1842 LONDON APPRENTICESHIP 25 



or nine in the morning until twelve at night, besides a 

 long hot summer's walk over to Chelsea two or three 

 times a week to hear Lindley. A great part of the time 

 I worked till sunrise. The result was a sort of 

 ophthalmia which kept me from reading at night for 

 months afterwards. 



The day of examination came, and as I went along 

 the passage to go out I well remember dear Lizzie, 1 half 

 in jest, half in earnest, throwing her shoe after me, as 

 she said, for luck. She was alone, beside S., in the 

 secret, and almost as anxious as I was. How I reached 

 the examination room I hardly know, but I recollect 

 finding myself at last with pen and ink and paper before 

 me and five other beings, all older than myself, at a 

 long table. We stared at one another like strange cats 

 in a garret, but at length the examiner (Ward) entered, 

 and before each was placed the paper of questions and 

 sundry plants. I looked at my questions, but for some 

 moments could hardly hold my pen, so extreme was my 

 nervousness ; but when I once fairly began, my ideas 

 crowded upon me almost faster than I could write them. 

 And so we all sat, nothing heard but the scratching of 

 the pens and the occasional crackle of the examiner's 

 Times as he quietly looked over the news of the day. 



The examination began at eleven. At two they 

 brought in lunch. It was a good meal enough, but the 

 circumstances were not particularly favourable to enjoy- 

 ment, so after a short delay we resumed our work. It 

 began to be evident between whom the contest lay, and 

 the others determined that I was one man's competitor 

 and Stocks 2 (he is now in the East India service) the 

 other. Scratch, scratch, scratch ! Four o'clock came, 

 the usual hour of closing the examination, but Stocks 



1 His eldest sister Mrs. Scott. 



2 John Ellerton Stocks, M.D., London, distinguished himself 

 as a botanist in India. He travelled and collected in Beloochistan 

 and Scinde ; died 1854. 



