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CHAPTER V. 



My father's Cambridge life comprises the time between the 

 Lent Term, 1828, when he came up to Christ's College as a 

 Freshman, and the end of the May Term, 1831, when he took 

 his degree * and left the University. 



He " kept "for a term or two in lodgings, over Bacon j" the 

 tobacconist's ; not, however, over the shop in the Market 

 Place, so well known to Cambridge men, but in Sydney Street. 

 Tor the rest of his time he had pleasant rooms on the south 

 side of the first court of Christ's.J 



What determined the choice of this college for his brother 

 Erasmus and himself I have no means of knowing. Erasmus 

 the elder, their grandfather, had been at St. John's, and this 

 college might have been reasonably selected for them, being 

 connected with Shrewsbury School. But the life of an under- 

 graduate at St. John's seems, in those days, to have been a 

 troubled one, if I may judge from the fact that a relative 

 of mine migrated thence to Christ's to escape tho harassing 

 discipline of the place. 



Darwin seems to have found no difficulty in living at peace 

 with all men in and out of office at Lady Margaret's elder 

 foundation. The impression of a contemporary of my father's 

 is that Christ's in their day was a pleasant, fairly quiet college, 

 with some tendency towards " horsiness " ; many of the men 

 made a custom of going to Newmarket during the races, 

 though betting was not a regular practice. In this they were 

 by no means discouraged by the Senior Tutor, Mr. Shaw, 



* ** On Tuesday last Charles Darwin, of Christ's College, was admitted 

 B.A."— Cambridge Chronicle, Friday, April 29th, 1831. 



t Headers of Calverley (another Christ's man) will remember his 

 tobacco poem ending " Here's to thee, Bacon." 



% The rooms are on the first floor, on the west side of the middle 

 staircase. A medallion (given by my brother) has recently been let into 

 the wall of the sitting-room. 



