8 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



did not. We made it up, and thereafter I was un- 

 molested. One of the greatest shocks I ever received in 

 my life was to be told a dozen years afterwards by the 

 groom who brought me my horse in a stable-yard in 

 Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. He had a 

 long story of family misfortune to account for his position ; 

 but at that time it was necessary to deal very cautiously 

 with mysterious strangers in New South Wales, and on 

 inquiry I found that the unfortunate young man had not 

 only been " sent out," but had undergone more than one 

 colonial conviction. 



His brief school career was happily cut short by 

 the break-up of the Ealing establishment On the 

 death of Dr. Nicholas, his sons attempted to carry 

 on the school; but the numbers declined rapidly, 

 and George Huxley, about 1835, returned to his 

 native town of Coventry, where he obtained the 

 modest post of manager of the Coventry savings 

 bank, while his daughters eked out the slender 

 family resources by keeping school. 



In the meantime the boy Tom, as he was usually 

 called, got little or no regular instruction. But he 

 had an inquiring mind, and a singularly early turn 

 for metaphysical speculation. He read everything 

 he could lay hands on in his father's library. Not 

 satisfied with the ordinary length of the day, he used, 

 when a boy of twelve, to light his candle before dawn, 

 pin a blanket round his shoulders, and sit up in bed 

 to read Button's Geology. He discussed all manner 

 of questions with his parents and friends, for his 

 quick and eager mind made it possible for him to 

 have friendships with people considerably older than 



