1886 RETURN FROM ILKLEY 451 



any manner of play, such as is going on in London at 

 this time of year, and I think I am wise to keep out of 

 it as long as I can. 



I wish I knew what is the matter with me. I feel 

 always just on the verge of becoming an absurd old 

 hypochondriac, and as if it only wanted a touch to send 

 me over. 



May 27. . . . . The blue devils worry me far less 

 than they did. If there were any herd of swine here I 

 might cast them out altogether, but I expect they would 

 not go into blackfaced sheep. 



I am disposed to stop not more than ten days in 

 London, but to come back here and bring some work 

 with me. In fact I do not know that I should return 

 yet if it were not that I do not wish to miss our usual 

 visit to Balliol, and that my Spanish daughter is coming 

 home for a few months. . . . 



I am overwhelmed at being taken at my word about 

 scientific federation. 1 " Something will transpire " as old 

 Gutzlaff 2 said when he flogged plaintiff, defendant and 

 witnesses in an obscure case. 



P.S. I have had an invitation from to sign 



" without committing myself to details " an approbation 

 of his grand scheme. 3 A stupendous array of names 

 appear thus committed to the " principle of the Bill." I 

 prefer to be the Hartington of the situation. 



During this first stay in London he wrote twice 

 to Mr. Herbert Spencer, from whom he had received 

 not only some proofs, as before, on biological points, 

 but others from his unpublished autobiography. 



1 I.e. a federation between the Royal Society and scientific 

 societies in the colonies. 



2 This worthy appears to have been an admiral on the China 

 station about 1840. 



8 For the reorganisation of the Fisheries Department. 



