Marriage and First Visit to England. 1 1 7 



not pacified ; ordered liquor, and drank to George Wash- 

 ington, the first rebel, then to Jeff Davis, etc. 



Youmans went directly to Derby, where he was 

 expecting to find Herbert Spencer, but was disap- 

 pointed. Mr. Spencer was taking his customary vaca- 

 tion in Scotland, but his father and mother were at 

 home, and the following extract from a letter dated 

 London, August 10, 1862, gives an account of You- 

 mans's call at their house : 



I sat a few moments in the dark, when a tall, dignified- 

 looking gentleman of very quiet deportment entered, and, 

 approaching in a very measured and pleasant way, said, 

 " Mr. Youmans ? " I said, " Mr. Spencer, father of Herbert 

 Spencer?" and he said, "Yes; take a seat." Thus was I 

 fairly ensconced in the unpretentious home of the Spencers. 

 They have but one child — Herbert; they have had others, 

 but they are dead. Mr. Spencer does not teach a school 

 [though he did until his health broke down, many years 

 before],* but he receives pupils in mathematics and other 

 things, who come and get lessons at his house [or receive 

 them at their own]. He is an unusually fine-looking person 

 — indeed, I think, handsome. He has a fine, profuse head 

 of grey hair, which he wears in a spirited standing way ; 

 must be sixty-five or sixty-eight years of age [he was then 

 seventy-two], but looks younger in the face, although his 

 shrivelled hands proclaim him older. Herbert has not his 

 face, but his brain. f His lips are quite thick, but his mouth 

 is handsome and expressive, with fine curves. A narrow 

 band of close-cut grey whiskers surrounds his face. His 

 expression of mouth reminded me of Joe Wood's mouth ; 

 indeed, there is considerable resemblance in their thought- 



* The remarks within brackets are Mr. Herbert Spencer's comments, 

 f Youmans, of course, when writing this letter, knew Herbert Spencer's 

 face only by a photograph. 



