WORK' AT THE SEASHORE. 251 



seen, in May, and had enjoyed a brilliant success. Letters 

 of compliment, questions, and suggestions poured in upon 

 the author, and among the flood of correspondence there 

 floated to his door one missive from a stranger who was 

 destined to become a beloved and intimate friend. In 

 July, 1853, Philip Gosse received his first letter from the 

 Rev. Charles Kingsley, a young poet and novelist already 

 distinguished, and full of energy and intelligent curiosity. 

 In his first letter, Kingsley urged my father to try Clovelly 

 as a hunting-ground, and suggested that they should 

 meet in Devonshire. To this Philip Gosse did not re- 

 spond in his habitually cautious tone, but warmed up into 

 an infectious enthusiasm. *' How pleasant it would be," 

 he wrote, "to have such a companion as yourself in 

 the investigation of those prolific shores ! " He adds : 

 " I have sent up to London this summer nearly four 

 thousand living animals and plants. Of course many 

 rarities and some novelties have occurred in such an 

 amount of dredging and trawding as this involved. Be 

 assured, my dear sir, I shall esteem it a favour and a 

 privilege to continue the correspondence you have com- 

 menced." Charles Kingsley became, almost immediately, 

 one of the most ardent, and certainly the most active, of 

 his allies. 



In September Philip Gosse began to write the volume 

 now known as TJie Aquarium, but entitled, until it was 

 actually in the press, T/ie Mimic Sea. This was a record 

 of his deep-sea adventures off Weymouth, and a full de- 

 scription of the theory and practice of the marine aquarium. 

 The confirmed ill-health, or rather feeble health, of Mrs. 

 Gosse, and a return of his own brain-trouble, combined 

 with the cold and gusty weather of December to disgust 

 them with Weymouth, and just about the time when it 

 had been proposed that they should join Kingsley in 



