6 



BOYHOOD. 



[Chap. I. 



to rights the geological portion of the cabinet is at length com- 

 pleted ) and that the specimens, to the number of about 340, 

 have , been divided into 7 grand orders, and these again into 

 40 compartments, etc. . . . the whole has been ticketed." Two 

 years later, Mary seems to have suggested a partnership as 

 regarded shells ; but he cautiously remarks, " If we unite our 

 shells we cannot unite our tastes : this is the principal objec- 

 tion. You stick to Lamarck ; I like Sowerby. You like the 

 poor little things to quarrel about in pans • I like to prevent 

 all broils by a little gum. You do not like exchanges ; I do." 

 She liked to give to her friends, and was also willing to receive ; 

 but her spirit rebelled against barter ! His taste for shells was 

 also cultivated by his kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wright, then 

 of Dalston, who made him frequent presents of specimens and 

 money for his collection. Mrs. Wright also sent him beautiful 

 pen-and-ink drawings of remarkable shells, which he learnt to 

 copy. She preserved a number of his letters at this time, 

 which, with a half-playful recognition of his good and innocent 

 nature, she labelled " San Philippo." They abound in refer- 

 ences to shells : and two of them contain long and careful lists 

 of names, with their derivations. He told her that, in the 

 Easter holidays (1833), he went down for three or four hours 

 every day to help Mr. Stutchbury at the Institution, washing 

 the chitons, and then, after Mr. Stutchbury had sorted them 

 into species, putting them on the tablets. Mr. Stutchbury gave 

 his young friend a great deal of interesting information, and 

 let him look at the beautiful books belonging to the Institution. 



His two chief tastes through life were for shells and music. 

 To devotional music, especially, he was extremely sensitive, 

 and he afterwards played and sung with great feeling and expres- 

 sion. His sister Susan taught him to play on the piano, and 

 as he could not stretch his fingers sufficiently, she recom- 

 mended him to open them out when he had nothing else to do. 

 His class-fellows were surprised to find his fingers continually 

 at work, under his desk, when he was not using the pen, till 

 they learnt what he was doing with so much perseverance ! 

 Before 183 1, the only instrument in the " singing gallery" of 



