SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. \\ 



who then resided at Lanarth. He was a great 

 favorite; but there was even then an original 

 mode of thinking and acting observable in him, 

 one instance of which I well remember ; it was 

 on rather a hot day, when my father, mother, your 

 aunt, Humphrey, and myself, were to walk to a 

 place a mile or two distant, I forget for what pur- 

 pose. Whilst others complained of the heat, and 

 whilst I unbuttoned my waistcoat, Humphrey ap- 

 peared with his great-coat close-buttoned up to his 

 chin, for the purpose, as he declared, of keeping 

 out the heat. This was laughed at at the time, but 

 it struck me then, as it appears to me now, as 

 evincing originality of thought and an indisposition 

 to be led by the example of others." 



At fifteen his school education was considered 

 complete. The next year he studied French, gave 

 a good deal of time to fishing, of which he was 

 always fond, and apparently had little definite pur- 

 pose. About this time his father died, and the 

 straitened circumstances of the family now seemed 

 to awaken all the energy and nobility of his nature. 

 Seeing his mother in deep affliction, he begged her 

 not to grieve, saying that " he would do all he co^ld 

 for his brothers and sisters." And he never forgot 

 this promise. 



The following year he was apprenticed to Mr. 

 Bingham Borlase, practising surgeon and apothe- 

 cary in Penzance. Young Davy now seemed des- 

 tined to become a physician, but* his note-books 

 show that he intended to know other things besides 



