o 



40 Darwin and Geology 



striking differences in colour and form. It was probably this circum- 

 stance which awakened in the child his love of observation and 

 speculation. It is certainly remarkable that "aspirations" of the 

 kind should have arisen in the mind of a child of 9 or 10 ! 



When he went to Shrewsbury School, he relates "I continued 

 collecting minerals with much zeal, but quite unscientifically all 

 that I cared about was a new-warned mineral, and I hardly attempted 

 to classify them 1 ." 



There has stood from very early times in Darwin's native 

 town of Shrewsbury, a very notable boulder which has probably 

 marked a boundary and is known as the " Bell-stone " giving its 

 name to a house and street. Darwin tells us in his Autobiography 

 that while he was at Shrewsbury School at the age of 13 or 14 

 "an old Mr Cotton in Shropshire, who knew a good deal about 

 rocks " pointed out to me " ...the ' bell-stone ' ; he told me that there 

 was no rock of the same kind nearer than Cumberland or Scotland, 

 and he solemnly assured me that the world would come to an end 

 before anyone would be able to explain how this stone came where it 

 now lay " ! Darwin adds " This produced a deep impression on me, 

 and I meditated over this wonderful stone 2 ." 



The "bell-stone" has now, owing to the necessities of building, 

 been removed a short distance from its original site, and is carefully 

 preserved within the walls of a bank. It is a block of irregular 

 shape 3 feet long and 2 feet wide, and about 1 foot thick, weighing 

 probably not less than one-third of a ton. By the courtesy of 

 the directors of the National Provincial Bank of England, I have 

 been able to make a minute examination of it, and Professors 

 Bonney and Watts, with Mr Marker and Mr Fearnsides have given 

 me their valuable assistance. The rock is a much altered andesite 

 and was probably derived from the Arenig district in North Wales, 

 or possibly from a point nearer the Welsh Border 3 . It was of course 

 brought to where Shrewsbury now stands by the agency of a glacier 

 as Darwin afterwards learnt. 



We can well believe from the perusal of these reminiscences that, 

 at this time, Darwin's mind was, as he himself says, "prepared 

 for a philosophical treatment of the subject" of Geology 4 . When at 



1 L. L. i. p. 34. - L. L. i. p. 41. 



3 I am greatly indebted to the Managers of the Bank at Shrewsbury for kind assistance 

 in the examination of this interesting memorial : and Mr H. T. Beddoes, the Curator 

 of the Shrewsbury Museum, has given me some archaeological information concerning 

 the stone. Mr Richard Cotton was a good local naturalist, a Fellow both of the 

 Geological and Linnean Societies ; and to the officers of these societies I am indebted 

 for information concerning him. He died in 1839, and although he does not appear to 

 have published any scientific papers, he did far more for science by influencing the career 

 of the school boy ! 



4 L. L. i. p. 41. 



