252 



LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND. [Chap. VI. 



large that he had to rent three rooms from the house adjoining 

 his own for part of their storage. He was very busy making 

 up collections to send back to America : numerous letters had 

 to be written to his naturalist friends there \ and Dr. Henry 

 was anxious that he should write an Introduction to Mala- 

 cology. The winter of 1860-61 was unusually cold. " It has," 

 he wrote, " been down to 3 0 below zero in these sheltered 

 parts. I rejoice in having a nice workroom full of hot-water 

 pipes, instead of that miserable Smithsonian gallery. I shudder 

 at the remembrance of it." In the following February, he 

 advertised that " he intends to devote a considerable portion 

 of his time to furnishing authentically named collections of 

 American Shells. He has purchased the whole remaining 

 stores obtained by M. Reigen at Mazatlan; and by the late 

 Professor C. B. Adams [p. 201] at Panama, and at Jamaica, 

 St. Thomas, Bermudas, etc. During his late American tour, 

 he has taken great pains to obtain series of shells from the first 

 authorities, named (whenever practicable) from the original 

 types. He has also undertaken to act as agent for some of the 

 leading naturalists in the disposal of their duplicates," etc. 



He did not neglect his usual philanthropic work : — " I am 

 off now [February 16] to rehearse, and then to preside at 

 our Saturday evening anti-grog-shop concert at the Music Hall. 

 You know I have to be Jack-of-all-trades and — master of none : 

 i.e., servant of all." 



A printed letter to Alderman T. G. Rylands, March n, 1861, 

 thanks the contributors to a "very beautiful and useful present" 

 on the occasion of his marriage. " I find that (with a single 

 exception) none of them frequent my public teachings in Cairo 

 Street, but are the representatives of very different religious and 

 political views — with many of whom I have been compelled at 

 times to come in strong collision. May I be allowed to infer 

 from this, that the principle which I have maintained now 

 these fifteen years among you, of refusing to be bound by the 

 ties of any political or religious party, has met with some 

 response : and that the course which I have followed of always 

 fully and freely expressing the convictions of my conscience, 



