SIR GEORGE DARWIN 157 



On August i6th, 1856, George was sent to 

 school. Our elder brother, William, was at Rugby, 

 and his parents felt his long absences from home such 

 an evil that they fixed on the Clapham Grammar 

 School for their younger sons. Besides its nearness 

 to Down, Clapham had the merit of giving more 

 mathematics and science than could then be found 

 in public schools. It was kept by the Rev. Charles 

 Pritchard,^ a man of strong character, and with a 

 gift for teaching mathematics by which George 

 undoubtedly profited. In, I think, 1861 Pritchard 

 left Clapham and was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred 

 Wrigley, a man of kindly mood but without the 

 force or vigour of Pritchard. As a mathematical 

 instructor I imagine Wrigley was a good drill- 

 master rather than an inspiring teacher. Under 

 him the place degenerated to some extent ; it no 

 longer sent so many boys to the Universities, and 

 became more like a "crammer's" and less like a 

 public school. My own recollections of George at 

 Clapham are coloured by an abiding gratitude for 

 j his kindly protection of me as a shrinking and very 

 'unhappy "new boy" in i860, 



George records in his diary that in 1863 he tried 

 in vain for a Minor Scholarship at St, John's 

 College, Cambridge, and again failed to get one at 

 Trinity in 1864, though he became a Foundation 

 Scholar in 1866. These facts suggested to me that 

 his capacity as a mathematician was the result of 

 slow growth. I accordingly applied to Lord 



1 Afterwards Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. 

 Bom 1808, died 1893. 



