XVIII LEAVE OF ABSENCE 229 



visit (for the Museum work had been hitherto 

 steadily carried on between whiles) to Sir Henry 

 Smyth at St. John's Lodge in Buckinghamshire, 

 severe signs of heart trouble came on, and he 

 hastened home to London, where Sir Richard 

 Douglas Powell and his skilful doctor and friend, 

 Mr. Kingston Barton, ordered complete rest for the 

 time, and the Trustees of the British Museum were 

 most considerate and kind in according leave of 

 absence for as long as his health required it. 



In January 1897 he sought quiet sea air in 

 accepting Lady Warington Smyth's kind loan of 

 her sea-side cottage at Marazion in Cornwall, 

 where St. Michael's Mount is always an object of 

 great beauty and interest, and Lord St. Levan 

 kindly arranged for his boatmen to carry Sir 

 William up the rocky ascent. 



Afterwards he went to Colonel and Mrs. 

 Biddulph in Ireland, where he obtained so much 

 benefit from the pure air and peaceful quiet that 

 hopes of his recovery were entertained, and, 

 returning to London in the spring, he recom- 

 menced work in the Museum. Indeed, considering 

 the dangerous illness which he had passed through, 

 it was wonderful to see the quick step and animated 

 gestures with which he would point out new speci- 

 mens or explain improvements which he hoped 

 to make. He never spared himself in going up 

 and down stairs in that great building, or in 

 working for it at home, even when a palpitation of 



