DcdVs Sketch. 209 



1809. He died of disease of the heart at his resi- 

 dence, Down Court, Beckenham, Kent, at 4 P.M., 

 April 19, 1882, and consequently had attained 

 the age of seventy-three years, two months, and 

 seven days. At Shrewsbury his childhood was 

 passed and his education was obtained at the once 

 famous Shrewsbury Grammar School, presided over 

 by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Butler, afterward Bishop of 

 Litchfield and Coventry. 



At the age of sixteen he entered the University 

 of Edinburgh (1825) where he remained two years. 

 Even at this early period he had become a student 

 of natural history, and read his first scientific paper 

 before the Plinian Society. It was " On the Move- 

 ment of the Ova of Flustra," one of the incrusting 

 marine corallines. 



In 1827 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, 

 where he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts four years 

 later. Here he fell under the influence of the teach- 

 ings of Prof. John Stevens Henslow, an excellent 

 botanist, whose instruction doubtless did much to 

 determine the field of study subsequently occupied 

 by his pupil. 



In 183 1 Captain Fitz-Roy, R.N., offered to share 

 his cabin with any competent naturalist who would 

 accompany him on his prospecting voyage to South 

 America in H. M. S. Beagle, detailed for surveys in 

 that region. Mr. Darwin, then only twenty-two 

 years of age, offered his services, with the stipulation' 

 that he should control the collections made, and was 

 accepted. The Beagle sailed November 27, 1831, 

 from Plymouth, and returned to England on the 2d 

 of October, 1836. During a large part of the voyage 



