392 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Lord 



Sandwich 

 and the 

 Royal 

 Society. 



culture, keenly interested in local history and anti- 

 quities. Born in 1743, Banks went to school at Harrow, and 

 later at Eton. An old schoolfellow, who became the father 

 of Lord Brougham, afterwards described him as " a 

 remarkably fine-looking strong and active boy, whom 

 no fatigue could subdue, and no peril daunt ; and his 

 whole time out of school was given up to hunting after 

 plants and insects." Banks himself told how, strolling 

 one day down a lane, he exclaimed, " How beautiful ! 

 Would it not be far more reasonable to make me learn 

 the nature of those plants than the Greek and Latin I 

 am confined to ! " l At Oxford he continued his botanical 

 studies. The fame of the Professor of the subject rests 

 secure on the fact that, " during his thirty-six years' 

 occupancy of the Chair, he is said to have delivered only 

 one lecture, and that not a successful one." z Why he 

 gave one lecture I do not know. Banks searched Cam- 

 bridge, found a botanist, and brought him to Oxford. 



Leaving Oxford in 1763, he lived on the great estate 

 at Revesby, studied natural history, and angled days and 

 nights. His neighbour, Lord Sandwich, also liked fishing, 

 and a friendship grew that perhaps had consequences, for 

 Lord Sandwich was a member of the Government when 

 the Endeavour sailed. The two enthusiasts formed a plan, 

 which failed, for suddenly draining the Serpentine in the 

 hope that this would " throw much light on the state and 

 habits of the fish." Meanwhile Banks was forming friend- 

 ships in London among more serious students of science. 

 In 1766 he was elected member of the Royal Society. 

 In the same year he voyaged to Newfoundland, and made 

 careful study of people, birds, fish, and plants. Then came 

 tours in England, examination of barrows and ancient 

 monuments, and everlasting lt botanising." 



1 " My father," writes Brougham, " always said that his friend Joe 

 cared mighty little for his book, and could not understand any one 

 taking to Greek and Latin." 



2 Diet, of Nat. Biog. " In the University of Oxford," wrote Adam 

 Smith, late scholar of Balliol, " the greater part of the public professors 

 have for these many years given up altogether even the pretence of 

 teaching." Cf. Gibbon's illustrations of " the silence of the Oxford 

 professors " in his Autobiography, pp. 32-43. 



