428 MISCELLANEOUS, 1850-1860 
Mrs. Hooker. Being constrained to send his wife's second 
letter, as he had sent her first, under cover to Hooker himself, 
the Professor, while ronndly asserting that 'the first lieu- 
tenant scorns the idea of being " worritted " about anything,' 
took occasion to poke fun at his friend : ' The obstinate manner 
in which Mrs. Hooker and you go on refusing to give any 
address leads us to believe that you are dwelling peripatetically 
in a " Wan " with green door and brass knocker somewhere on 
Wormwood Scrubbs, and that *' Kew " is only a blind.' (See 
' Life of T. H. H.,' i. ch. 17, under the erroneous date of 1861.) 
Kew Gardens : Saturday, November 19, 1859. 
My dear young Friend,— When you are wanted you 
will find out where I am. Very soon' I shall have a half 
sheet of probabilities for you to calculate for me (in which 
you may find that x = 0). 
I have elected to dwell in obscurity for past 3 months 
and should Hke to continue to do so for the future, and shall 
try to. I have neither house, wdfe; nor children,^ and were I 
not as uxorious as a guinea-pig, and philoprogenitive to a 
fault, I should not sigh for change. I am living with my 
ancestors who take their turns of taking to bed— it being 
now the Mater who is prostrate, with a bad leg. As to 
going to town, I have not the smallest idea of doing so till 
my wife comes to wake me up, which will be when the house 
is ready for her and she for it, and Henslow ready to part 
with her,— he being absolutely lone now but for her. 
I have avoided suicide by working extremely hard with 
my head, hands; and legs, have finished 2 papers for 
Linn. Trans.; 2 for Linn.- Journal, the Tasmanian Essay 
which has run to 130 pages, and the Flora of that ilk in 700. 
Except a week in Norfolk where I geologised 3 days with 
Lyell and Gunn, I have been nowhere but for an occasional 
Sabbath (I forget how to spell it, but know when it comes) 
to Hitcham.2 
^ Mrs. Hooker and the children were staying with Professor Henslow at 
Hitcham, while the house into which they were moving was being painted. 
2 A httle later he tells Huxley how, besides his own ordinary duties and 
works, he had in one week ' revised proofs for five different authors' works, 
contributed stuff for two lectures [by non-botanical friends] and precious stuff 
too ! and read three authors' MSS., and reported on a long fossil paper.' 
Amid ' all this mental rumpus ' without apparent end which made him 
