1884 LETTERS 367 



By the beginning of September he had made up 

 his mind that he ought before long to retire from 

 active life. The first person to be told of his resolu- 

 tion was the head of the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment, with whom he had worked so long at South 

 Kensington. 



HlGHCROFT HOUSE, MlLFORD, GODALMING, 



Sept. 3, 1884. 



MY DEAR DONNELLY I was very glad to have news 

 of you yesterday. I gather you are thriving, notwith- 

 standing the appalling title of your place of refuge. I 

 should have preferred " blow the cold " to " Cold blow "- 

 but there is no accounting for tastes. 



I have been going and going to write to you for a 

 week past to tell you of a notion that lias been maturing 

 in my mind for some time, and that I ought to let you 

 know of before anybody else. I find myself distinctly 

 aged tired out body and soul, and for the first time in 

 my life fairly afraid of the work that lies before me in 

 the next nine months. Physically, I have nothing much 

 to complain of except weariness and for purely mental 

 work, I think I am good for something yet. I am 

 morally and mentally sick of society and societies 

 committees, councils bother about details and general 

 worry and waste of time. 



I feel as if more than another year of it would be the 

 death of me. Next May I sball be sixty, and have been 

 tbirty-one mortal years in my present office in the School 

 Surely I may sing my nunc dimittis with a good conscience. 

 I am strongly inclined to announce to the Eoyal Society 

 in November that the chair will be vacant that day 

 twelvemonth to resign my Government posts at mid- 

 summer, and go away and spend the winter in Italy so 

 that I may be out of reach of all the turmoil of London. 



The only thing I don't like is the notion of leaving 



