140 LIFE OF Sm JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



opening which a sloping way is discovered which 

 opens out on the shore, so that it is possible 

 to make ready for a bathe in your own bed- 

 room in the Castle and to go down through this 

 glorified rabbit burrow to the sea without making 

 any public appearance whatever. And from the 

 Castle windows or the terrace you look out 

 eastward over the sea and receive all the salt 

 breezes as freely as if on a ship's deck. At the 

 back the grounds are extensive enough to keep 

 out of ear-range the sometimes rather noisy 

 exuberance of the trippers and those who are 

 enjoying the boon, which Lord Avebury himself 

 assured to them, of the Bank Holidays. 



It was his delight to come down to this remark- 

 able place, and here, in the decoration of the 

 rooms. Lady Avebury found opportunity for 

 the exercise of her talent in making " the house 

 beautiful." It was here that I saw him last, 

 sitting in the archway of the Castle which gives 

 out on the terrace and on the view over the open 

 sea beyond. He had his microscope on a little 

 table before him, and in the clear light was 

 examining, and exhibiting to any one who cared 

 to look, what to the naked eye had all the 

 appearance of an insignificant brown beetle of so 

 small a size that the unlearned might almost be 

 tempted to miscall it by the monosyllabic name 

 of another insect (of the Hemiptera, however, 

 not the Coleoptera), beginning with the same 

 capital letter. Seen under the microscope, it 

 discovered a carapace studded, as it seemed, 

 with all the jewels of the world, glittering in a 

 variety of hues and with an indescribable brill- 



