iS75 LETTERS 4-g 



In the same letter he speaks of a flying visit to town 

 which he was about to make on the following Thursday, 

 returning on the Saturday for lack of a good Sunday train : 



Mayhap I may chance to see you at the club— but I shall 

 be torn to pieces with things to do during my two days' stay. 



If Moses had not existed I should have had three days in 

 town, which is a curious concatenation of circumstances. 



As for his health during this period, it maintained, on 

 the whole, a satisfactory level, thanks to the regime of which 

 he writes to Professor Baynes : 



I am very sorry to hear that you have been so seriouslv ill. 

 You will have to take to my way of living — a mutton chop a 

 day and no grog, but much baccy. Don't begin to pick up \our 

 threads too fast. 



Xo wonder you are uneasy if you have crabs on your con- 

 science.* Thank Heaven they are not on mine ! 



I am glad to hear you are getting better, and I sincerelv 

 trust that you may find all the good you seek in the baths. 



As to coming back a " new man." who knows what that 

 might be ? Let us rather hope for the old man in a state of 

 complete repair — Ai copper bottomed. 



Excuse my nautical language. 



The following letters also touch on his Edinburgh lec- 

 tures : — 



Ck.\gside, Morpeth. August 11, 1S75. 



Mv DE.\R Foster — ^^'e are staying here with Sir W. Arm- 

 strong — ^the whole brood. Miss Matthaei and the majority of 

 the chickens being camped at a farm-house belonging to our 

 host about three miles oflf. It is wetter than it need be, other- 

 wise we are very jolly. 



I finished off my work in Edinburgh on the 23rd and posi- 

 tively polished off the Animal Kingdom in 54 lectures. French 

 without a master in twelve lessons is nothing to this feat. The 

 men worked very well on the whole, and sent in some creditable 

 examination papers. I stayed a few days to finish up the ab- 

 stracts of my lectures for the Medical Times; then picked up 

 the two elder girls who were at Barmoor and brought them on 

 here to join the wife and the rest. 



* i.t. an article for the Enmlopadia Britannica. 



