Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, October 15, 1890.
My dear Foster,
Best thanks for the third part of the "Physiology," which I found when I ran up to town for a day or two last week. What a grind that book must be.
How's a' wi' you? Let me have a line.
We ought to have been in our house a month ago, but fitters, paperers, and polishers are like bugs or cockroaches, you may easily get 'em in, but getting 'em out is the deuce. However, I hope to clear them out by the end of this week, and get in by the end of next week.
One is obliged to have names for houses here. Mine will be "Hodeslea," which is as near as I can go to "Hodesleia," the poetical original shape of my very ugly name.
There was a noble scion of the house of Huxley of Huxley who, having burgled and done other wrong things (temp. Henry IV.), asked for benefit of clergy. I expect they gave it him, not in the way he wanted, but in the way they would like to "benefit" a later member of the family.
[Rough sketch of one priest hauling the rope taut over the gallows, while another holds a crucifix before the suspended criminal.]
Between this gentleman and my grandfather there is unfortunately a complete blank, but I have none the less faith in him as my ancestor.
My wife, I am sorry to say, is in town—superintending packing up—no stopping her. I have been very uneasy about her at times, and shall be glad when we are quietly settled down. With kindest regards to Mrs. Foster.