1886 LETTER TO DOHRN 475 



single-handed against the wind, asked them each to 

 take an oar; but when they landed and Huxley 

 tendered the fare, the honest fellow gave him back 

 two sixpences, saying, " I canna tak' it : you have 

 wrocht as hard as I." Each took a coin ; and Huxley 

 remarked that this was the first sixpence he had 

 earned by manual labour. Dr. Dohrn, I believe, 

 still carries his sixpence in memory of the occasion. 



WELLS HOUSE, ILKLRY, YORKSHIRE, 

 Dec. 1, 1886. 



MY DEAR DOHRN You see by my address that I am 

 en, retraite, for a time. As good catholics withdraw from 

 the world now and then for the sake of their souls so I, 

 for the sake of my body (and chiefly of my liver) have 

 retired for a fortnight or so to the Yorkshire moors the 

 nearest place to London where I can find dry air 1500 

 feet above the sea, and the sort of uphill exercise which 

 routs out all the unoxygenated crannies of my organism. 

 Hard frost has set in, and I had a walk over the moor- 

 land which would have made all the blood of the Ost-see 

 pirates which I doubt not you have inherited alive, 

 and cleared off the fumes of that detestable Capua to 

 which you are condemned. I should like to have seen 

 the nose of one [of] your Neapolitan nobilissimes after 

 half-an-hour's exposure to the north wind, clear and 

 sharp as a razor, which very likely looked down on Loch 

 Leven a few hours ago. 



Ah well! "fuimus" I am amused at the difficulty 

 you find in taking up the position of a " grave and 

 reverend senior " ; because I can by no means accustom 

 myself to the like dignity. In spite of my grey hairs 

 "age hath not cooled the Douglas blood" altogether, 

 and I have a gratifying sense that (liver permitting) I am 

 still capable of much folly. All this, however, has not 



