174 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



the jug-jug of the nighingale. It is the prettiest play- 

 thing you ever saw, the price tempting, only 500. 

 That economist the P. of W. could not resist it, and 

 has bought one of these dicky birds." (Journals, etc., 

 I, 286.) The few references to Banks which occur 

 in Walpole's correspondence are humorous, or con- 

 temptuous, as the reader likes to take them. As, for 

 example : 



"... this, however, is better than his going to draw 

 naked savages and be scalped, with that wild man Banks, 

 who is poaching in every ocean for the fry of little islands 

 that escaped the drag-net of Spain." (To Mann, Septem- 

 ber 20, 1772.) 



" How I abominate Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander who 

 routed the poor Otaheitans out of the centre of the ocean, 

 and carried our abominable passions with them." (To 

 Rev. W. Cole, June 15, 1780.) 



Horace Walpole is a representative Scoffer. But his 

 disinclination to take himself seriously is the worst thing 

 that can be said of him. It is more than probable that 

 he was one of those men who could be depended upon 

 for financial aid when useful or generous objects were 

 on foot. He had been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 

 the year 1746, so that he must have been familiar with 

 Banks 's uniform public spirit. Evidently he had scant 

 sympathy with the Explorers. When James Bruce was 

 returned after ten years' absence, during which he had 

 contributed immensely to the sum of human knowledge, 

 Walpole announces his return home in short and sarcastic 

 terms : 



"... has lived three years in the Court of Abyssinia, 

 and breakfasted every morning- with the maids of honour 

 on live oxen." (To Mann, July 10, 1774.) 



