46 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



tubes exserted, and instantly rushed off to communicate my 

 surprising discovery to him. Now I do not suppose any 

 other professor of botany could have helped laughing at my 

 coming in such a hurry to make such a communication. But 

 he agreed how interesting the phenomenon was, and explained 

 its meaning, but made me clearly understand how well it was 

 known; so I left him not in the least mortified, but well 

 pleased at having discovered for myself so remarkable a fact, 

 but determined not to be in such a hurry again to communi- 

 cate my discoveries. 



Dr. Whewell was one of the older and distinguished men 

 who sometimes visited Henslow, and on several occasions I 

 walked home with him at night. Next to Sir J. Mackintosh 

 he was the best converser on grave subjects to whom I ever 

 listened. Leonard Jenyns,* who afterwards published some 

 good essays in Natural History,! often stayed with Henslow, 

 who was his brother-in-law. I visited him at his parsonage 

 on the borders of the Fens [Swaffham Bulbeck], and had 

 many a good walk and talk with him about Natural History. 

 I became also acquainted with several other men older than 

 me, who did not care much about science, but were friends 

 of Henslow. One was a Scotchman, brother of Sir Alexander 

 Ramsay, and tutor of Jesus College : he was a delightful man, 

 but did not live for many years. Another was Mr. Dawes, 

 afterwards Dean of Hereford, and famous for his success in 

 the education of the poor. These men and others of the 

 same standing, together with Henslow, used sometimes to 

 take distant excursions into the country, which I was allowed 

 to join, and they were most agreeable. 



Looking back, I infer that there must have been some- 

 thing in me a little superior to the common run of youths, 

 otherwise the above-mentioned men, so much older than me 

 and higher in academical position, would never have allowed 



* The well-known Soame Jenyns was cousin to Mr. Jenyns' father, 

 f Mr. Jenyns (now Blomefield) described the fish for the Zoology of 

 the Beagle ; and is author of a long series of papers, chiefly Zoological. 



