COLLEGE APPOINTMENT. 159 



To N. B. Ward, Esq. 



Trinity College, Dublin. 



January 15, 184S. 



I had hoped to be on my way to London to-day, but have 

 remained here to canvass for the Professorship of Botany to the 

 Royal Dublin Society, the obtaining of which would connect me 

 with the beautiful garden at Glasnevin. I never entered on a 

 personal canvass before, and am heartily sick of it. At first I 

 rather felt amused, seeing a number of different characters, and 

 being treated like a gentleman in one house, like a troublesome 

 fellow in another, and like a needy beggar in a third. Nine- 

 tenths of the persons called upon were ignorant of my having 

 any claims to support, and some of them favoured me with 

 lectures on what a botanist ought to know ; others told me they 

 would vote for their friend, who, they supposed, was as good as 

 another, and very many had given pledges to vote for a candidate 

 wholly unknown to them, " to oblige a friend." Now and then 

 I met a refreshing man who talked rationally on the matter, and 

 though he did not promise his vote, said he would give it on 

 the day of election to the candidate who appeared most eligible. 

 Such men I ahvays left with pleasure, as vanity whispered that 

 I should bag them in the end. I have met with great kindness 

 from several who are strangers personally, but who are guided 

 by what they know of me as a botanist. Some of these have 

 greatly assisted me in canvassing, and thus I trust the foundations 

 of friendship are laid between us, unless my failing as a lecturer 

 should disappoint them. 



The account of your Scotch tour interested, me much. It 

 must have vastly added to the pleasure of going through such a 

 country to have for a companion one who saw with a painter's 

 eye and a poet's mind. I should have been glad had it suited 

 me to have gone with you. 



January 21th. Happy to say I have just been elected Professor 

 to the Royal Dublin Society, by a large majority. I must 

 now try not to disappoint the favourable impression spread 

 abroad, for I have been returned by three-fourths, personally 

 strangers. It was a scene of great excitement — 500 present. 



Yours ever, 



W. H. — Glasnevin. 



