264 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



subject of some solicitude with us," he says, "whether that 

 sweet companionship, which had never been interrupted 

 more than a few days at a time since our union, would be 



vouchsafed to us there. Dr. , however, had from time 



to time encouraged us to expect it ; and, when the time 

 arrived, he gave his full and hearty consent, furnishing my 

 dear Emily with a supply of medicaments, and giving her 

 instructions for their application. His confidence had by 

 this time communicated itself to us, so that our minds 

 scarcely contemplated a fatal issue, except as a very 

 improbable, or at least very remote, contingency." 



They went down to Tenby on August 29, and the 

 meetings of the class began on September 1. The order 

 of the day was what it had been at Ilfracombe the year 

 before — excursions on the rocks, lectures indoors, collec- 

 tions in small private aquariums, more limited and 

 occasional dredging parties outside in the bay. One 

 considerable disappointment, however, awaited the class. 

 In the noble perforate caverns around Tenby my father 

 had found the most exquisite creatures in abundance in 

 1854. "Almost every dark overarched basin hollowed in 

 the sides of the caves, or in similar situations, at Lidstep, 

 at St. Margaret's Island, and under Tenby Head, each 

 filled to the brim with crystalline water, has its rugged 

 walls and floor studded with the full-blown blossoms " of 

 these lovely animal flowers. But when he came in 1856, 

 these caverns and almost every accessible part of the 

 neighbouring coasts had been hacked by the hammers and 

 chisels of amateur naturalists. He wrote with justified 

 indignation : " If the visitors were gainers to the same 

 extent that the rocks are losers, there would be less cause 

 for regret ; but owing to difficulty and unskilfulness com- 

 bined, probably half a dozen anemones are destroyed for 

 one that goes into the aquarium." 



