i85l BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT IPSWICH 



95 



in a colloquial tone, suitable to a knot of students gathered 

 round his table, but not to a large audience — of running 

 his words, especially technical terms, together — of pouring 

 out new and unfamiliar matter at breakneck speed, were 

 addressed to him — one by a " working man " of his Monday 

 evening audience at Jermyn Street in 1855, the other, un- 

 dated, by Mr. Jodrell, a frequenter of the Royal Institution, 

 and afterwards founder of the Jodrell Lectureships at Uni- 

 versity College, London, and other benefactions to science, 

 and these he kept by him as a perpetual reminder, labelled 

 " Good Advice." How much can be done by the frank 

 acceptance of criticism and by careful practice is shown 

 by the difference between the feelings of the later audiences 

 who flocked to his lectures, and those of the members of 

 an Institute in St. John's Wood, who, as he often used 

 to tell, after hearing him in his early days, petitioned " not 

 to have that young man again." 



July 12, 185 1. — The interval between my letters has been a 

 little longer than usual, as I have been very busy attending the 

 meeting of the British Association at Ipswich. The last time I 

 attended one was at Southampton five years ago, when I went 

 merely as a spectator, and looked at the people who read papers 

 as if they were somebodies.* This time I have been behind the 

 scenes myself and have played out my little part on the boards. 

 I know all about the scenery and decorations, and no longer 

 think the manager a wizard. 



Any one who conceives that I went down from any especial 

 interest in the progress of science makes a great mistake. My 

 journey was altogether a matter of policy, partly for the purpose 

 of doing a little necessary trumpeting, and partly to get the 

 assistance of the Association in influencing the Government. 



On the journey down, my opposite in the railway carriage 

 turned out to be Sir James Ross, the Antarctic discoverer. We 

 had some very pleasant talk together. I knew all about him, as 

 Dayman ■)• had sailed under his command ; oddly enough we 

 afterwards went to lodge at the same house, but as we were 

 attending our respective sections all day we did not see much 

 of one another. 



* See Chap. II., ad fin. 



\ One of the lieutenants of the Rattlesnake. 



