iS73 LETTERS FROM ABROAD 425 



Clermont (which, by the way, quite deserves its reputation as 

 a competitor witir hell), a neighbour's drains were adrift close 

 to the hotel, and we got poisoned before we could escape. 

 Luckily we got off with nothing worse than a day or two's diar- 

 rhoea. After this the best thing seemed to be to rush northward 

 to Gernsbach, which had been described to me as a sort of 

 earthly paradise. We reached the place last Saturday night, 

 and found ourselves in a big rambling hotel, crammed full of 

 people, and planted in the bottom of a narrow valley, all hot 

 and steaming. A large pigstye " convenient " to the house 

 mingled its vapours with those of the seventy or eighty people 

 who eat and drank without any other earthly occupation that 

 we could discern during the three days we were bound, by stress 

 of letters and dirty linen, to stop. On Monday we made an 

 excursion over here, prospecting, and the air was so fresh and 

 good, and things in general looked so promising that I made up 

 my mind to put up in Baden-Baden until the wife joins me. She 

 writes me that you talk of leaving England on Friday, and I 

 may remark that Baden is on the high road to Switzerland. 

 Verbum sap. 



I am wonderfully better, and really feel ashamed of loafing 

 about when I might very well be at work. But I have promised 

 to make holiday, and make holiday I will. 



No proof of your answer to Forbes' biographer reached me 

 before I left, so I suppose you had not received one in time. I 

 am dying to see it out. 



Hooker is down below, but I take upon myself to send his 

 love. He is in great force now that he has got rid of his 

 Grenoble mulligrubs. — Ever yours, 



After parting company with Hooker, he paid a flying 

 visit to Professor Bonnet at Geneva ; then he was joined by 

 his wife and son for the last three weeks of the holiday, 

 which were spent at Baden and in the Bernese Oberland. 

 Before this, he writes home : — 



I feel quite a different man from what I was two months ago, 

 and you will say that you have a much more creditable husband 

 than the broken-down old fellow who has been a heart-ache to 

 you so long, when you see me. The sooner you can get away 

 the better. If the rest only does you as much good as it does 

 me, I shall be very happy. 



