414 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxvi 



Happily the man turned out to have enough means to 

 pay the bulk of the costs; but that was no compensation 

 for the mental worry and consequent ill-health entailed from 

 November to June. 



The only amusing point in the whole afifair was when 

 the plaintiff's solicitors had the face to file an affidavit before 

 the Vice-Chancellor himself in answer to his strictures upon 

 the case, " about as regular a proceeding," reports Mr. 

 Burton, " as for a middy to reply upon the Post Captain 

 on his own quarter-deck." 



The move was made in the third week of December 

 (1872) amid endless rain and mud and with workmen still 

 in the house. It was attended by one inconvenience. He 

 writes to Darwin on December 20, 1872 : — 



I am utterly disgusted at having only just received your 

 note of Tuesday. But the fact is, there is a certain inconven- 

 ience about having four addresses as has been my case for the 

 most part of this week, in consequence of our moving — and as 

 I have not been to Jermyn Street before to-day, I have missed 

 your note. I should run round to Queen Anne St. now on the 

 chance of catching you, but I am bound here by an appoint- 

 ment. 



One incident of the move, however, was more agreeable. 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer took the opportunity of sending a New 

 Year's gift for the new house, in the shape of a handsome 

 clock, wishing, as he said, " to express in some way more 

 emphatic than by words, my sense of the many kindnesses 

 I have received at your hands during the twenty years of 

 our friendship. Remembrance of the things you have done- 

 in furtherance of my aims, and of the invaluable critical aid 

 you have given me, with so much patience and at so much 

 cost of time, has often made me feel how much I owe you." 



After a generous reference to occasions when the warmth 

 of debate might have betrayed him into more vigorous ex- 

 pressions than he intended, he concludes : — 



But inadequately as I may ordinarily show it, you will 

 (knowing that I am tolerably candid) believe me when I say 

 that there is no one whose judgment on all subjects I so much 

 respect, or whose friendship I so highly value. 



