156 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



KIngsley, stopped to point out to his friend and to the 

 boy the grimy window from which, in the dreariest hour 

 of his life, he had looked down upon the roaring midnight 

 debauchery of the Drury Lane of fifty years ago. 



Philip Gosse's resources were now reduced to a few 

 shillings. Driven by dirt and noise out of the Drury Lane 

 attic, he took refuge in another, a little quieter and cleaner, 

 in Farringdon Street, at the summit of the house then 

 devoted, in its lower part, to the sale of Morrison's pills. 

 The young man's only friend in London was the cousin 

 mentioned in an earlier chapter, Mr. Thomas Bell, a dentist 

 already eminent in the profession, a naturalist, the publi- 

 cation of whose British Quadrupeds in 1837 ^^^ given him 

 considerable reputation, and a prominent member of the 

 Royal Society. On June 15, 1839, Philip Gosse writes to 

 his sister, Elizabeth Green : — 



" Mr. Bell has very kindly offered to read my manuscript 

 "and give his opinion ; he is going to show it to his own 

 " publisher, but thinks that it will need some alteration 

 " before being published. I want to get some permanent 

 "means of subsistence, and one object of my writing 

 " now is to ask what you think my prospects would be of 

 "teaching drawing (the finer branches, such as flower- 

 " painting, etc. — you know my manner) among the 

 "aristocracy and gentry of Sherborne, and whether you 

 "think there would be sufficient chance of success to 

 " make it worth my while to come down and canvass the 

 " neighbourhood } . . . If you write home, give my 

 " love. I do not like to write there until I know what 

 " my chance is here. Things look dark at present and 

 " hopeless enough, but they may brighten. Do not fail 

 " to write immediately; but rather put it off a day, than 

 " go about it in such haste as not to make half a letter. 

 " Adieu ! " 



