496 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxxi 



A letter to his wife describes his visit to Yale : — 



My excellent host met me at the station, and seems as if he 

 could not make enough of me. I am installed in apartments 

 which were occupied by his uncle, the millionaire Peabody, and 

 am as quiet as if I were in my own house. We have had a pre- 

 liminary canter over the fossils, and I have seen some things 

 which were worth all the journey across. 



This is the most charmingly picturesque town, with the 

 streets lined by avenues of elm trees which meet overhead. I 

 have never seen anything like it, and you must come and look 

 at it. There is fossil work enough to occupy me till the end 

 of the week, and I have arranged to go to Springfield on Mon- 

 day to examine the famous footprints of the Connecticut Valley. 



The Governor has called upon me, and I shall have to go 

 and do pretty-behaved ches lui to-morrow. An application has 

 come for an autograph, but I have not been interviewed ! 



This immunity, however, did not last long. He appears 

 to have been caught by the interviewer the next day, for he 

 writes on the nth: — 



I have not seen the notice in the World you speak of. You 

 will be amused at the article written by the interviewer. He was 

 evidently surprised to meet with so little of the " highfalutin " 

 philosopher in me, and says I am " affable " and of " the com- 

 mercial or mercantile " type. That is something I did not know, 

 and I am rather proud of it. We may be rich yet. 



As to his work at Yale Museum, he writes in the same 

 letter : — 



We are hard at work still. Breakfast at 8.30 — go over to the 

 Museum with Marsh at 9 or 10 — work till 1.30 — dine — go back 

 to Museum to work till 6. Then Marsh takes me for a drive to 

 see the views about the town, and back to tea about half-past 

 eight. He is a wonderfully good fellow, full of fun and stories 

 about his Western adventures, and the collection of fossils is 

 the most wonderful thing I ever saw. I wish I could spare 

 three weeks instead of one to study it. 



To-morrow evening we are to have a dinner by way of 

 winding up, and he has asked a lot of notables to meet me. I 

 assure you I am being " made of," as I thought nobody but the 

 little wife was foolish enough to do. 



