Said he had spoken to Leighton, who thought well of the project.

[It was not long, however, before he received imperative notice to quit town with all celerity.  He fell ill with what turned out to be pleurisy; and after recruiting at Ilkley, went again to Switzerland.]

4 Marlborough Place, June 27, 1887.

My dear Foster,

...I am very sorry that it will be impossible for me to attend [the meeting of committee down for the following Wednesday].  If I am well enough to leave the house I must go into the country that day to attend the funeral of my wife’s brother-in-law and my very old friend Fanning, of whom I may have spoken to you.  He has been slowly sinking for some time, and this morning we had news of his death.

Things have been very crooked for me lately.  I had a conglomerate of engagements of various degrees of importance in the latter half of last week, and had to forgo them all, by reason of a devil in the shape of muscular rheumatism of one side, which entered me last Wednesday, and refuses to be wholly exorcised (I believe it is my Jubilee Honour). [(On the same day he describes this to Sir J. Evans:—­] “I have hardly been out of the house as far as my garden, and not much off my bed or sofa since I saw you last.  I have had an affection of the muscles of one side of my body, the proper name of which I do not know, but the similitude thereof is a bird of prey periodically digging in his claws and stopping your breath in a playful way.”) Along with it, and I suppose the cause of it, a regular liver upset.  I am very seedy yet, and even if Fanning’s death had not occurred I doubt if I should have been ready to face the Tyndall dinner.

[The reference to this “Tyndall dinner” is explained in the following letters, which also refer to a meeting of the London University, in which the projects of reform which he himself supported met with a smart rebuff.]

4 Marlborough Place, May 13, 1887.

My dear Tyndall,

I am very sorry to hear of your gout, but they say when it comes out at the toes it flies from the better parts, and that is to the good.

There is no sort of reason why unsatisfied curiosity should continue to disturb your domestic hearth; your wife will have the gout too if it goes on.  “They” can’t bear the strain.

The history of the whole business is this.  A day or two before I spoke to you, Lockyer told me that various people had been talking about the propriety of recognising your life-long work in some way or other; that, as you would not have anything else, a dinner had been suggested, and finally asked me to inquire whether you would accept that expression of goodwill.  Of course I said I would, and I asked accordingly.

After you had assented I spoke to several of our friends who were at the Athenaeum, and wrote to Lockyer.  I believe a strong committee is forming, and that we shall have a scientific jubilation on a large scale; but I have purposely kept in the background, and confined myself, like Bismarck, to the business of “honest broker.”