I do wish you could come up before we begin operations, to give us the benefit of your advice how so splendid an opportunity in the way of decoration should be utilised. We have to get out of this house, with all our furniture, on or before May 20. The children and servants will then go to Geanies, while my wife and I will go to Oxford to begin the decorations. I am preparing my lectures on Darwinism for the press, so that they may be ready for publication on the last day of my course at Edinburgh in November. I suppose I have your permission to reproduce your R.S. pictures of electric organs? Also, could you send me for a day or two Haddon's book on Embryology? I have just heard that Charles Lister (whom I think you met at Geanies) has died of fever in Brazil, where he was zoologising. Yours ever sincerely, GEO. J. ROMANES. [Illustration: 94 ST. ALDATE'S] The move was made from London to Oxford in May 1890. Mr. Romanes incorporated with the University and became a member of Christ Church. This connection with 'the House' was a great pleasure to him. For a little while during the early summer of 1890 Mr. Romanes was alone in Oxford, and he writes: _To Mrs. Romanes._ I called to-day on Mr. Dodgson, to sign my name in the Common Room, and signed my name in the book where the signatures go back to the foundation of the House. It is certainly the best thing I could have done to join Christ Church, and I am enjoying this return to my undergraduate days as something quite novel. Yesterday Liddon[71] graced the high table with his company. He was particularly gracious to me, remembering all about our meeting years ago, and hoping to be allowed to have the pleasure of calling upon us when we were settled in the 'almshouse.'[72] After dinner in the Common Room, seeing that the party was both elderly and reverend, all the other six being parsons, I started what seemed to me a suitable game, viz. who could best 'card wool' in opposite directions, or turn the right hand round and round one way, while at the same time turning the left hand round and round the other way. This innocent occupation at once became very popular--the Canon in particular being greatly interested in the peculiar difficulty which it presents. For my own part, I much enjoyed the spectacle of all these dons winding their hands about, and this enjoyment reached its climax when Dr. Liddon ended by tilting his glass of claret off the table into his lap. But there is a good deal of fun from behind his serious exterior, and he enjoyed this little catastrophe as much as the rest of us. So you see that the snares and temptations of University life do not dangerously assail your husband at the high table of Christ Church.