9 6 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vi 



under the impression that I was about to succumb shortly to a 

 complication of maladies, and moreover, that a wooden box that 

 my wife had just had made would cost thousands of pounds in 

 the way of payment for extra luggage before we reached home. 

 I do not know which hypochondriacal possession was the most 

 depressing. I can laugh at it now, but I really was extraordi- 

 narily weak and ill. 



We had made up our minds to bolt from Rome to Florence 

 at once, when I suddenly got better, and to-day am all right. So 

 as we hear of snow at Florence we shall stop where we are. It 

 has been raining cats and dogs here, and the Tiber rose 40 feet 

 and inundated the low grounds. But " cantabit elevatus " ; it 

 can't touch us, and at any rate the streets are washed clean. 



The climate is mild here. We have a capital room and all 

 the sunshine that is to be had, plus a good fire when needful, 

 and at worst one can always get a breezy walk on the Pincio 

 hard by. 



However, about the leave. Am I to do anything or nothing? 

 I am dying to get back to steady occupation and English food, 

 and the sort of regimen one can maintain in one's own house. 

 On the other hand, I stand in fear of the bitter cold of February 

 and early March, and still more of the thousand and one worries 

 of London outside one's work. So I suppose it will be better 

 if I keep away till Easter, or at any rate to the end of March. 

 But I must hear something definite from the H.O. I have 

 written to Donnelly to the same effect. My poor Marian's re- 

 lapse did not do us any good, for all that I expected it. How- 

 ever, the last accounts are very favourable. 



I wrote to Evans the other day about a re-arrangement of 

 the duties of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary. I thought 

 it was better to write to him than to you on that subject, and I 

 begged him to discuss the matter with the officers. It is quite 

 absurd that Stokes and you should waste your time in press 

 drudgery. 



We are very prudent here, and the climate suits us both, 

 especially my wife, who is so vigorous that I depute her to go 

 and see the Palazzi, and tell me all about them when she comes 

 back. Old Rome is endlessly interesting to me, and I can always 

 potter about and find occupation. I think I shall turn antiquary 

 — it's just the occupation for a decayed naturalist, though you 

 need not tell the Treasurer I say so. 



With our love to Mrs. Foster and yourself — Ever yours, 



T. H. H. 



