412 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxvi 



to become of the association if is to monopolise it? And 



then there was that scoundrel, Louis Napoleon — to whom no 

 honest man ought to speak — gracing the scene. I am right glad 

 I was out of it. 



I am at my wits' end to suggest a lecturer for you. I wish 

 I could offer myself, but I have refused everything of that sort 

 on the score of health ; and moreover, I am afraid of my wife ! 



What do you say to Ramsay? He lectures very well. I 

 have done nothing whatever to the Primer. Stewart sent me 

 Geikie's letter this morning, and I have asked Macmillan to 

 send Geikie the proofs of my Primer so far as they go. We 

 must not overlap more than can be helped. 



I have not seen Hooker yet since my return. While all this 

 row has been going on, I could not ask him to do anything for 

 us. And until X. is dead and d — d (officially at any rate), I am 

 afraid there will be little peace for him. — Ever yours very faith- 

 fully, . T. H. Huxley. 



Please remember me very kindly to Mrs. Roscoe. 



In a letter of September 25 is a reference to the way in 

 which his increasing family had outgrown his house in 

 Abbey Place. Early in the preceding year, he had come to 

 the decision to buy a small house in the same neighbour- 

 hood, and add to it so as to give elbow-room to each and 

 all of the family. This was against the advice of his friend 

 and legal adviser, to whom he wrote announcing his de- 

 cision, as follows. The letter was adorned with a sketch of 

 an absurd cottage, " Ye House ! " perched like a windmill 

 •on a kind of pedestal, and with members of the family 

 painfully ascending a ladder to the upper storey, above the 

 ominous legend, " Staircase forgotten." 



March 20, 1871. 



My dear Burton — There is something delightfully refresh- 

 ing in rushing into a piece of practical work in the teeth of 

 one's legal adviser. 



If the lease of a piece of ground whereon I am going to 

 build mine house come to you, will you see if it's all right. — 

 Yours wilfully, T. H. Huxley. 



This house. No. 4 Marlborough Place, stands on the 

 north side of that quiet street, close to its junction with 

 Abbey Road. It is next door to the Presbyterian Church, 



