CHAPTER XXIX 



SKETCH OF MY LIFE AND WORK, 1871-1886 



Having now lived in London eight years, and having finished, 

 as I then thought, my chief literary work — my " Malay Archi- 

 pelago " — I had a great longing for life in the country where 

 I could devote much of my time to gardening and rural 

 walks. My wife also was very fond of country life, so I 

 began to look about for a place in which to settle. At this 

 time it had been decided to build a museum in East London 

 to illustrate both art and nature, and having the strong 

 support and influence of Sir Charles Lyell, and through him 

 of Lord Ripon, I felt much too confident of obtaining the 

 directorship of it. I therefore determined to look out for a 

 suitable place in Essex, where I should have easy access to 

 the museum at Bethnal Green if I obtained the post, while, 

 at all events, land would be cheaper there than in the more 

 fashionable districts of the south and west. 



As a kind of halfway house, I took an old cottage at 

 Barking — Holly Lodge — to which we moved in March, 1870, 

 and where I was still almost in London. Though Barking 

 was a miserable kind of village, surrounded by marshes and 

 ugly factories, there were yet some pleasant walks along the 

 Thames and among the meadows, while within a quarter of 

 a mile of us was a well-preserved tumulus close to an old 

 farmhouse. Here, too, we had some very pleasant neighbours. 

 Sir Antonis Brady at Stratford, whom I had often visited with 

 my friend Silk, and who had a fine collection of fossils from 

 the gravels of the district ; Mr. C. M. Ingleby, the Shake- 

 spearean commentator, who was interested in spiritualism ; 



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