I 



Notice of the late Mr, George Caley^ 82^ 



jsome few additional well authenticated facts may not, perhaps, 

 prove unacceptable, especially as they tend to elucidate cer- 

 tain circumstances affecting his earlier career, which have 

 been suffered to remain in obscurity. That this communica- 

 tion was not made immediately consecutive to the original 

 memoir may be regretted ; but the delay was occasioned by 

 your correspondent's time and attention having been exclu- 

 sively engrossed by the completion of the recently published 

 new edition of an elaborate iDotanical work. 



The late Dr. Withering, whose protracted suffering from ill 

 health was so remarkably alleviated by botanical researches *, 

 was never more agreeably engaged than in fostering rising 

 genius ; and especially in promoting the views of the tyro 

 diligently seeking after scientific knowledge, to whom he was 

 ever accessible, either by correspondence or personal appli- 

 cation. 



Among very many who thus benefited by his advice and 

 instructions was Mr. George Caley ; who, impelled by an 

 ardour sufficient to overcome obstacles and discouragements 

 from which a mind of ordinary temperament would have re- 

 coiled, at length resolved to state the peculiarity of his situ- 

 ation to the author of the Arrangement of British Plants^ who 

 soon became so warmly interested in the welfare of this ge- 

 nuine child of nature as to continue a correspondence with 

 him during several years, and eventually to assist in advancing 

 his favourite project of exploring the most remote regions of 

 the earth. 



Singularly unpropitious as it may appear, Caley was no 

 other than the son of a horse-dealer in the north of England, 

 and early initiated into the stables for regular training to his 

 father's business. 



In the eighth year of his age, he had, however, been placed 

 at the free grammar school in Manchester, in what was termed 

 the lower Bible class ; and, in the course of about four years, 

 was advanced to the Latin Testament. 



The learned languages being, in his father's opinion, little 

 better than useless acquisitions to the embryo jockey, he was, 

 for a short time, withdrawn from such studies ; but quickly 

 reentered the same venerable establishment, in the hope of 

 obtaining some knowledge of arithmetic. Brief, however, was 

 the term of his reprieve ; for, in his twelfth year, we find him 

 altogether condemned to the drudgery of the stable. 



At this critical period occurred one of those singular coin- 

 cidences which, though apparently fortuitous, often materially 



* Vide Memoirs and Tracts of William Withering, M.D. F.R.S., 2 vols. 

 8vo. Longman. 



