1872 FRIENDSHIP WITH MR. SPENCER 93 



out of him. So I shall have had three months' worry, 

 and be fined 100 or so for being wholly and absolutely 

 in the right 



Happily the man turned out to have enough means 

 to pay the bulk of the cqsts ; but that was no com- 

 pensation for the mental worry and consequent ill- 

 health entailed from November to June. 



The only amusing point in the whole affair was 

 when the plaintiff's solicitors had the face to file an 

 affidavit before the Vice-Chancellor himself in answer 

 to his strictures upon the case, " about as regular a 

 proceeding," reports Mr. Burton, " as for a middy to 

 reply upon the Post Captain on his own quarter-deck." 



The move was made in the third week of December 

 (1872) amid endless rain and mud and with workmen 

 still in the house. It was attended by one incon- 

 venience. He writes to Darwin on December 20, 

 1872 : 



I am utterly disgusted at having only just received 

 your note of Tuesday. But the fact is, there is a certain 

 inconvenience about having four addresses as has been my 

 case for the most part of this week, in consequence of our 

 moving and as I have not been to Jermyn Street before 

 to-day, I have missed your note. I should run round to 

 Queen Anne St. now on the chance of catching you, but 

 I am bound here by an appointment. 



One incident of the move, however, was more 

 agreeable. Mr. Herbert Spencer took the opportunity 

 of sending a New Year's gift for the new house, in 

 the shape of a handsome clock, wishing, as he said, 



