242 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



" guarded the way, and said, ' It shan't come here.' This 

 "sensation, however, I felt to be unworthy of a philo- 

 sopher, for there was nothing really repugnant in the 

 "taste. As soon as I had got one that seemed well 

 " cooked, I invited Mrs. Gosse to share the feast ; she 

 " courageously attacked the morsel, but I am compelled 

 " to confess that it could not pass the vestibule ; the 

 " sentinel was too many for her. My little boy, however, 

 "voted that "tinny [actinia] was good/ and that he Miked 

 ""tinny;' and loudly demanded more, like another Oliver 

 "Twist. As for me, I proved the truth of the adage, 

 " ' II n'y a que le premier pas qui coute ; ' for my sentinel 

 " was cowed after the first defeat. I left little in the dish. 

 " In truth, the flavour and taste are agreeable, somewhat 

 "like those of the soft parts of crab (May 21, 1852)." 

 In July Philip Gosse made an interesting excursion of 

 a week's duration to Lundy Island. The description he 

 presently wrote of this curious and remote fragment of 

 the British empire appeared in serial form in the peri- 

 odical called The Home Friend, and was long afterwards 

 reprinted in Sea and Land (1865). For the Society for 

 Promoting Christian Knowledge he wrote this time, in 

 conjunction with his wife, a little anonymous volume 

 called Seaside Pleasures, consisting, in reality, of four 

 essays on Ilfracombe, Capstone Hill, Barricane, and the 

 Valley of Rocks, describing in a graceful manner the 

 antiquities and scientific attractions of the neighbourhood. 

 Of these essays the fourth was wholly written by Emily 

 Gosse. Meanwhile, with her constant help, he was pre- 

 paring the Devonshire Coast, and, in spite of all the exer- 

 cise in the open air, the ozone from the seaweeds, and 

 the exquisite freshness of the oceanic winds, both husband 

 and wife were overtaxing their nervous strength. In 

 August both of them were ill with headache, and able to 



