COLLEGE APPOINTMENT. 145 



Green, with plenty of accommodation for lodgers, and indeed at 

 one time she was in the habit of taking in boarders (very re- 

 spectable young men, attendants on College), in which line she 

 has made some money, though her principal income is now 

 derived from estates in various parts of Ireland, which she has 

 come into by inheritance. They were granted, I hear, in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, being indeed old church property. 

 Her name is . But that would be telling. 



To the Sa me. 



December 11, 1843. 

 So you were faii'ly quizzed — well 'twas not kind, but let 

 that pass. A number of contradictory reports are afloat about 

 the lady in Dublin, and as yet I am uncertain what is to be my 

 fate. If it were to depend on all the good wishes and flatter- 

 ing certificates I have got from my English friends, among the 

 highly learned of the day, we might hope it would go well, but 

 as it doth not, and these are only pieces of paper in the eyes of 

 the Dubliners, we are yet in doubt. After all, it is only an old 

 bachelor's place — merely monastic, but into such a one I am 

 ready to fall. 



To J. Fennett, Esq. 



December 14. 

 I have been canvassing for a post which is vacant in Trinity 

 College, Dublin, namely, Professor of Botany and Curator of the 

 Herbarium, a combined office, to which a moderate salary and 

 comfortable College-rooms are attached. It is an old bachelor 

 place, and would in many ways suit me very well. The only 

 thing on the face of it disagreeable is the lecturing, but I don't 

 think I should mind that much, as it is lawful to have the 

 subjects for the class written down, and the pointing at diagrams 

 and exhibiting specimens, with which lecturers vary their talk, 

 would take away from the continuity of speaking, which might 

 otherwise be unpleasant. The election takes place 26th of 

 March. I have been beating about among my friends for testi- 

 monials, and have got a great many, some of them so ridiculously 

 flattering that I don't know myself by the description, which 

 reminds me of the difficulty of finding out some plants by their 



