1886 AT HAEROGATE 455 



am not disposed, as Goschen said, to "give a blank cheque" 

 to a Defence Society, the force of which is pretty certain 

 to be wielded by the most irrational fanatics among its 

 members. 



Only the other day I walked the whole length of 

 Bassenthwaite from Keswick and back, and I cannot say 

 that the little line of rails which runs along the lake, 

 now coming into view and now disappearing, interfered 

 with my keen enjoyment of the beauty of the lake any 

 more than the macadamised road did. And if it had not 

 been for that railway I should not have been able to make 

 Keswick my headquarters, and I should have lost my 

 day's delight. 



People's sense of beauty should be more robust. I 

 have had apocalyptic visions looking down Oxford Street 

 at a sunset before now. Ever, dear lad, your loving 

 father, T. H. HUXLEY 



After this he took his wife to Harrogate, "just 

 like Clapham Common on a great scale," where she 

 was ordered to drink the waters. For himself, it was 

 as good as Ilkley, seeing that he needed "nothing 

 but fresh air and exercise, and just as much work 

 that interests me as will keep my mind from getting 

 'blue mouldy.'" The work in this case was the 

 chapter in the Life of Charles Darwin, which he had 

 promised Mr. F. Darwin to finish before going abroad. 



On July 10, he writes to Sir M. Foster on the 

 rejection of the Home Eule Bill : 



The smashing of the G.O.M. appears to be pretty 

 complete, though he has unfortunately enough left to 

 give him the means of playing an ugly game of obstruction 

 in the next Parliament. 



You have taken the shine out of my exultation at 



