54 GILBERT. 



removed for about eighteen months to that town. In 1782 they 

 went to Bristol, where their son's studies were assisted for some 

 time by Mr. Benjamin Donne. In 1785 Gilbert matriculated at 

 Oxford, and became a gentleman-commoner of Pembroke College. 

 He was already master of a considerable amount of mathematical 

 and physical knowledge, the greater portion of which he had 

 acquired by almost unassisted application. While residing at the 

 University he associated with the senior members of his college, 

 preferring their company to that of students of his own age ; and 

 considering the natural bent of his tastes, which led him to prefer 

 the study of the severer sciences to the elegancies of classical 

 literature, it is not surprising that such should be the case. Dr. 

 Parr, writing at this time to the late Master of Pembroke, speaks 

 of Mr. Giddy, then twenty-three years old, as * the Cornish Philo- 

 sopher,' and adds that he deserved that name. 



During his residence at Oxford, Gilbert was a regular attendant 

 at the lectures on anatomy and mineralogy, delivered by Dr. 

 Thompson, at Christ Church. He also attended with assiduity the 

 lectures on chemistry and botany of Drs. Beddoes and Sibthorp, 

 with whom he contracted a friendship, which terminated only with 

 their lives. To the former of these two gentlemen Gilbert subse- 

 quently introduced his friend Sir Humphry Davy, at that time in 

 comparatively humble life, but whose extraordinary combination of 

 poetical and philosophical genius had attracted Gilbert's attention, 

 and he thus had the merit and good fortune of contributing to 

 rescue from obscurity one of the greatest discoverers in modern 

 chemistry. 



Mr. Gilbert continued to reside principally at his college until the 

 year 1793, when, having previously taken the honorary degree of 

 M.A., he returned to Cornwall to serve as sheriff, and to divide 

 his time, between the cultivation of science and literature, and the 

 duties of a magistrate in a populous and busy town. Previous to 

 this, in the year 1791, he had been elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, his certificate describing him as being " devoted to mathe- 

 matical and philosophical pursuits." It was signed by Thomas 

 Hornsby, Savilian professor of astronomy, G. Shuckburgh, N. Mas- 

 kelyne, George Staunton, and other Fellows. In 1804 Mr. Gilbert 

 became a member of Parliament for Helstone, and at the general 

 election in 1806, was chosen to represent Bodmin, continuing to sit 

 for that borough until December, 1832. He was emphatically the 

 representative of scientific interests in the House of Commons, and 

 was continually appointed to serve on committees of inquiry touch- 

 ing scientific and financial questions. He acted as Chairman of the 

 committee for rebuilding London Bridge, causing it to be widened 

 ten feet more than originally proposed, and he greatly contributed 

 by his exertions to carry many very important public projects, 

 amongst which may be mentioned, the Breakwater at Plymouth, 



