332 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIV 



gentlemen to whom I shall have the pleasure of listening, 

 by and by, are loafing against the railings opposite, as 

 only fishermen can loaf. 



In April he had been ill, and his wife begged him to 

 put off some business which had to be done at York. 

 But unless absolutely ordered to bed by his doctor, 

 nothing would induce him to put personal convenience 

 before public duty. However, he took his son to 

 look after him. 



I am none the worse for my journey (he writes from 

 York), rather the better ; so Clark is justified, and I 

 should have failed in my duty if I had not come. H. 

 looks after me almost as well as you could do. 



To make amends, fishery business in the west 

 country during a fine summer had "a good deal of 

 holiday in it," through a cross journey at the 

 beginning of August from Abergavenny to Totness 

 made him write : 



If ever (except to-morrow, by the way) I travel 

 within measurable distance of a Bank Holiday by the 

 Great Western, may jackasses sit on my grandmother's 

 grave. 



As the business connected with the Inspectorship 

 had been enlarged in the preceding years by 

 exhibitions at Norwich and Edinburgh, so it was 

 enlarged this year, and to a still greater extent, by 

 the Fisheries Exhibition in London. This involved 

 upon him as Commissioner, not only the 'organisation 

 of the Conference on Fish Diseases and the paper on 



