Xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
county. At the age of nine he was sent to Harrow, and 
four years later was transferred to Eton, where he displayed 
an extreme aversion from study, especially of Greek and 
Latin, and an inordinate love of all kinds of energetic 
sports. It was while he was here that he was first attracted 
to the study of botany, and having no better instructor he 
paid some women—“ cullers of simples,” as Sir Joseph him- 
self afterwards called them—who were employed in gather- 
ing plants, for which he paid them sixpence for each article 
they collected and brought to him. During his holidays he 
found on his mother’s dressing-table an old torn copy of 
Gerard’s Herbal, having the names and figures of some of 
the plants with which he had formed an imperfect acquaint- 
ance; and he carried it back with him to school. While at 
Eton he made considerable collections of plants and insects. 
He also made many excursions in company with the father of 
the great Lord Brougham, who describes him as a fine-looking, 
strong, and healthy boy, whom no fatigue could subdue, and 
no peril daunt. 
He left Eton when seventeen to be inoculated for the 
small-pox, and on his recovery he went up to Oxford, entering 
as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church. Prior to this, 
however, after his father’s death in 1761, he had resided 
with his mother at Chelsea, where he had availed himself 
of the then famous botanical garden of the Apothecaries’ 
Company. He found himself unable to get any teaching in 
botany at Oxford, but obtaining leave, he proceeded to Cam- 
bridge and returned with Israel Lyons,’ the astronomer and 
botanist, under whom a class was formed. In December 
1763 he left Oxford with an honorary degree, and coming 
of age in the year following, found himself possessed of an 
ample fortune, which enabled him to devote himself entirely 
to the study of natural science. At this time also he 
formed a friendship with Lord Sandwich, a neighbouring 
landowner, both being devoted to hunting and other field 
sports. The two are credited with having formed a project 
1 Afterwards calculator for the Nautical Almanac, and, owing to the in- 
fluence of Banks, astronomer to Captain Phipps’ Polar Voyage in 1773. 
