1872 MOVES TO MARLBOROUGH PLACE 91 



the same neighbourhood, and add to it so as to give 

 elbow-room to each and all of the family. This was 

 against the advice of his friend and legal adviser, to 

 whom he wrote announcing his decision, as follows. 

 The letter was adorned with a sketch of an absurd 

 cottage, " Ye House ! " perched like a windmill on a 

 kind of pedestal, and with members of the family 

 painfully ascending a ladder to the upper story, 

 above the ominous legend, " Staircase forgotten." 



March 20, 1871. 



MY DEAR BURTON There is something delightfully 

 refreshing in rushing into a piece of practical work in 

 the teeth of one's legal adviser. 



If the lease of a piece of ground whereon I am going 

 to build mine house come to you, will you see if it's all 

 right. Yours wilfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



This house, No. 4 Marlborough Place, stands on 

 the north side of that quiet street, close to its junction 

 with Abbey Koad. It is next door to the Presbyterian 

 Church, on the other side of which again is a Jewish 

 synagogue. The irregular front of the house, with 

 the original cottage, white-painted and deep-eaved, 

 joined by a big porch to the new uncompromising 

 square face of yellow brick, distinguished only by its 

 extremely large windows, was screened from the road 

 by a high oak paling, and a well-grown row of young 

 lime-trees. Taken as a whole, it was not without 

 character, and certainly was unlike most London 

 houses. It was built for comfort, not beauty; de- 

 signed, within stringent limits as to cost, to give each 



