME 133 



Mr. and Mrs. Humphry Ward at the delightful old 

 house of Great Hampden, was as much as he could 

 stand. " I begin to discover," he writes to Sir M. 

 Foster, " I have a heart again, a circumstance of 

 which I had no reminder at the Maloja." So he 

 retreated at once to Eastbourne, which had done him 

 so much good before. 



4 Marlborough Place, 



Sept. 24, 1889. 



My dear Hooker — How's a' wi' ye ? We came back 

 from the Engadine early in the month, and are off to 

 Eastbourne to-morrow. I rejuvenate in Switzerland and 

 senescate (if there is no such verb, there ought to be) in 

 London, and the sooner I am out of it the better. 



When are you going to have an a; ? I cannot make 

 out what has become of Sj)encer, except that he is some- 

 where in Scotland. — Ever yours, T. H. Huxley. 



We shall be at our old quarters — 3 Jevington Gardens, 

 Eastbourne — from to-morrow onwards. 



The next letter shows once more the value he set 

 upon botanical evidence in the question of the 

 influence of conditions in the process of evolution. 



3 Jevington Gardens, Eastbourne, 

 Sept. 29, 1889. 



My dear Hooker — 1 hope to be with you at the 

 Athenaeum on Thursday. It does one good to hear of 

 your being in such good working order. My knowledge 

 of orchids is infinitesimally small, but there were some 

 eight or nine species plentifid in the Engadine, and I 

 learned enough to appreciate the difficulties. Why do 

 not some of these people who talk about the direct 

 influence of conditions try to explam the structure of 



