342 SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 



portant;" and it happened that, soon after he first heard 

 these jokes, as often as the classical men were puzzled on a 

 point of natural history, they said, "We must go to Banks." 



In 1761 his father died; and in 1764, on coming of 

 age, he was put in possession of his valuable estates in 

 Lincolnshire, having quitted Oxford the year before. 

 And now it was that the great merit of this distinguished 

 person shone forth. With all the incitements which his 

 age, his figure, and his station naturally presented to 

 leading a life of idleness, varied only by the more vulgar 

 gratifications of sense or of ordinary ambition, and with 

 a fortune which placed these gratifications in ample 

 measure within his reach, he continued steadily devoted 

 to scientific pursuits, and only lived for the studies of the 

 naturalist. He remained out of Parliament; he went 

 little into any society but that of learned men ; his 

 relaxation was confined to exercise, and to angling, of 

 which he was so fond, that he would devote days and 

 even nights to it ; and as it happened that Lord Sandwich 

 had the same taste, and that both possessed estates in 

 Lincolnshire, they became intimately acquainted, and saw 

 much of one another. So zealous were both these friends 

 in the prosecution of this sport, that Sir Joseph used to 

 tell of a project they had formed for suddenly draining 

 the Serpentine by letting off the water; and he was wont 

 to lament their scheme being discovered the night before 

 it was to have been executed : their hope was to have 

 thrown much light on the state and habits of the fish. 



In May, 1766, he was elected a Member of the 

 Royal Society, and the same year he accompanied his 

 friend Sir Thomas Adams in the Niger, entrusted with a 

 voyage to Newfoundland. Mr, Banks's object was the 



