APPENDIX L 359 



with him on his isolation, and urged him to go out more among 

 his friends, he would say, " My darling, ' my mind to me a kingdom 

 is,' " which might seem a trifle selfish, if selfishness could be con- 

 sidered at all a constituent in the heart of my beloved husband. 

 He was of a remarkably even disposition. I never saw him give 

 way to those frailties or minor faults that are so often exhibited 

 in the lives of less exalted, or of uncontrolled characters. His 

 life was given to studies of a grave and more or less religious 

 nature, or else to closely thought-out scientific studies, especially 

 those of natural objects. His mind being habitually occupied 

 with this higher order of thoughts, he seemed to find it impos- 

 sible to unbend to the lighter topics of everyday conversation. 

 He was wont to excuse himself by saying, " I have no small talk." 



In 1864, when he was writing A Year at the Shore in the 

 spring, we three had great pleasure in walking or driving, as the 

 case might be, to the various bays and rocky shores of the 

 Devonshire coast. My dear husband and son would rush down, 

 with strong india-rubber boots or sea-shoes, and work hard, with 

 hammer and chisel, carefully taking off the anemones and other 

 sea-animals from the rocks, or fishing in the pools for wrasse, 

 blennies, pipe-fish, or other sea-creatures, while I would sit on a 

 camp stool, either watching them, sometimes with a field-glass, 

 or reading, or drawing some of the lovely sea-views in my 

 sketch-book. Then, when we got home, there was the eager 

 looking over the haul, and putting the creatures in large basins 

 to be watched and drawn, till they could finally be placed in 

 the tanks. Thus, subjects were prepared for each month in 

 the year, and this gave us much occupation before A Year at the 

 Shore was completed. 



That year, 1864, I had a considerable accession of property, 

 which was valuable as giving my husband more rest and enabling 

 him to have more leisure ; so that he did not need any longer to 

 work, either in writing or in lecturing. In 1866 he began to take 

 a great interest in some of the rarer kind of plants, especially 

 orchids, which he had always greatly admired, and had collected 

 to hang in his house, when he was in Jamaica twenty years earlier. 

 This remembrance brought afresh the interest before him. He 

 had built a small plant-house against the westerly side of our 

 dwelling-house. The boiler for heating the pipes was put on the 



