74 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



men associated in the work of the University, among 

 whom his own scientific distinction gave him a just influ- 

 ence. The Chancellor, the successive Vice-Chancellors, 

 were his steadfast friends ; and to the last day of his life he 

 cherished, as one of its most precious privileges, the re- 

 membrance of the intimate relations into which he was 

 admitted with the stately and reserved historian, Mr. Grote. 

 On his retirement from University Hall, in 1859, Dr. 

 Carpenter settled in a house at the foot of Primrose Hill, 

 which became the family home for more than a quarter of 

 a century. In the possession of a settled income, and free 

 from the care and strain which had beset his earlier years, 

 he was able to give fuller play to his tastes, and pursue with 

 less difficulty his favourite scientific inquiries. In his new 

 study was built an organ, which he designed himself, with 

 some unusual features, to secure as much variety and rich- 

 ness as possible without overwhelming power. Here he 

 found at last a place of ease though not of indolence, of 

 satisfied desire, such as he had never before enjoyed. 



The organ looks extremely handsome (he wrote one 

 winter's day to his brother Russell), and is as charming 

 in its voice as in its exterior. I can sometimes scarcely 

 realize how completely all the hopes of my life have now 

 been accomplished. A few days ago I was very poorly 

 with a bad cold, and I remained in bed part of the morning, 

 reading Dickens's " Tale of Two Cities," which had so fully 

 taken up my attention that I thought of nothing else even 

 while I was dressing. When I went into my study, feeling 

 rather miserable in myself, and found a bright fire, bright 

 sunlight, and everything looking so much the opposite of what 

 I had been reading, and of my own physical condition, I was, 

 as people say, " struck all of a heap." 



To this home Dr. Carpenter delighted to welcome his 

 friends, and year by year, as the circle widened, his facilities 

 also increased. What impression he produced upon the 



