234 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



" Sitting by the parlour fire, doing nothing, is dreary work ; 

 and it is not much mended by traversing the gravel walks 

 of the garden in my great-coat. There is nothing par- 

 ticularly refreshing in the sight of frost-bitten creepers and 

 chrysanthemums. To walk about the streets in the 

 suburbs, or even in the City, is dreary too, when there is 

 no object in view, nothing to do, in fact, but spend the 

 time. But, after all, the dreariness is in myself: I am 

 thoroughly unwell, overworked, and everybody says there 

 must be rustication." On December 15 his wife and he 

 started for five days' ramble in the Isle of Wight, hoping 

 that this modest excursion would meet the requirements 

 of the case. But the symptoms of congestion of the brain 

 returned. It was impossible for the patient to read or 

 write, and to put his eye to the microscope was agony. 

 The last day of the year 185 1 saw the whole family in bed, 

 each distressingly ill in his or her way. Old Mrs. Gosse had 

 before this gone into separate lodgings of her own. It 

 was determined that the establishment at Hackney should 

 be broken up, and that the invalids should go southward 

 and seaward. On January 27, 1852, they started for 

 South Devon. 



