340 Darwin and Geology 
striking differences in colour and form. It was probably this circum- 
stance which awakened in the child his love of observation and 
speculation. It is certainly remarkable that “aspirations” of the 
kind should have arisen in the mind of a child of 9 or 10! 
When he went to Shrewsbury School, he relates “I continued 
collecting minerals with much zeal, but quite unscientifically—all 
that I cared about was a new-named mineral, and I hardly attempted 
to classify them.” 
There has stood from very early times in Darwin’s native 
town of Shrewsbury, a very notable boulder which has probably 
marked a boundary and is known as the “ Bell-stone”—giving its 
name to a house and street. Darwin tells us in his Autobiography 
that while he was at Shrewsbury School at the age of 13 or 14 
“an old Mr Cotton in Shropshire, who knew a good deal about 
rocks” pointed out to me “...the ‘bell-stone’; he told me that there 
was no rock of the same kind nearer than Cumberland or Scotland, 
and he solemnly assured me that the world would come to an end 
before anyone would be able to explain how this stone came where it 
now lay”! Darwin adds “This produced a deep impression on me, 
and I meditated over this wonderful stone”.” 
The “bell-stone” has now, owing to the necessities of building, 
been removed a short distance from its original site, and is carefully 
preserved within the walls of a bank. It is a block of irregular 
shape 3 feet long and 2 feet wide, and about 1 foot thick, weighing 
probably not less than one-third of a ton. By the courtesy of 
the directors of the National Provincial Bank of England, I have 
been able to make a minute examination of it, and Professors 
Bonney and Watts, with Mr Harker and Mr Fearnsides have given 
me their valuable assistance. The rock is a much altered andesite 
and was probably derived from the Arenig district in North Wales, 
or possibly from a point nearer the Welsh Border*®. It was of course 
brought to where Shrewsbury now stands by the agency of a glacier— 
as Darwin afterwards learnt. 
We can well believe from the perusal of these reminiscences that, 
at this time, Darwin’s mind was, as he himself says, “prepared 
for a philosophical treatment of the subject” of Geology*. When at 
1D. Lot p. 34. 22.2.1 p. 41. 
3 I am greatly indebted to the Managers of the Bank at Shrewsbury for kind assistance 
in the examination of this interesting memorial: and Mr H. T. Beddoes, the Curator 
of the Shrewsbury Museum, has given me some archaeological information concerning 
the stone. Mr Richard Cotton was a good local naturalist, a Fellow both of the 
Geological and Linnean Societies ; and to the officers of these societies I am indebted 
for information concerning him. He died in 1839, and although he does not appear to 
have published any scientific papers, he did far more for science by influencing the career 
of the school boy ! 
42. L.1 p. 41. 
