446 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVIII 



Well, I shall mend my ways. I must be getting to be 

 an old savage if you think it risky to write anything to 

 me, Ever yours, T. H. HUXLEY. 



But he did not stay long in London. By April 

 20 he was off to Ilkley, where he expected to stay 

 "for a week or two, perhaps longer." On the 24th 

 he writes to Sir M. Foster : 



I was beginning to get wrong before we left Bourne- 

 mouth, and went steadily down after our return to London, 

 so that I had to call in a very shrewd fellow who attends 



my daughter M . Last Monday he told me that more 



physicking was no good, and that I had better be off here, 

 and see what exercise and the fresh air of the moors would 

 do for me. So here I came, and mean to give the place 

 a fair trial. 



I do a minimum of ten miles per diem without fatigue, 

 and as I eat, drink, and sleep well, there ought to be 

 nothing the matter with me. Why, under these circum- 

 stances, I should never feel honestly cheerful, or know any 

 other desire than that of running away and hiding myself, 

 I don't know. No explanation is to be found even in 

 Foster's Physiology ! The only thing my demon can't 

 stand is sharp walking, and I will give him a dose of that 

 remedy when once I get into trim. 



Indeed he was so much better even after a single 

 day at Ilkley, that he writes home : 



It really seems to me that I am .an impostor for run- 

 ning away, and I can hardly believe that I felt so ill and 

 miserable four-and-twenty hours ago. 



And on the 28th he writes to Sir M. Foster : 



I have been improving wonderfully in the last few 

 days. Yesterday I walked to Bolton Abbey, the Strid, 



