had set down. The lecture was republished in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ for April 1858.
Buckle's profound affection for his mother was one of his most amiable characteristics. His first volume was dedicated to her, and the second to her memory. The dedication was the only part of the volume which she had not read and discussed with him. Buckle was alarmed by her extreme agitation upon receiving what he intended for the pleasant surprise of first reading it in the printed volume. Her health now rapidly declined. Her son watched the process with intense anxiety until her death on 1 April 1859. The grief was the greater as the blow left him in complete solitude. The shock to delicate nerves, already weakened by overwork, was so great that his sister even feared for his brain. He withdrew, to a great degree, from society, and retired for a time from London. The year was chiefly spent at Brighton, Blackheath, Margate, and Boulogne. The death of a favourite nephew at Christmas was felt as another severe blow, and he seems never to have regained his full strength.
His mind was partly distracted by his only controversy in the press. He contributed to ‘Fraser's Magazine’ for May 1859 a review of Mill's ‘Liberty.’ Mill refers to the case of a crazy Cornish labourer, Thomas Pooley, who had been sentenced to twenty-one months' imprisonment by Sir John Coleridge for writing offensive words about christianity in various public places. The judge carefully explained that the punishment was not for the simple publication, but the offensive utterance of unchristian opinions. No suspicion of insanity was suggested at the trial, and when the suggestion was made the judge consented to a pardon. Buckle, however, considered the case to be one of persecution. He not only condemned the severity of the sentence, but implied bad motives. In ‘Fraser’ for June replies were made by ‘A. K. H. B.’ and by John Duke, afterwards Lord Coleridge. Buckle answered the latter in July 1859 in a pamphlet, ‘A Letter to a Gentleman respecting Pooley's Case.’ Parker had objected to the continuation of the controversy in ‘Fraser,’ and the pamphlet had a limited circulation.
Buckle had begun his second volume as soon as his first was published. His domestic troubles and weak health hindered its progress. He began to print in January 1861 and suffered from the labour of publication. He was ‘weak and depressed,’ and his nerves showed increasing symptoms of overwork in spite of various excursions in search of relaxation. In 1857 Buckle had made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Huth through their common friend, Mr. Capel. Mr. Huth's name is well known by his magnificent collection of rare books. Both Mr. and Mrs. Huth were well able to appreciate Buckle's talents, and their hospitable kindness did much to soothe his last years of life. Mrs. Huth's reminiscences given in her son's life of Buckle are specially interesting. Her three sons were pupils of Mr. Capel's, at Carshalton, and Buckle, when staying there for a time, became very friendly with the boys, joined in their fun, and was described by them as a ‘jolly chap’ who never talked philosophy to them. He was uniformly kind to children, and anxious to save them from injudicious straining in their education.
Buckle's shattered nerves and desolate home naturally suggested the thorough change of travelling. He wished, as he wrote to Mrs. Grote (Huth, ii. 111), to begin life afresh. He resolved to visit Egypt, and kindly offered to take with him the two eldest sons of the Huths, aged fourteen and eleven. Travelling, he held, was a chief part of education. He took with him only the Bible, Shakespeare, Molière, and a few books about Egypt, calculating that the boys would be forced to read them for want of other distraction. Throughout the journey he took the utmost care of their health and amusement, besides stimulating their intellectual interests. The party left Southampton on 20 Oct. 1861, landed at Alexandria, and ascended the Nile from Cairo, reaching Thebes on 14 Dec. and Assouan on 22 Dec. 1861. After a short trip into Nubia, they returned to Cairo. Several English and American travellers made Buckle's acquaintance on this trip. Mr. Stuart Glennie met Buckle at Assouan, and accepted an invitation to join him in a tour to Palestine. The party, including Mr. Glennie, started for Cairo on 3 March 1862, and travelled by the desert of Sinai through Petra to Jerusalem, which they reached on 13 April. Here Buckle was probably infected by typhoid fever. After a visit to the Dead Sea, the party started for Damascus, and the fever soon declared itself. At Nazareth Buckle was seriously ill, and was treated by an Armenian doctor for ulcer in the throat. He improved slightly, and struggled on with great difficulty, reaching Beyrout on 14 May and Damascus on 18 May. Here he was leeched and bled by a Dr. Nicora. Mr. Glennie, thinking him better, continued his journey on 22 May, intending to rejoin Buckle at Beyrout. Before starting, he spoke to Dr. Humphry Sandwith, the acting English consul. Sandwith, upon seeing Buckle, became alarmed, and on the 26th telegraphed to Beyrout for Dr. Barclay, an American physician.
