LECTURE ON DALTON 403 



Thursday afternoons, when he enjoyed a game of bowls with 

 a party of friends and afterwards refreshed himself with a 

 pipe of tobacco. He rose early, and directly he had finished 

 his breakfast repaired to his laboratory, where he had lighted 

 the fire prior to taking that meal. His life went like clock- 

 work. A lady who lived opposite Dalton's laboratory, in 

 Manchester, said that she knew the time to a minute by 

 seeing the Doctor open his window to read his thermo- 

 meter. For some years he lived with the family of Mr. Johns, 

 and how this came about is told in the following manner by 

 Miss Johns. 



" As my mother was standing at her window one evening 

 she saw Dr. Dalton passing on the other side of the street, 

 and on her opening the window he crossed over and greeted 

 her. ' How is it you come so seldom to see us, Dr. Dalton ? ' 

 said she. ' Why, I don't know/ said he, 'but I have a mind 

 to come and live with you.' My mother thought at first that 

 he was in jest ; but finding that he really meant what he 

 said, she asked him to call again the next day, after she would 

 have consulted by father. Accordingly he came and took the 

 only bedroom at liberty, which he continued to occupy for 

 nearly thirty years." 



He was not only methodical in his work, but the same 

 punctuality and method prevailed in his holidays. He was in 

 the habit of spending them at the English Lakes, and there 

 he always occupied himself in the same way ascending the 

 mountains, measuring their heights by his self-made baro- 

 meter, ascertaining the dew-point, and collecting air at 

 different heights, to be analysed on his return to Manchester. 



He came to London to lecture on chemistry at the Royal 

 Institution, but he did not like the bustle and stir of our 

 great metropolis. " London," he writes, " is a most surpris- 

 ing place, worth one's while to see once, but the most 

 disagreeable place on earth for one of a contemplative turn 

 to reside in." 



Though, as he said, he never had time to get married he 

 was not insensible to female charms. In an old botanical 

 book I came across a dried specimen of the " Ladies' 

 Slipper," a charming orchid, now scarce, and under this was 

 written, in Dalton's handwriting, " Presented to me by Nancy 

 Wilson of Thornton-in-Craven." That Nancy had touched 

 the staid Quaker to the heart's core is certain, and he used to 

 read with a faltering voice some lines by the lady, with eyes 

 suffused with tears, repeating as he ended, " Poor Nancy, poor 

 Nancy ! " 



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