Oh. V.] 1828—1831. 105 



who was himself generally to be seen on the Heath on these 

 occasions. 



Nor were the ecclesiastical authorities of the College over 

 strict. I have heard my father tell how at evening chapel the 

 Dean used to read alternate verses of the Psalms, without 

 making even a pretence of waiting for the congregation to take 

 their share. And when the Lesson was a lengthy one, ho 

 would rise and go on with the Canticles after the scholar had 

 read fifteen or twenty verses. 



It is curious that my father often spoke of his Cambridge 

 life as if it had been so much time wasted,* forgetting that, 

 although the set studies of the placo wore barren enough for 

 him, he yet gained in the highest degree the best advantages 

 of a University life — the contact with men and an opportunity 

 for mental growth. It is true that he valued at its highest the 

 advantages which he gained from associating with Professor 

 Henslow and some others, but he seemed to consider this as a 

 chance outcome of his life at Cambridge, not an advantage for 

 which Alma Mater could claim any credit. One of my father's 

 Cambridge friends was the late Mr. J. M. Herbert, County 

 Court Judge for South Wales, from whom I was fortunate 

 enough to obtain some notes which help us to gain an idea of 

 how my father impressed his contemporaries. Mr. Herbert 

 writes : — 



" It would be idle for me to speak of his vast intellectual 

 powers . . . but I cannot end this cursory and rambling sketch 

 without testifying, and I doubt not all his surviving college 

 friends would concur with me, that he was the most genial, 

 warm-hearted, generous, and affectionate of friends ; that his 

 sympathies were with all that was good and true ; and that he 

 had a cordial hatred for everything false, or vile, or cruel, or 

 mean, or dishonourable. He was not only great, but pre- 

 eminently good, and just, and lovable." 



Two anecdotes told by Mr. Herbert show that my father's 

 feeling for suffering, whether of man or beast, was as strong in 

 him as a young man as it was in later years : " Before he left 

 Cambridge he told me that he had made up his mind not to 

 shoot any more ; that he had had two days' shooting at his 

 friend's, Mr. Owen of Woodhouse ; and that on the second day, 

 when going over some of the ground they had beaten on the 

 day before, he picked up a bird not quite dead, but lingering 



* For id stance in a letter to Hooker (1847) : — " Many thanks for your 

 welcome note from Cambridge, and I am glad you like my Alma Mater, 

 ■which I despise heartily as a place of education, but love from many 

 most pleasant recollections." 



