CHARACTERS. 



783 



cleared, and made a terracs on the 

 bank, ^vliich stretched in a line, 

 level with the floor of his apart- 

 ments, planting the steep declivity 

 ■with lilacs and rose bushes ; while 

 he screened his terrace from the 

 gaze of passengers and the summer 

 sun. 



To this rus in urbe frequently re- 

 sorted a knot of philosophic friends, 

 the rev. Mr. Michell, many years 

 deceased; the ingenious Mr. Kicr, 

 of West Bromwich, then captain 

 Kier ; Mr. Boulton, known and re- 

 spected wherever mechanic philoso- 

 phy is understood : Mr. Watt, the 

 celebrated improver of the steam en- 

 gine ; and, above all others in Dr. 

 Darwin's personal regard, the late 

 accomplished Dr. Small, of Bir- 

 mingham, who bore the blushing 

 honours of his talcnti and virtues to 

 an untimely grave. 



The present Sir Brooke Boothby 

 afterwards becoming an occasional 

 inhabitant of Lichlield, sought, on 

 every posMbility, the conversation 

 of Dr. Darwin, and obtained his 

 lasting friendship ; and these, toge- 

 ther with Mr. Munday, of Macke- 

 ton, were the most distingnislied of 

 Dr. Darwin's scientific friends, who 

 visited him from adistance, when he 

 lived in Lic.lilield, 



lie once thought inoculation for 

 the measles might, as in the small- 

 pox, materially soften the disease; 

 and, after the patriotic exami)le of 

 lady W'ortley Montague, he made 

 the trial in his uziii family, upon his 



5'oungpst son, Robert, now Dr. 

 3arwin, of Shrewsbury, and upon 

 «n infant daughter, who died within 

 her first year. Kach had, in conse- 

 quence, the disease so severely, as to 

 re|)el, in their father's mind, all fu- 

 ture desire of repeating the experi- 

 ment. 



In the year 1768, Dr. Darwin 

 met with an accident of irrctriev- 

 able injury in the human frame, 

 liis propensity to mechanics had un- 

 fortunately led him to construct a 

 very singular carriage. It was a 

 platform, with a teat fixed on a 

 very high pair of wheels, and sup- 

 ported in the front upon th« 

 back of the horse, by means of a 

 kind of proboscis, which, forming 

 an arch, reached over the hind quar- 

 ters of the horse, and passed through 

 a ring, placed on an upright piece 

 of iron, which worked in a socket, 

 fixed in the saddle. The horso 

 could thus move from one side of 

 the road to the other, quartering, 

 as it is called, at the will of th« 

 driver, whose constant attention was 

 necessarily employed to regulate a 

 piece of machinery contrived, but 

 not well contrived, for that purpose. 

 From this whimsical carriage the 

 doctor was several times thrown, 

 and the last time he used it, had the 

 misfortune, from a similar accident, 

 to break the patella of his right 

 knee, which caused (as it always 

 must cause) an incurable weakness 

 in the fractured part, and a lame- 

 ness, not very discernable indeed, 

 when walking on even ground. 



Dr. Darwin w as happy in the ta- 

 lents, docUity, and obedience of his 

 three sons. An high degree of 

 stammerirtg retarded and eoibarras- 

 sed his utterance. The eldest boy, 

 Charles, had contracted the proj)en- 

 sity. VVith that wisdom, which 

 marked the doctor's observations on 

 the habits of life, with that decision 

 of conduct, which always instantly 

 followed the conviction of his mind, 

 he sent Charles abroad; at once to 

 break the force of hal)it formed on 

 the contagion of daily example, and 

 from a balicf, that iu Llic pronunci- 



aliuu 



