Pray acknowledge the receipt of this letter, by addressing me, "poste restante, Laybach, Illyria, Austria;" and let me know if Mr. Hudson is still Assistant-Secretary, and where Mr. South is. I send this letter from Frauenstein, Bavaria, July 2, that it may not be opened, as all my letters were at Salzburgh. There was one of them must have amused Prince Metternich, on the state of parties in England, from a Member of the Upper House.
In consequence of this letter, the Council of the Royal Society, by a resolution passed at a very full meeting held on the 6th of November, 1827, appointed Mr. Davies Gilbert to fill the chair, until the general body should elect a President, at the ensuing anniversary.
The following letter will show his subsequent course of proceeding.
TO THOMAS POOLE, ESQ.
Park Street, Grosvenor Square, Oct. 29, 1827.
MY DEAR POOLE,
I hope you received a letter which I addressed to you from Ravenna in the spring. It was my intention to have returned to Italy from the Alpine countries, where I spent the summer; but my recovery has been so slow, and so much uneasiness in the head and weakness in the limbs remained in September, that I thought it wiser to return to my medical advisers in London.
I have consulted all the celebrated men who have written upon or studied the nervous system. They all have a good opinion of my case, and they all order absolute repose for at least twelve months longer, and will not allow me to resume my scientific duties or labours at present; and they insist upon my leaving London for the next three or four months, and advise a residence in the west of England. Now, my dear friend, you recollect our conversation upon the subject of a residence—I think Mr. C.'s is not very far from you. Pray let me know something on this head. I want very little of any thing, for I am almost on a vegetable diet; and a little horse exercise, a very little shooting, and a little quiet society, are what I am in search of, with some facilities of procuring books. I have thought of Minehead, Ilfracombe, Lymouth, and Penzance; but I have not yet determined the point.
Horse exercise and shooting are necessary to bring back my limbs to their former state, and therefore Bath and Brighton will not do for me. God bless you, my dear Poole, and pray let me hear from you.