14 THE DARWIN FAMILY. 



the most profuse thanks, and enclosing, as he said, a 20 Bank 

 of England note, but no note was enclosed. I asked my 

 father whether this did not stagger him, but he answered 

 ' not in the least.' On the next day another letter came 

 with many apologies for having forgotten (like a true Irish- 

 man) to put the note into his letter of the day before. . . . 

 [A gentleman] brought his nephew, who was insane but 

 quite gentle, to my father ; and the young man's insanity led 

 him to accuse himself of all the crimes under heaven. When 

 my father afterwards talked over the matter with the uncle, 

 he said, ' I am sure that your nephew is really guilty of ... 

 a heinous crime.' Whereupon [the gentleman] said, 'Good God, 

 Dr. Darwin, who told you ; we thought that no human being 

 knew the fact except ourselves ! ' My father told me the 

 story many years after the event, and I asked him how he 

 distinguished the true from the false self-accusations ; and it 

 was very characteristic of my father that he said he could 

 not explain how it was. 



"The following story shows what good guesses my father 

 could make. Lord Shelburne, aftenvards the first Marquis 

 of Lansdowne, was famous (as Macaulay somewhere remarks) 

 for his knowledge of the affairs of Europe, on which he 

 greatly prided himself. He consulted my father medically, 

 and afterwards harangued him on the state of Holland. My 

 father had studied medicine at Leyden, and one day [while 

 there] went a long walk into the country with a friend who took 

 him to the house of a clergyman (we will say the Rev. Mr. 



A- , for I have forgotten his name), who had married an 



Englishwoman. My father was very hungry, and there was 

 little for luncheon except cheese, which he could never eat. 

 The old lady was surprised and grieved at this, and assured my 

 father that it was an excellent cheese, and had been sent her 

 from Bowood, the seat of Lord Shelburne. My father wondered 

 why a cheese should be sent her from Bowood, but thought 

 nothing more about it until it flashed across his mind many 



