144 LONDON AND CAMBRIDGE. [Ch. VH. 



brother here for some weeks, but they had returned home 

 before my visit." 



In August he writes to Henslow to announce the success of 

 the scheme for the publication of the Zoology of the Voyage of 

 the Beagle, through the promise of a grant of £1000 from the 

 Treasury : " I had an interview with the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer.* He appointed to see me this morning, and I had 

 a long conversation with him, Mr. Peacock being present. 

 Nothing could be more thoroughly obliging and kind than his 

 whole manner. He made no sort of restriction, but only told 

 me to make the most of the money, which of course I am right 

 willing to do. 



" I expected rather an awful interview, but I never found 

 anything less so in my life. It will be my fault if I do not 

 make a good work ; but I sometimes take an awful fright that 

 I have not materials enough. It will be excessively satisfac- 

 tory at the end of some two years to find all materials made the 

 most they were capable of." 



Later in the autumn he wrote to Henslow : " I have not been 

 very well of late, with an uncomfortable palpitation of the 

 heart, and my doctors urge me strongly to knock off all work, 

 and go and live in the country for a few weeks." He accord- 

 ingly took a holiday of about a month at Shrewsbury and 

 Maer, and paid Fox a visit in the Isle of Wight. It was, I 

 believe, during this visit, at Mr. Wedgwood's house at Maer, 

 that he made his first observations on the work done by earth- 

 worms, and late in the autumn he read a paper on the subject 

 at the Geological Society. 



Here he was already beginning to make his mark. Lyell 

 wrote to Sedgwick (April 21, 1837) :— 



" Darwin is a glorious addition to any society of geologists, 

 and is working hard and making way both in his book and in 

 our discussions. I really never saw that bore Dr. Mitchell so 

 successfully silenced, or such a bucket of cold water so dex- 

 terously poured down his back, as when Darwin answered some 

 impertinent and irrelevant questions about South America. 

 We escaped fifteen minutes of Dr. M.'s vulgar harangue in 

 consequence . . . ." 



Early in the following year (1838), he was, much against 

 his will, elected Secretary of the Geological Society, an office 

 he held for three years. A chief motive for his hesitation in 

 accepting the post was the condition of his health, the doctors 

 having urged " me to give up entirely all writing and even 



* Spring Rice. 



