FISHERY BUSINESS 



53 



in my duty if I had not come. H. looks after me almost as well 

 as you could do. 



To make amends, fishery business in the west country 

 during a fine summer had " a good deal of holiday in it," 

 though a cross journey at the beginning of August from 

 Abergavenny to Totness made him write : — 



If ever (except to-morrow, by the way) I travel within 

 measurable distance of a Bank Holiday by the Great Western, 

 may jackasses sit on my grandmother's grave. 



As the business connected with the Inspectorship had 

 been enlarged in the preceding years by exhibitions at Nor- 

 wich and Edinburgh, so it was enlarged this year, and to 

 a still greater extent, by the Fisheries Exhibition in London. 

 This involved upon him as Commissioner, not only the or- 

 ganisation of the Conference on Fish Diseases and the paper 

 on the Diseases of Fish already mentioned, but adminis- 

 tration, committee meetings, and more — a speech on behalf 

 of the Commissioners in reply to the welcome given them 

 by the Prince of Wales at the opening of the exhibition. 

 On the following day he expressed his feelings at this mode 

 of spending his time in a letter to Sir M. Foster. 



I am dog-tired with yesterday's function. Had to be at the 

 Exhibition in full fig at 10 a.m., and did not get home from the 

 Fishmongers' dinner till 1.20 this morning. 



Will you tell me what all this has to do with my business in 

 life, and why the last fragments of a misspent life that are left 

 to me are to be frittered away in all this drivel ? — Yours 

 savagely, T. H. H. 



Later in the year, also, he had to serve on another Fish- 

 ery Commission much against his will, though on the un- 

 derstanding that, in view of his other engagements, he need 

 not attend all the sittings. 



A more satisfactory result of the Exhibition was that he 

 found himself brought into close contact with several of the 

 great city companies, whose enormous resources he had 

 long been trying, not without some success, to enlist on 

 behalf of technical and scientific education. 



