1885 LETTERS FROM SIENA 399 



Germany. But I will let you know when our plans are 

 settled. 



With best love from we two to you two^Ever yours, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



To HIS YOUNGEST DAUGHTER 



SIENA, Feb. 23, 1885. 



DEAREST ETHEL The cutting you sent me contains 

 one of the numerous "goaks" of a Yankee performing 

 donkey who is allowed to disport himself in one of the 

 New York papers. I confess it is difficult to see the 

 point of the joke, but there is one if you look close. I 

 don't think you need trouble to enlighten the simple 

 inquirer. He probably only wanted the indignant auto- 

 graph which he won't get. 



The Parker Museum must take care of itself. The 

 public ought to support it, not the men of science. 



As a grandfather, I am ashamed of my friends who 

 are of the same standing ; but I think they would take 

 it as a liberty if, in accordance with your wish, I were to 

 write to expostulate. 



After your mother had exhausted the joys of the 

 Carnival, she permitted me to leave Eome for this place, 

 where we arrived last Friday evening. My impression is 

 that if we had stayed in Rome much longer we should 

 never have left. There is something idle and afternoony 

 about the air which whittles away one's resolution. 



The change here is wonderfully to the good. We are 

 perched more than a thousand feet above the sea, looking 

 over the Tuscan hills for twenty or thirty miles every 

 way. It is warm enough to sit with the window wide 

 open and yet the air is purer and more bracing than in 

 any place we have visited. Moreover, the hotel (Grande 

 Albergo) is very comfortable. 



Then there is one of the most wonderful cathedrals to 



