406 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. 



of drawing was a great solace to me. The solitary 

 days — for I was the first victim in the family — Avere 

 very long, and I looked forward with intense interest 

 to one half-honr after dinner, when he would come 

 up and draw scenes from the history of a remarkable 

 bull -terrier and his family that went to the seaside, 

 in a most human and child-delighting manner. I 

 have seldom suffered a greater disappointment than 

 when, one evening, I fell asleep just before this fairy 

 half-hour, and lost it out of my life. 



In those days he often used to take the three 

 eldest of us out for a walk on Sunday afternoons, 

 sometimes to the Zoological Gardens, more often to 

 the lanes and fields between St. John's Wood and 

 Hampstead or West End. For then the flood of 

 bricks and mortar ceased on the Finchley Road just 

 beyond the Swiss Cottage, and the West End Lane, 

 winding solitary between its high hedges and rural 

 ditches, was quite like a country road in holiday 

 time, and was sometimes gladdened in June "svith 

 real dog-roses, although the church and a few houses 

 had already begun to encroach on the open fields at 

 the end of the Abbey Road, 



My father often used to delight us with sea stories 

 and tales of animals, and occasionally with geological 

 sketches suggested by the gravels of Hampstead 

 Heath. But regular " shop " he would not talk to 

 us, contrary to the expectation of people who have 

 often asked me whether we did not receive quite a 

 scientific training from his companionship. 



