74 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, v 



year or two hence, and having an Indian summer together in 

 peace and quietness. 



April 15, Sunday, Falmouth. — I went out at ten o'clock this 

 morning, and did not get back till near seven. But I got a cup 

 of tea and some bread and butter in a country village, and by the 

 help of that and many pipes supported nature. There was a 

 bitter east wind blowing, but the day was lovely otherwise, and 

 by judicious dodging in coves and creeks and sandy bays, I 

 escaped the wind and absorbed a prodigious quantity of sun- 

 shine. 



I took a volume of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 

 pire with me. I had not read the famous 15th and 16th chapters 

 for ages, and I lay on the sands and enjoyed them properly. A 

 lady came and spoke to me as I returned, who knew L. at 

 Oxford very well — can't recollect her name — and her father and 

 mother are here, and I have just been spending an hour with 

 them. Also a man who sat by me at dinner knew me from 

 Jack's portrait. So my incognito is not very good. I feel quite 

 set up by my day's wanderings. 



May 11, Torquay. — We went over to Brixham yesterday to 

 hold an inquiry, getting back here to an eight-o'clock or nearer 

 nine dinner. . . . Dalhousie has discovered that the officer now 

 in command of the Britannia is somebody whom he does not 

 know, so he gave up going to Dartmouth and agreed to have a 

 lazy day here. It is the most exquisite summer weather you can 

 imagine, and I have been basking in the sun all the morning 

 and dreamily looking over the view of the lovely bay which is 

 looking its best — but take it all round it does not come up to 

 Lynton. Dalhousie is more likeable than ever, and I am just 

 going out for a stroll with him. 



June 24. — I left Keswick this morning for Cockermouth, 

 took the chair at my meeting punctually at twelve, sat six mortal 

 hours listening to evidence, nine-tenths of which was super- 

 fluous — and turning my lawyer faculty to account in sifting the 

 grains of fact out of the other tenth. 



June 25, Leeds. — . . . We had a long drive to a village called 

 Harewood on the Wharfe. There is a big Lord lives there — 

 Earl of Harewood — and he and his ancestors must have taken 

 great care of their tenants, for the labourers' houses are the best 

 I ever saw. ... I cut out the enclosed from the Standard the 

 other day to amuse you, but have forgotten to send it before.* 



* Apparently announcing that he was about to accept a title. I 

 have not been able to trace the paragraph. 



