SIR GEORGE DARWIN 159 



Indeed, he told me more than once in later life 

 that he detested arithmetic, and that these 

 calculations were as tedious and painful to him 

 as they would have been to any other man, 

 but that he realised that they must be done, 

 and that it was impossible to train anyone 

 else to do them. 



As a Freshman he 'kept' (i.e. lived) in A 6, the 

 staircase at the N.W. corner of the New Court, 

 afterwards moving to F 3 in the Old Court, pleasant 

 rooms entered by a spiral staircase on the south 

 side of the Great Gate. Below him, in the ground 

 floor room, now used as the College offices, lived 

 Mr. Colvill, who remained a faithful but rarely seen 

 friend as long as George lived. 



Lord Moulton, who, as we have seen, was a 

 fellow pupil of George's at Routh's, was held even 

 as a Freshman to be an assured Senior Wrangler, 

 a prophecy that he easily made good. The second 

 place was held by George, and was a much more 

 glorious position than he had dared to hope for. In 

 those days the examiners read out the list in the 

 Senate House at an early hour, 8 a.m. I think. 

 George remained in bed and sent me to bring the 

 news. I remember charging out through the crowd 

 the moment the magnificent "Darwin of Trinity" 

 had followed the expected "Moulton of St. John's." 

 I have a general impression of a cheerful crowd 

 sitting on George's bed and literally almost smother- 

 ing him with congratulations. He received the 

 following characteristic letter from his father^ : 



* Emma Darwin, A Century of Family Letters, 1915, Vol. 11., 

 p. 187. 



