CHAPTER XXXV 1896 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF DR. SAMUEL BUTLER THE improvement in Butler's general health after his 1896 journey to Greece and the Troad did not last, and his Act. 60 feet were now becoming painful. Dr. Dudgeon made various suggestions which were followed without success, and the advice of two of the recognised leaders of medical science led to no better result. They thought he might be suffering from gout or neuritis or-half a dozen different things; but his feet remained very painful and as the time drew near for him to go to Sicily in the spring it seemed to me that he ought not to go alone. Hitherto I had not accompanied him for two reasons; first, because he did not like the responsibility of taking me to a country where there might have been risk; and secondly, because there was so much travelling by sea, and I am a bad sailor. But, after he came to know the Sicilians, he saw that the first objection was absurd; and as it was possible to go in the railway down to Reggio, the sea journey need not be more than the 40 minutes' crossing from Reggio to Messina. I told him that I wanted to see all the places and be introduced to all the people I had heard about, knowing that he would enjoy showing them to me; and so it was settled that I was to go. We left London early in April and went first to Basel, where we saluted the Faesch family with whom we exchanged the information we had received from Hans in his letters from the East, and they showed us the |