Chapter C: DICKENS, 21st Feb. 1844,--"Many thanks for the 'Christmas Carol,' (2)

There are thus three periods: I., Formation; II., Rest; III., Development. So much for preliminaries; the really interesting point is the reaction of the buds to forcing by artificially raising the temperature. Thus branches put into a warm room at the end of October showed absolutely no tendency to develop. In December, however, they could be forced, and as time went on they proved to be more and more amenable to the effect of a rise in temperature. In other words, the invisible process of preparing for the spring was automatically proceeding. The following figures give the number of days of forcing needed at various dates to make cherry branches flower:--

14th December 27 days 10th January 18 ,, 2nd February 17 ,, 2nd March 12 ,, 11th March 10.5 ,, 23rd March 8 ,, 3rd April 5 ,,

My object in discussing this case is to show that the effect of temperature on plant-development is not a simple problem. The most picturesque association with what is known as the science of Phaenology (_i.e._ the lore of the appearance of flowers) is its practical connection with ancient agricultural maxims. Blomefield puts the thing very clearly {235}: "The middle of March may be, in the long run, the most suitable time for sowing various kinds of grain," but the husbandman may easily go wrong in this or other operations if he sticks to a fixed date. But if he knows that the conditions necessary for his purpose are also necessary for the flowering of some familiar herb, he will be safer in waiting for his guide to show itself than in going by dates. Wrongly or rightly, this assumption has been commonly followed.

Stillingfleet quotes from Aristophanes that "the crane points out the time of sowing" and the kite "when it is time to shear your sheep." An old Swedish proverb tells us that "when you see the white wagtail you may turn your sheep into the fields; and when you see the wheatear you may sow your grain." I have come across an English proverb: "When the sloe tree is as white as a sheet, you must sow your barley be it dry or wet." Miss Jekyll in her book _Old West Surrey_, speaking of the wryneck, quotes: "When we hears that, we very soon thinks about rining (barking) the oaks."

There is something delightfully picturesque in the thought of man thus helped and guided in some of his most vital operations by the proceedings of the world of plants and animals, to whom that hard task-master Natural Selection has taught so much.

I have gone through Blomefield's _Calendar_, recording for each species the number of days between the earliest and latest known dates of flowering. Thus the Mezereon did not flower earlier than 11th January or later than 2nd February; this means that the date of flowering may, as far as we know, vary to the extent of twenty-three days.

If we look at the recorded dates for all flowers appearing in February, we find great irregularity. Thus _Daphne laureola_ has a range of twenty-two days, whereas for _Vinca minor_ the figure is 114. The average for February is 75.6, that for March is 55.6, for May 29.5, July 29.6. These figures suggest that the range of dates of flowering diminishes as the temperature becomes less variable. But the variation in summer temperature, though small relatively to the same factor in the cold months, may nevertheless be sufficient to affect the flowering habit. Yet there must be many factors in the problem of which we know nothing. It is a curious little fact that the summer range should be roughly one month.

Let us now consider my observations for 1917 as compared with Blomefield's record of the mean date of flowering of the same species.

The most striking feature occurs at the beginning of April, when Blomefield's observations are on the whole markedly earlier than my record of corresponding facts. Of those noted by me as flowering in April, one should have flowered in January, four in February, five in March, six considerably earlier in April, and two slightly earlier in that month.

In May Blomefield's dates are still mainly earlier than mine, in spite of the fact that in this month the temperature was above the normal. In June, on the whole (though with much variability), his dates do not seriously differ from mine. In the first three weeks of June the temperature was above the normal. In July, except at the beginning and end of the month, my observations are clearly later in date than Blomefield's, and during rather more than half of July the temperature was below the normal. On the whole, and in spite of many doubtful points, the difference between my results and Blomefield's seems to me to be related to the curve of temperature, in an irregular manner it is true, but sufficiently to be worthy of record. It has been said {237} that Thoreau, the American recluse and naturalist, knew the look of the country-side so intimately that had he been miraculously transferred to an unknown time of year, he would have recognised the season "within a day or two from the flowers at his feet." If this is true, either American plants are much more businesslike than ours (which is as it should be), or else Thoreau did not test his opinions too severely, and this seems even more probable.

NOTES.

* This column gives Blomefield's _mean_ dates.

+ S is the date on which the song was first heard.

L is the date of leafing.

N that of nesting.

The other entries are the dates of flowering.

No. Name Fact F. D. Blomefield. observed * 1 Celandine April 1 Feb. 28 (_Ficaria_) 2 Blackbird S+ ,, 2 Feb. 10 3 Bramble L ,, 2 Mar. 25 4 Daisy ,, 4 Jan. 29 (_Bellis_) 5 Wild Rose L ,, 6 Mar. 15 6 Wild Violet ,, 16 April 16 7 _Lamium ,, 17 Feb. 19 purpureum_ 8 Willow ,, 19 Mar. 19 9 Elder L ,, 21 Feb. 13 10 Raspberry L ,, 21 April 2 11 Hazel L ,, 21 April 2 12 _Caltha_ ,, 22 Mar. 5 13 Chiff-chaff S ,, 22 Apr. 7 14 Humble Bee ,, 22 Mar. 17 15 Cuckoo S ,, 23 Apr. 29 16 Dandelion ,, 26 Feb. 21 17 Martin N May 1 May 3 18 Lady's Smock ,, 2 April 19 19 _Nepeta ,, 2 Mar. 30 glechoma_ 20 Blackthorn ,, 3 April 4 21 Ash ,, 3 April 11 22 Cowslip ,, 3 April 1 23 Beech L ,, 4 April 25 23a _Pedicularis ,, 6 sylvatica_ 24 Pear ,, 6 April 13 25 Sycamore ,, 6 April 29 26 Bugle May 7 May 3 (_Ajuga_) 27 Oak L ,, 7 May 5 28 _Lamium album_ ,, 10 Mar 13 29 _Ranunculus ,, 10 April 21 auricomus_ 30 Nightingale S ,, 10 April 21 31 _Arum_ ,, 10 May 1 32 Blue Bell ,, 11 (Scilla) 32a _Stellaria ,, 11 holostea_ 33 _Lamium ,, 11 May 13 galeobdelon_ 34 _Plantago ,, 12 April 27 lanceolata_ 35 Red Clover ,, 12 May 8 35a _Vicia sepium_ ,, 12 36 _Myosotis ,, 12 May 18 arvensis_ 37 _Geranium ,, 12 May 7 robertianum_ 38 _Veronica ,, 12 April 28 chamaedrys_ 39 Ash L ,, 13 May 3 40 _Ranunculus ,, 13 April 24 bulbosus_ 41 _Alliaria_ ,, 14 April 22 42 _Asperula ,, 15 May 1 odorata_ 43 _Ranunculus ,, 16 May 2 acris_ * 44 _Allium ,, 16 ursinum_ 45 _Orchis ,, 16 May 26 mascula_ 46 Wistaria ,, 17 47 White Thorn ,, 18 May 7 48 _Chaerophyllum ,, 18 April 18 silvestre_ 49 _Alchemilla ,, 21 vulgaris_ 50 _Carex ,, 22 pendula_ 51 _Orchis morio_ ,, 23 May 12 52 _Geum urbanum_ ,, 28 May 25 53 _Rubus ,, 28 May 28 caesius_ 54 Sorrel ,, 29 May 27 55 _Veronica ,, 29 May 25 beccabunga_ 56 Dog Daisy ,, 30 May 25 57 Stachys ,, 30 June 11 sylvatica 58 _Rhinanthus May 31 May 30 cristagalli_ 59 _Lychnis ,, 31 May 19 flos-cuculi_ 60 _Leontodon ,, 31 hispidus_ 61 _Ranunculus June 3 May 30 arvensis_ 62 _Vicia sativa_ ,, 3 June 8 63 Snowberry ,, 4 June 2 64 _Galium ,, 4 May 29 aparine_ 66 _Urtica ,, 5 June 6 dioica_ (male) 67 _Plantago ,, 6 May 27 media_ 68 _Cornus ,, 6 June 9 sanguinea_ 69 _Tamus ,, 6 June 7 communis_ 70 _Euonymus ,, 6 europaeus_ 71 _Solanum ,, 6 June 13 dulcamara_ 72 _Scrophularia ,, 7 nodosa_ 75 _Polygonum ,, 8 May 25 bistorta_ 76 _Linum ,, 8 June 7 catharticum_ 77 _Lathyrus ,, 8 June 23 pratensis_ 78 _Poterium ,, 8 May 12 sanguisorba_ 79 _Bryonia ,, 9 May 28 dioica_ 80 Garden ,, 9 Honeysuckle 81 _Dactylis ,, 10 June 7 glomerata_ 82 _Rumex ,, 10 June 23 obtusifolium_ 83 Elder ,, 10 May 31 84 Horse Radish ,, 11 85 Wild Rose ,, 11 June 16 86 Quaking Grass ,, 11 June 15 87 _Orchis May 11 June 6 maculata_ 88 _Matricaria ,, 12 June 16 camomilla_ 89 _Helianthemum ,, 12 May 27 vulgare_ 90 Wild Thyme ,, 12 June 9 91 Milkwort ,, 12 May 15 92 _Linaria ,, 12 cymballaria_ 93 Groundsel ,, 12 94 _Epilobium ,, 12 July 2 montanum_ 95 Tway Blade June 12 May 17 96 _Trifolium ,, 13 May 23 repens_ 97 _Carduus ,, 14 June 21 palustris_ 98 _Genista ,, 14 tinctoria_ 99 _Centaurea ,, 17 June 20 nigra_ 100 _Chrysanthemum ,, 17 praealtum_ 101 Privet ,, 17 June 26 102 Meadow Sweet ,, 17 June 30 103 _Potentilla ,, 18 June 15 reptans_ 104 _OEnanthe ,, 18 crocata_ 105 _Galium ,, 18 June 15 mollugo_ 106 _Convolvulus ,, 18 June 9 arvensis_ 108 _Lapsana ,, 18 June 23 communis_ 109 _Papaver ,, 21 June 4 rheas_ 110 _Centaurea ,, 21 July 3 scabiosa_ 111 _Orchis ,, 21 July 1 pyramidalis_ 112 _Malva ,, 21 moschata_ 113 _Galium verum_ ,, 21 July 5 114 Sow-thistle ,, 21 June 16 115 Blackberry ,, 22 June 30 116 _Potentilla ,, 25 May 16 tormentilla_ 117 _Orchis ,, 25 May 31 latifolia_ 118 Enchanter's ,, 26 June 24 Nightshade 119 _Cirsium ,, 27 July 6 arvense_ 120 _Agrimonia ,, 27 July 1 eupatoria_ 121 _Convolvulus ,, 27 July 8 sepium_ 122 _Hypericum ,, 27 June 28 hirsutum_ 123 _Ononis July 1 July 2 arvensis_ 124 _Scabiosa ,, 1 arvensis_ 125 Lime Tree ,, 2 July 2 126 _Onobrychis ,, 3 June 8 sativa_ 127 _Lysimachia ,, 5 July 5 nummularia_ 128 _Campanula ,, 6 July 1 rotundifolia_ 129 _Calamintha ,, 6 July 12 clinopodium_ 130 _Verbascum July 7 July 4 nigrum_ 131 _Achillea ,, 7 June 29 millefolium_ 132 _Scabiosa ,, 7 June 20 columbaria_ 133 _Carduus ,, 7 July 6 acaulis_ 134 Wild Parsnip ,, 7 June 16 135 _Clematis ,, 10 July 14 vitalba_ 136 Bee Orchis ,, 11 June 19 137 _Anthyllis ,, 11 June 14 vulneraria_ 138 _Stachys ,, 11 betonica_ 139 Wild Carrot ,, 11 June 20 140 _Sedum album_ ,, 11 141 _Senecio ,, 11 July 2 jacobaea_ 142 _Parietaria ,, 12 June 19 officinalis_ 143 _Plantago ,, 13 June 28 major_ 145 _Campanula ,, 17 July 12 trachelium_ 146 _Origanum ,, 17 July 8 vulgare_ 147 _Bartsia ,, 17 July 20 odontites_ 148 _AEthusa ,, 17 July 20 cynapium_ 149 _Helosciadium ,, 18 July 16 nodiflorum_ 150 Burdock ,, 19 July 22 151 _Verbena ,, 25 July 12 officinalis_ 152 _Reseda ,, 27 June 13 luteola_ 153 _Inula ,, 29 July 24 dysenterica_ 154 _Centranthus ,, 29 June 5 ruber_ 157 _Euphrasia Aug. 3 officinalis_ 158 _Inula conyza_ ,, 3 159 _Mentha ,, 8 aquatica_ 160 _Habenaria ,, 11 viridis_ 161 _Gentiana ,, 17 Aug. 31 amarella_

NOTES.

{1} From the _Cornhill Magazine_, March 1919.

{2} The large-leaved lime is described by Hooker as being a doubtful "denizen."

{3} _A Naturalist's Calendar_, by Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Cambridge University Press. Edited by Francis Darwin, 1903.

{4a} _Calendar_, p. 3, note b.

{4b} _The Student's Flora of the British Islands_, 3rd ed., 1884, p. 191.

{5} I was led to examine them by a writer in _The Times_ (6th February 1918), who describes the buds as being as blue "as wood-smoke from cottage chimneys."

{6} Ludwig has seen creatures, which run on the surface of the water, carry away duckweed pollen. These fertilisers belong to the families Hydrometridae, Corisidae, and Naucoridae.

{7} This, and part of what follows, is from unpublished notes of lectures given at Cambridge.

{11} The present discussion is partly taken from my introduction to Blomefield's _Naturalist's Calendar_, 1903.

{12a} _Observations in Natural History_, p. 334.

{12b} Earliest date noted, 21st April; latest, 8th May.

{12c} Earliest date, 21st March; latest, 7th May (fifteen years' observation).

{12d} Quoted in Prior's _Popular Names of British Plants_, 3rd ed., 1879, p. 59.

{15} Reprinted from the _Cornhill Magazine_, June 1919.

{16} Though, I confess, I only guess at some of them.

{17a} Fogle means a silk handkerchief, according to Farmer and Henley's _Dictionary of Slang_, 1905, and may perhaps suggest the picking of pockets. Its connection with Bandanna is obvious.

{17b} The appropriateness of Burke is sufficiently obvious. The trial of Thurtell by Judge Park was also a _cause celebre_. There was a ballad of the day in which the victim is described with some bloodthirsty detail which I omit:

"His name was Mr William Weare,
He lived in Lyons Inn."

After the murder Thurtell drove back to London and had a hearty supper at an eating-house. Judge Park, who tried him, is said to have exclaimed: "Commit a murder and eat six pork chops! Good God, what dreams the man must have had." Catherine Hayes was also a well-known miscreant.

{18} A collocation preceding by half a dozen years Doyle's immortal travels of Brown, Jones, and Robinson.

{19} There is also a Mrs Glowry (chap. xxvi.), who speculates as to whether the Pope is to fall in 1836 or 1839.

{20} _The History of Pickwick_, 1891, pp. 14, 15.

{21} _The History of Pickwick_, 1891, p. 153.

{23} How much better is the name Madge Wildfire for a somewhat similar character in _The Heart of Midlothian_.

{25} The name of the ducal seat Gatherum Castle is utterly bad.

{26} Here referred to by his Christian name only. I think it was this eminent M.D. who was called in when Bishop Grantley was dying.

{29a} In two volumes: Oxford, 1857.

{29b} The book, according to the _Dictionary of National Biography_, was edited by Warton and Huddesford.

{30a} "Even when a Boy, he [T. H.] was observed to be continually poring over the Old Tomb-Stones in his own Church-yard, as soon almost as he was Master of the Alphabet."

{30b} The following description is taken from _Reliquiae Hearnianae_, vol. ii., p. 904. Hearne wrote:--

5_th Feb._ 1729.--"My best friend, Mr Francis Cherry, was a very
handsome man, particularly when young. His hands were delicately
white. He was a man of great parts, and one of the finest gentlemen
in England. K. James II., seeing him on horseback in Windsor forest,
when his majesty was hunting, asked who it was, and . . . said he
never saw any one sit a horse better in his life.

"Mr Cherry was educated at the free school at Bray. . . . He was
gentleman commoner at Edem-hall anno 1682. . . . The hall was then
very full, particularly there were then a great many gentlemen
commoners there."

{30c} To this school he went daily on foot, three miles there and three back.

{31} Transcriber's note: reproduced as printed.

{39} The close of the parenthesis is wanting in the original.

{41} 10_th Feb._ 1721-2.--"Whereas the university deputations on Ash Wednesday should begin exactly at one o'clock, they did not begin this year till two or after, which is owing to several colleges having altered their hour of dining from eleven to twelve, occasioned from people's lying in bed longer than they used to do."

{46a} The word _heartick_ does not occur in the New Oxford Dictionary.

{46b} Of Lord Baltimore's family.

{56a} _Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_, i., p. 138.

{56b} As described in _Rustic Sounds_, p. 2.

{60} _Pickwick_, chap. xliv.

{62} The "scorers were prepared to notch the runs" (_Pickwick_, chap. vii.).

{63} He was afterwards Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford: he died in 1893.

{67} _Rustic Sounds_, p. 92.

{68a} During my life in London as a medical student I had the happiness of living with my uncle, Erasmus Darwin, one beloved under the name of _Uncle Ras_ by all his nephews and nieces.

{68b} In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the _Origin of Species_.

{71} _Old English Instruments of Music_, by Francis W. Galpin, 1910.

{72} Modern harps, however, have pedals for raising the natural note of any string by a semi-tone.

{73a} It has also a greater compass than the rote.

{73b} In obedience to good authority I have here adopted the spelling Clairsech instead of Clarsech. I presume that the spelling _Clarsy_ (p. 74) is intentionally phonetic.

{74a} We imagine the gittern to be laid flat on a table with strings uppermost.

{74b} Galpin, p. 21.

{77a} In Mr Dolmetsch's _The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIlth and XVIIIth Centuries_ (N.D.), the author also points out, p. 446, that the _frets_ of the viol give to the stopped notes the "_clear ring_" of the open strings. He claims also that in the viol "the manner of holding the bow and ordering its strokes . . . prevents the strong accents characteristic" of the violin, and facilitates "an even and sustained tone."

He recommends (p. 452) that frets should be added to the Double Bass, which would "give clearness to many rapid passages which at present only make a rumbling noise."

{77b} On Mace's title-page he describes himself as "one of the Clerks of Trinity Colledge in the University of Cambridge."

{85} See my book, _Rustic Sounds_, 1917, where the pipe and tabor are more fully treated.

{87} A curious rustic shawm which survived in Oxfordshire until modern times is the Whithorn or May Horn. It was made by a strip of bark twisted into a conical tube fixed together with hawthorn prickles and sounded by a reed made of the green bark of the young willow. The instruments were made every year for the Whit Monday hunt which took place in the forest.

{88} They were also known as wayte pipes, after the watchmen (waytes) who played on them.

{89a} It is believed to have given its name to the well-known dance.

{89b} Galpin, p. 172.

{90} A straight horn, however, existed.

{91} So spelled, in order to distinguish it from the cornet a piston, once so popular.

{92} Mr Dolmetsch, _op. cit._, p. 459, says that the serpent "was still common in French churches about the middle of the nineteenth century; and although, as a rule, the players had no great skill, those who have heard its tone combined with deep men's voices in plain-song melodies, know that no other wind or string instrument has efficiently replaced it."

{94a} No specimen of the true portative is known to be in existence (Galpin, p. 228).

{94b} _Rustic Sounds_, p. 197.

{96a} Page 244.

{96b} Page 249.

{96c} The old name for the kettle-drum was _nakers_, a word of Arabic or Saracenic origin.

{96d} The larger of the kettle-drums has a range of five notes from the bass F, immediately below the line. The smaller drum's range (also of five notes) is from the B flat, just below the highest note of the bigger drum (p. 253).

{97} The earliest use of the name kettle-drum is in 1551 (Galpin, p. 251).

{100a} The name, however, is apparently not as old as the ceremonies. It is said by Britten and Holland (_Dictionary of Plant-names_) to have been invented by Gerard (1597).

{100b} Prior, _The Popular Names of British Plants_, ed. iii., 1879, p. 89.

{100c} Blomefield (formerly Jenyns) was a contemporary of my father's at Cambridge, and was remarkable for wide knowledge, and especially for the minute accuracy of his work. He kept for many years a diary of the dates of flowering of plants and of other phenomena, which the Cambridge University Press republished in 1903 as _A Naturalist's Calendar_.

{106} _Guy Mannering_, vol. ii., ch. xxiv.

{107} Britten and Holland.

{114} Bentham, _Illustrations of the British Flora_, 5th ed., 1901, p. 68.

{115a} _Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker_, _O.M._, _G.C.S.I._, by Leonard Huxley, 2 vols. John Murray, 1918.

{115b} The only obvious exception seems to be that too much space has been given to Sir Joseph's letters to Mr La Touche, inasmuch as they are not especially interesting. It is not clear why Sir Joseph corresponded so much with Mr La Touche. Can it be that he wished to placate him as being his son's schoolmaster?

{116} i., p. 5.

{122a} Hooker's son Brian was named after him.

{122b} Hooker's _Himalayan Journals_ was published in 1854, and dedicated to Charles Darwin by "his affectionate friend."

{123} As a further instance of the treatment Hooker received from the Indian authorities, I cannot resist quoting from vol. ii., p. 145: "The Court of Directors snubbed him before he set out, refusing him assistance and official letters of introduction to India, and even a passage out. . . . It was Hooker who surveyed and mapped the whole province of Sikkim, and opened up the resources of Darjiling at the cost of captivity . . . and the consequent loss of all his instruments and part of his notes and collections. Yet the India Board actually sold on Government behalf the presents the Rajah made him after his release," though they owed to his energy the Government sites of the tea and cinchona cultivation.

{124} "On the Reception of the Origin of Species," _Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_, ii., p. 197.

{125} _Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_, ii., p. 241.

{127a} _More Letters_, i., p. 117.

{127b} _Life of Hooker_, i., p. 536.

{128a} And finally, after Hooker's retirement, Director.

{128b} ii., p. 139.

{128c} ii., p. 142.

{131} In 1882 Hooker had written to Darwin:--"The First Commissioner (one of your d---d liberals) wrote a characteristically illiberal and ill-bred minute . . . in effect warning me against your putting the Board to any expense! . . . I flared up at this, and told the Secretary . . . that the F. C., rather than send me such a minute, should have written a letter of thanks to you."

{133} That is to say, to a great-grandson of Josiah Wedgwood.

{137a} The _History of St Bartholomew's Hospital_, by Norman Moore, M.D., London. C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, 1918.

{137b} Sir Norman Moore expresses his thanks to Mr Thomas Hayes, the present Clerk of the Hospital, for his courtesy on innumerable occasions during the progress of the author's researches.

{141} It is curious that, although the Christian names of men occurring in the history are quite ordinary, the women's names are often unfamiliar, _e.g._, Godena, Sabelina, Hawisia, Lecia, Auina, Hersent, Wakerilda.

{142} Doubtless Dr Moore himself.

{144} William may have come from the village of Bassingbourne, near Cambridge.

{145} See _Henry IV._, Part ii., Act v., Scene v.

{150} In 1561 a new seal was made which is still in use.

{154} Here and elsewhere I have fallen a victim to Dr Moore's pleasant gift of narrative, for I cannot pretend that either Paulus Jovius or Robert Browning are connected with the hospital.

{161} _Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy_, edited by Wilfrid Airy. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1896.

{164} My uncle, Henry Wedgwood, as an undergraduate at Jesus, made a happy use of Peacock's name:--

"Walk in and see
Our menagerie,
For amateurs a feast,
Where Dawes and Peacock
Are our birds
And . . . is our beast."

I have forgotten the name of the beast, but he was an unpopular fellow of Jesus.

{166} I am surprised that so large a sum was charged in those days; in my time the coach received 8 pounds.

{175a} _A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith_, by his daughter, Lady Holland. With a selection from his letters, edited by Mrs Austin. 2nd Edit., 1855.

{175b} Her maiden name was Pybus; they were married in 1799 or 1800.

{175c} Sydney Smith believed (i., p. 403) that "one of the Duke of Wellington's earliest victories was at Eton, over" Sydney's "eldest brother Bobus."

{176a} The remark was allowable since Robert was singularly handsome (i., p. 4).

{176b} I gather that the fellowship was but 100 pounds per annum.

{177a} Francis Jeffrey, afterwards Lord Jeffrey, 1773-1850, was the son of a high Tory, but personally a Liberal. He is described as being healthy though diminutive. Sydney Smith makes jokes about his stature: _e.g._, 3rd September 1809, "Are we to see you? (a difficult thing at all times to do)." In character he is described as "nervous, sensitive, and tender." Sydney wrote to him in 1806:--If "you could be alarmed into the semblance of modesty you would charm everybody; but remember my joke against you about the moon;--'D---n the solar system! bad light--planets too distant--pestered with comets--feeble contrivance;--could make a better with great ease.'"

{177b} Horner, Francis (1778-1817), called to the Bar in 1807, and was through the influence of Lord Carrington returned for the borough of Wendover. He was a man of sound judgment and unassuming manners, of scrupulous integrity, and great amiability of character. He was a correct and forcible speaker, and though without the gift of humour, exercised a remarkable influence in the House of Commons, owing to his personal character. He was one of the original founders of the _Edinburgh Review_, the other two being Jeffrey and Sydney Smith.

{178a} The closely allied name, _Sabelina_, occurs in Sir N. Moore's _History of St Bartholomew's Hospital_, vol. i., p. 64.

{178b} It was said (i., p. 138) that the King, who had been reading Sydney's _Edinburgh Review_ articles, remarked that he was a very clever fellow but would never be a bishop.

{183} It appears (i., p. 282) that he felt deeply the fact that he had not been offered a Bishopric, though he had made up his mind to refuse it. Lord Melbourne is said to have much regretted not having made a bishop of Sydney.

{185} Sydney wrote of Macaulay: "I always prophesied his greatness from the first moment I saw him, then a very young and unknown man, on the Northern Circuit." His enemies might say he talked rather too much, "but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful" (i., p. 415).

{186} The wife of Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (1773-1840), only son of Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland by Lady Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the Earl of Upper Ossory. He was a consistent Liberal in politics, and supported all measures against the slave trade and was in favour of emancipation, and this in spite of being the owner of "extensive plantations in Jamaica." After his death the following verse in his handwriting was found on his dressing-table:--

"Nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey,
Enough my mead of fame
If those who deign'd to observe me say
I injured neither name."

In the version quoted by Sydney Smith (_Memoir and Letters_, vol. ii., p. 457) the last line is "I tarnished neither name"; the punctuation is slightly different from the above, which is taken from the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._

{199} My authorities are:--_The Letters of Charles Dickens_, edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, 2 vols., 1882; _The Life of Charles Dickens_, by John Forster, 8th Edit., 1872; _My Father as I recall him_, by Mamie Dickens, Roxburghe Press, N.D. The authoress says that "it is twenty-six years since my father died"; this would make the date of her book 1896.

{200a} His son.

{200b} M. Dickens, p. 26.

{201} Forster, i., p. 4.

{202a} Forster, i., p. 9.

{202b} In writing to Walter Savage Landor (Letters, ii., p. 48), 1856, he asks (in reference to _Robinson Crusoe_) if it is not a testimony to the homely force of truth that--"One of the most popular books on earth has nothing in it to make anyone laugh or cry. Yet I think, with some confidence, that you never did either over any passage in _Robinson Crusoe_. In particular, I took Friday's death as one of the least tender and (in the true sense) least sentimental things ever written. . . ." He goes on:--"It is a book I read very much; and the wonder of its prodigious effect on me and everyone, and the admiration thereof, grows on me the more I observe this curious fact."

{203} Was it chance or intention that gave his hero the initials D.C., an inversion of C.D.?

{205} _Pickwick_, chap. ix.

{206} A corruption of Moses in the _Vicar of Wakefield_.

{208} His sense of the reality of his characters is shown by his daughter's recollection of her father pointing out the exact spot where Mr Winkle called out, "Whoa! I have dropped my whip."

{209} William Charles Macready, 1793-1873, the son of William Macready, actor and manager, was born in London; his mother was an actress.

In 1803 he went to Rugby, the idea being that he should go to the Bar. In 1810 Macready made his first appearance on the stage, taking the part of Romeo with considerable success. Mrs Siddons, with whom he acted, encouraged him--telling him to "study, study, study, and do not marry till you are thirty." During the four years he remained with his father he played seventy-four parts. He seems to have failed to agree with his father, and took an engagement at Bath in 1814. In 1816 he made his first appearance at Covent Garden. Kean was in the audience and applauded loudly. His Richard III. (in London 1819) took a firm hold of the public and established "a dangerous rivalry for Kean." His temper seems to have been violent, for in 1836 he knocked down Bunn as "a damned scoundrel" and had to pay damages. In 1837 he was manager of Covent Garden Theatre. He was the original Claude Melnotte in 1838.

In 1850 he played at Windsor Castle under Charles Kean, who "sent him a courteous message and received a characteristically churlish reply." He took the last of many farewell performances in 1851. His diary and reminiscences have been edited by Sir F. Pollock.

{216} In 1858 he wrote to a friend asking him to convey a note of thanks "to the author of _Scenes of Clerical Life_ whose two first stories I can never say enough of, I think them so truly admirable." He adds that they are undoubtedly by a woman.

{219} Lady Holland.

{221} Mr Arthur Smith, his friend and secretary.

{228} It was curious that he should use so provincial an expression as _riding_ in a cab.

{231a} Originally published in the proceedings of the _Cotteswold Nat. Field Club_, 1918, under the title, "The Effects of the Cold Spring of 1917 on the Flowering of Plants."

{231b} _A Naturalist's Calendar kept at Swaffham Bulbeck_, _Cambridgeshire_. By Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Edited by Francis Darwin. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1903.

{232} I am also indebted to Mr Embrey for his kind help in this matter.

{233} Kjellman, in Nordenskiold's _Studien und Forschungen_, 1885, pp. 449, 467.

{234} Botan: Zeitung, 1877.

{235} _A Naturalist's Calendar_, p. xii.

{237} _The Times Literary Supplement_, 12th January 1917, p. 326.