8 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



to Professor Sibthorp, and was happy in arousing his 

 interest. Banks proposed to secure the services of a 

 reader or lecturer in Botany, whose remuneration should 

 be met by subscription from his pupils. With very 

 creditable kindness, Dr. Sibthorp at once acceded. 



There was no one at Oxford willing or able to under- 

 take the thing. Banks, therefore, rode over to Cambridge 

 in search of a candidate ; made acquaintance with Dr. 

 Martyn, the Botanical Professor, and speedily found the 

 very man that was wanted. This was Israel Lyons, a 

 young man about four years the senior of Banks. He 

 was clever both in botany and mathematics. His father 

 was a noted character in the town of Cambridge, where 

 he kept a silversmith's shop, and taught Hebrew to some 

 of the University students. The younger Israel Lyons 

 was a remarkable specimen of the numerous class of self- 

 educated persons who helped to make the eighteenth 

 century. Like Banks, he had acquired proficiency in 

 Botany during his boyhood. He found a patron in Dr. 

 Robert Smith, master of Trinity, who was greatly im- 

 pressed by his mathematical knowledge. Lyons had 

 much promise of distinction. 1 



The experiment at Oxford was justified by events. A 

 few students gathered round, and Banks was rewarded 

 by seeing a new taste for Natural History come into 

 favour. As long as he remained at Oxford, Lyons was 

 encouraged by his pupil's progress in botanical knowledge, 

 and by the distinction which his example gave to the 

 study of the science. 



Banks left Oxford in December, 1763. In the following 

 February he was of age, and then entered into the posses- 

 sion of his ancestral property. He lived much at Revesby, 

 with his mother and sister. He had no disposition to 



1 He went as astronomer with Captain Phipps's Expedition toward 

 the North Pole (1773). He presently married well, and settled in 

 London. But he ended badly, and did not live to reach middle age. 



