1836.] SIR J. HERSCHEL. 239 



the Cape de Verds (what miserable places !) to the Azores to 

 Plymouth, and then to home. That most glorious of all days 

 in my life will not, however, arrive till the middle of October. 

 Some time in that month you will see me at Cambridge, 

 where I must directly come to report myself to you, as my 

 first Lord of the Admiralty. At the Cape of Good Hope we 

 all on board suffered a bitter disappointment in missing nine 

 months' letters, which are chasing us from one side of the 

 globe to the other. I dare say amongst them there was a 

 letter from you ; it is long since I have seen your hand- 

 writing, but I shall soon see you yourself, which is far better. 

 As I am your pupil, you are bound to undertake the task of 

 criticising and scolding me for all the things ill done and not 

 done at all, which I fear I shall need much ; but I hope for 

 the best, and I am sure I have a good if not too easy task- 

 master. 



At the Cape Captain Fitz-Roy and myself enjoyed a mem- 

 orable piece of good fortune in meeting Sir J. Herschel. We 

 dined at his house and saw him a few times besides. He 

 was exceedingly good natured, but his manners at first ap- 

 peared to me rather awful. He is living in a very comforta- 

 ble country house, surrounded by fir and oak trees, which 

 alone in so open a country, give a most charming air of seclu- 

 sion and comfort. He appears to find time for everything ; 

 he showed us a pretty garden full of Cape bulbs of his own 

 collecting, and I afterwards understood that everything was 

 the work of his own hands. ... I am very stupid, and I have 

 nothing more to say ; the wind is whistling so mournfully 

 over the bleak hills, that I shall go to bed and dream of 

 England. 



Good night, my dear Henslow, 



Yours most truly obliged and affectionately, 



CHAS. DARWIN. 



