IX 

 NULLIUS IN VERBA 1 



There is a well-known story of Charles Darwin 

 which I shall venture to repeat, because nothing 

 can better emphasise the contrast between Shrews- 

 bury School as it is and as it was. 



Charles Darwin used, as a boy, to work at 

 chemistry in a rough laboratory fitted up in the 

 tool-house at his home in Shrewsbmy. The fact 

 that he did so became known to his school-fellows, 

 and he was nicknamed "Gas." I have an old 

 Delphine Virgil of my father's in which this word 

 is scrawled, together with the name Miss Case, no 

 doubt a sneer at his having come from Case's 

 preparatory school. Dr. Butler, the Head Master, 

 heard of the chemical work, and Charles Darwin 

 was once publicly rebuked by that alarming person 

 for wasting his time on such useless subjects. My 

 father adds, "He called me very unjustly a poco 

 curante, and as I did not understand what he 

 meant it seemed to me a fearful reproach." A poco 

 curante means of course "a don't-care person" f 

 one who takes no interest in things, and might 

 perhaps be translated by "slacker." I do not 

 suppose that Dr. Butler is likely ever to be 

 forgotten, but as it is, he is sure of a reasonable 

 I 



* An Address on the occasion of the opening of the Darvtrin 

 Laboratories at Shrewsbury School, October 20, 191 1. 



140 



