xxii BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



evening lie took the last walk which he was ever able to take, 

 otherwise than as a cripple ; he described afterwards to one of 

 his friends the profound effect produced upon his mind, possibly 

 rendered more sensitive by approaching illness, by the loveli- 

 ness of the scene. That night, which was one of horrors to 

 him, he was seized with a rheumatic fever, which for several 

 days put his life in great danger. A physician, who was 

 called in, seems to have exerted himself with great kindness 

 and to the utmost of his skill, to do all that could be done. 

 Ellis always retained an affectionate remembrance of him. He 

 ordered his patient to be bled extensively, and after a few days 

 the imminent danger was passed. Rheumatism however re- 

 mained fixed hopelessly upon him; he was ever after in con- 

 stant pain, with very little use of any part of his body; and 

 the rest of his life, ten years, may be described as a long 

 process of gradual dissolution. 



After a residence of nearly three months at S. Remo, he 

 was brought home by easy stages. He visited several places 

 after his return, London, Brighton, Bath, Malvern, Tunbridge 

 Wells, consulting various physicians, with no apparent result. 

 At length giving up all hope of amendment, he fixed himself 

 in 1853 at Trumpington, a village two miles from Cambridge, 

 of which his friend Professor Grote was Vicar, for the sake of 

 being near the University and his old friends. When he arrived 

 he was unable to walk, but could drive out in a carriage, and in 

 the house he could move from one place to another on the same 

 floor by means of a chair set upon wheels : after some time 

 however he became entirely confined to the house ; then to his 

 bed, where he remained in a sadly suffering condition till the 

 day of his death. 



He wrote me a letter shortly before his arrival at Trumping- 

 ton, telling me that he had taken Anstey Hall (the name of 

 his house 1 at Trumpington), and adding that he was coming 



1 When Ellis first came into residence at Cambridge his father had some 



