Springtime and Other Essays

A Procession of Flowers231a

The following pages give the results of observations on the dates at which the commoner plants flowered at Brookthorpe, near Gloucester, as well as the dates of a few other facts, such as the days in which the songs of birds were first heard.

My observations began in April 1917, originating in the obvious lateness of some of the vegetation. The record extends from 1st April to 21st August, and contains only 160 observations, whereas in Blomefield’s Naturalist’s Calendar, 231b with which I have compared them, the number of recorded facts is much greater. I may express my indebtedness to the minutely accurate work of this author; I only wish that my small contribution to his subject were more worthy of my guide.

What interest my observations may possess depends on the fact that the spring of 1917 was exceptionally cold. For this statement I rely on the weekly Weather Report of the Meteorological Office, in which for each week of the year the deviation from the normal temperature is given for a large number of stations in the British Islands. 232 I have taken as a standard the temperature at Clifton, which seems to be the station nearest to Gloucester.

Now, though the temperature has undoubtedly a great effect on the time of flowering, it is by no means the only element in the problem. The first plant on my list is Ranunculus ficaria, which I noted as flowering on 1st April, whereas in Blomefield the mean of seventeen yearly observations is 28th February, the earliest date for this plant being 21st January, the latest 28th March. The extreme lateness of the Celandine was doubtless due to the cold spring of 1917. But what are the elements of the problem which fixed on this plant the general habit of flowering early in the year?

In some cases we can see the advantages in early flowering. Thus the average date on which the Hazel comes into bloom is 26th January, and this, for a plant of which the pollen is distributed by the wind, may be an advantage, since there are no leaves to obstruct the dispersal of the pollen grains.

It may be answered that those Conifers which do not shed their leaves in winter, e.g. the Yew or the Scotch Fir, are nevertheless wind-fertilised. But this, though a point not to be forgotten, is no argument against what has been said of the Hazel.

On the whole, however, we are excessively ignorant as to the biological meaning of the dates at which plants flower. What advantage does the orchis Spiranthes, well called autumnalis, gain from flowering in August or September? Or again, what biological characters are there to distinguish the plants flowering in June from those which do not show themselves till July? It looks, to put the thing fancifully, as if a parliament of plants had met and decided that some arrangement must be made since the world would be inconveniently full if they all flowered at once; or they may have believed that there were not enough insects to fertilise the whole Flora, if all their services were needed in one glorious month of crowded life. Therefore it was ruled that the months should be portioned among the aspirants, some choosing May, others June or July. But it must have been difficult to manage, and must have needed an accurate knowledge of their own natural history. I must apologise for this outbreak, and I will only add that this does seem to me an interesting problem, namely, what are the elements in the struggle for life which fix the dates on which plants habitually flower?

The most striking instance of the effect of the temperature is the behaviour of arctic plants. 233 In Nova Zembla the summer consists of two months, July and August, during which the mean temperature is about 5° C. In these conditions, cases such as the following occur: at Pitlekaj the last nine days of June showed a mean temperature of below 0° C., while the average for the first nine days of July was between +4° and +6°, and on 10th July all the four species of Willow were in full bloom, the dwarf Birch, Sedum palustre, Polygonum, Cassiope, and Diapensia were in flower, and within a week the whole vegetation was flowering. There was, in fact, a great rush or explosion of all sorts of flowers as soon as the temperature rose: not that dropping fire which begins with us with Mezereon in January and ends with Ivy in the autumn.

In the Arctic Regions temperature seems the absolute master, but in our climate this is clearly not so. The best evidence of an inherent tendency to flower on a certain date is that given by Askenasy 234 in his observations on Prunus avium (the Gean or wild Cherry). He recorded the weight of 100 buds at regular intervals throughout the year, and thus got the following results:—

	Grams.
1st July	1	Period I.
1st August	2
1st September	3
1st October	4
1st November	4	Period II.
1st December	4
1st January	4
1st February	4½	Period III.
1st March	6
2nd April	23
8th April	43

There are thus three periods: I., Formation; II., Rest; III., Development. So much for preliminaries; the really interesting point is the reaction of the buds to forcing by artificially raising the temperature. Thus branches put into a warm room at the end of October showed absolutely no tendency to develop. In December, however, they could be forced, and as time went on they proved to be more and more amenable to the effect of a rise in temperature. In other words, the invisible process of preparing for the spring was automatically proceeding. The following figures give the number of days of forcing needed at various dates to make cherry branches flower:—

14th December	27 days
10th January	18,,
2nd February	17,,
2nd March	12,,
11th March	10½,,
23rd March	8,,
3rd April	5,,

My object in discussing this case is to show that the effect of temperature on plant-development is not a simple problem. The most picturesque association with what is known as the science of Phænology (i.e. the lore of the appearance of flowers) is its practical connection with ancient agricultural maxims. Blomefield puts the thing very clearly 235: “The middle of March may be, in the long run, the most suitable time for sowing various kinds of grain,” but the husbandman may easily go wrong in this or other operations if he sticks to a fixed date. But if he knows that the conditions necessary for his purpose are also necessary for the flowering of some familiar herb, he will be safer in waiting for his guide to show itself than in going by dates. Wrongly or rightly, this assumption has been commonly followed.

Stillingfleet quotes from Aristophanes that “the crane points out the time of sowing” and the kite “when it is time to shear your sheep.” An old Swedish proverb tells us that “when you see the white wagtail you may turn your sheep into the fields; and when you see the wheatear you may sow your grain.” I have come across an English proverb: “When the sloe tree is as white as a sheet, you must sow your barley be it dry or wet.” Miss Jekyll in her book Old West Surrey, speaking of the wryneck, quotes: “When we hears that, we very soon thinks about rining (barking) the oaks.”

There is something delightfully picturesque in the thought of man thus helped and guided in some of his most vital operations by the proceedings of the world of plants and animals, to whom that hard task-master Natural Selection has taught so much.

I have gone through Blomefield’s Calendar, recording for each species the number of days between the earliest and latest known dates of flowering. Thus the Mezereon did not flower earlier than 11th January or later than 2nd February; this means that the date of flowering may, as far as we know, vary to the extent of twenty-three days.

If we look at the recorded dates for all flowers appearing in February, we find great irregularity. Thus Daphne laureola has a range of twenty-two days, whereas for Vinca minor the figure is 114. The average for February is 75.6, that for March is 55.6, for May 29.5, July 29.6. These figures suggest that the range of dates of flowering diminishes as the temperature becomes less variable. But the variation in summer temperature, though small relatively to the same factor in the cold months, may nevertheless be sufficient to affect the flowering habit. Yet there must be many factors in the problem of which we know nothing. It is a curious little fact that the summer range should be roughly one month.

Let us now consider my observations for 1917 as compared with Blomefield’s record of the mean date of flowering of the same species.

The most striking feature occurs at the beginning of April, when Blomefield’s observations are on the whole markedly earlier than my record of corresponding facts. Of those noted by me as flowering in April, one should have flowered in January, four in February, five in March, six considerably earlier in April, and two slightly earlier in that month.

In May Blomefield’s dates are still mainly earlier than mine, in spite of the fact that in this month the temperature was above the normal. In June, on the whole (though with much variability), his dates do not seriously differ from mine. In the first three weeks of June the temperature was above the normal. In July, except at the beginning and end of the month, my observations are clearly later in date than Blomefield’s, and during rather more than half of July the temperature was below the normal. On the whole, and in spite of many doubtful points, the difference between my results and Blomefield’s seems to me to be related to the curve of temperature, in an irregular manner it is true, but sufficiently to be worthy of record. It has been said 237 that Thoreau, the American recluse and naturalist, knew the look of the country-side so intimately that had he been miraculously transferred to an unknown time of year, he would have recognised the season “within a day or two from the flowers at his feet.” If this is true, either American plants are much more businesslike than ours (which is as it should be), or else Thoreau did not test his opinions too severely, and this seems even more probable.

Notes

* This column gives Blomefield’s mean dates.

+ S is the date on which the song was first heard.

Lis the date of leafing.

N that of nesting.

The other entries are the dates of flowering.

No.	Name	Fact observed	F. D.	Blomefield. *
1	Celandine (Ficaria)		April 1	Feb. 28
2	Blackbird	S+	,, 2	Feb. 10
3	Bramble	L	,, 2	Mar. 25
4	Daisy (Bellis)		,, 4	Jan. 29
5	Wild Rose	L	,, 6	Mar. 15
6	Wild Violet		,, 16	April 16
7	Lamium purpureum		,, 17	Feb. 19
8	Willow		,, 19	Mar. 19
9	Elder	L	,, 21	Feb. 13
10	Raspberry	L	,, 21	April 2
11	Hazel	L	,, 21	April 2
12	Caltha		,, 22	Mar. 5
13	Chiff-chaff	S	,, 22	Apr. 7
14	Humble Bee		,, 22	Mar. 17
15	Cuckoo	S	,, 23	Apr. 29
16	Dandelion		,, 26	Feb. 21
17	Martin	N	May 1	May 3
18	Lady’s Smock		,, 2	April 19
19	Nepeta glechoma		,, 2	Mar. 30
20	Blackthorn		,, 3	April 4
21	Ash		,, 3	April 11
22	Cowslip		,, 3	April 1
23	Beech	L	,, 4	April 25
23a	Pedicularis sylvatica		,, 6
24	Pear		,, 6	April 13
25	Sycamore		,, 6	April 29
26	Bugle (Ajuga)		May 7	May 3
27	Oak	L	,, 7	May 5
28	Lamium album		,, 10	Mar 13
29	Ranunculus auricomus		,, 10	April 21
30	Nightingale	S	,, 10	April 21
31	Arum		,, 10	May 1
32	Blue Bell (Scilla)		,, 11
32a	Stellaria holostea		,, 11
33	Lamium galeobdelon		,, 11	May 13
34	Plantago lanceolata		,, 12	April 27
35	Red Clover		,, 12	May 8
35a	Vicia sepium		,, 12
36	Myosotis arvensis		,, 12	May 18
37	Geranium robertianum		,, 12	May 7
38	Veronica chamædrys		,, 12	April 28
39	Ash	L	,, 13	May 3
40	Ranunculus bulbosus		,, 13	April 24
41	Alliaria		,, 14	April 22
42	Asperula odorata		,, 15	May 1
43	Ranunculus acris *		,, 16	May 2
44	Allium ursinum		,, 16
45	Orchis mascula		,, 16	May 26
46	Wistaria		,, 17
47	White Thorn		,, 18	May 7
48	Chærophyllum silvestre		,, 18	April 18
49	Alchemilla vulgaris		,, 21
50	Carex pendula		,, 22
51	Orchis morio		,, 23	May 12
52	Geum urbanum		,, 28	May 25
53	Rubus cæsius		,, 28	May 28
54	Sorrel		,, 29	May 27
55	Veronica beccabunga		,, 29	May 25
56	Dog Daisy		,, 30	May 25
57	Stachys sylvatica		,, 30	June 11
58	Rhinanthus cristagalli		May 31	May 30
59	Lychnis flos-cuculi		,, 31	May 19
60	Leontodon hispidus		,, 31
61	Ranunculus arvensis		June 3	May 30
62	Vicia sativa		,, 3	June 8
63	Snowberry		,, 4	June 2
64	Galium aparine		,, 4	May 29
66	Urtica dioica (male)		,, 5	June 6
67	Plantago media		,, 6	May 27
68	Cornus sanguinea		,, 6	June 9
69	Tamus communis		,, 6	June 7
70	Euonymus europæus		,, 6
71	Solanum dulcamara		,, 6	June 13
72	Scrophularia nodosa		,, 7
75	Polygonum bistorta		,, 8	May 25
76	Linum catharticum		,, 8	June 7
77	Lathyrus pratensis		,, 8	June 23
78	Poterium sanguisorba		,, 8	May 12
79	Bryonia dioica		,, 9	May 28
80	Garden Honeysuckle		,, 9
81	Dactylis glomerata		,, 10	June 7
82	Rumex obtusifolium		,, 10	June 23
83	Elder		,, 10	May 31
84	Horse Radish		,, 11
85	Wild Rose		,, 11	June 16
86	Quaking Grass		,, 11	June 15
87	Orchis maculata		May 11	June 6
88	Matricaria camomilla		,, 12	June 16
89	Helianthemum vulgare		,, 12	May 27
90	Wild Thyme		,, 12	June 9
91	Milkwort		,, 12	May 15
92	Linaria cymballaria		,, 12
93	Groundsel		,, 12
94	Epilobium montanum		,, 12	July 2
95	Tway Blade		June 12	May 17
96	Trifolium repens		,, 13	May 23
97	Carduus palustris		,, 14	June 21
98	Genista tinctoria		,, 14
99	Centaurea nigra		,, 17	June 20
100	Chrysanthemum præaltum		,, 17
101	Privet		,, 17	June 26
102	Meadow Sweet		,, 17	June 30
103	Potentilla reptans		,, 18	June 15
104	Œnanthe crocata		,, 18
105	Galium mollugo		,, 18	June 15
106	Convolvulus arvensis		,, 18	June 9
108	Lapsana communis		,, 18	June 23
109	Papaver rheas		,, 21	June 4
110	Centaurea scabiosa		,, 21	July 3
111	Orchis pyramidalis		,, 21	July 1
112	Malva moschata		,, 21
113	Galium verum		,, 21	July 5
114	Sow-thistle		,, 21	June 16
115	Blackberry		,, 22	June 30
116	Potentilla tormentilla		,, 25	May 16
117	Orchis latifolia		,, 25	May 31
118	Enchanter’s Nightshade		,, 26	June 24
119	Cirsium arvense		,, 27	July 6
120	Agrimonia eupatoria		,, 27	July 1
121	Convolvulus sepium		,, 27	July 8
122	Hypericum hirsutum		,, 27	June 28
123	Ononis arvensis		July 1	July 2
124	Scabiosa arvensis		,, 1
125	Lime Tree		,, 2	July 2
126	Onobrychis sativa		,, 3	June 8
127	Lysimachia nummularia		,, 5	July 5
128	Campanula rotundifolia		,, 6	July 1
129	Calamintha clinopodium		,, 6	July 12
130	Verbascum nigrum		July 7	July 4
131	Achillea millefolium		,, 7	June 29
132	Scabiosa columbaria		,, 7	June 20
133	Carduus acaulis		,, 7	July 6
134	Wild Parsnip		,, 7	June 16
135	Clematis vitalba		,, 10	July 14
136	Bee Orchis		,, 11	June 19
137	Anthyllis vulneraria		,, 11	June 14
138	Stachys betonica		,, 11
139	Wild Carrot		,, 11	June 20
140	Sedum album		,, 11
141	Senecio jacobæa		,, 11	July 2
142	Parietaria officinalis		,, 12	June 19
143	Plantago major		,, 13	June 28
145	Campanula trachelium		,, 17	July 12
146	Origanum vulgare		,, 17	July 8
147	Bartsia odontites		,, 17	July 20
148	Æthusa cynapium		,, 17	July 20
149	Helosciadium nodiflorum		,, 18	July 16
150	Burdock		,, 19	July 22
151	Verbena officinalis		,, 25	July 12
152	Reseda luteola		,, 27	June 13
153	Inula dysenterica		,, 29	July 24
154	Centranthus ruber		,, 29	June 5
157	Euphrasia officinalis		Aug. 3
158	Inula conyza		,, 3
159	Mentha aquatica		,, 8
160	Habenaria viridis		,, 11
161	Gentiana amarella		,, 17	Aug. 31

Notes1

From the Cornhill Magazine, March 1919.

2 The large-leaved lime is described by Hooker as being a doubtful “denizen.”

3 A Naturalist’s Calendar, by Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Cambridge University Press. Edited by Francis Darwin, 1903.

4a Calendar, p. 3, note b.

4b The Student’s Flora of the British Islands, 3rd ed., 1884, p. 191.

5 I was led to examine them by a writer in The Times (6th February 1918), who describes the buds as being as blue “as wood-smoke from cottage chimneys.”

6 Ludwig has seen creatures, which run on the surface of the water, carry away duckweed pollen. These fertilisers belong to the families Hydrometridæ, Corisidæ, and Naucoridæ.

7 This, and part of what follows, is from unpublished notes of lectures given at Cambridge.

11 The present discussion is partly taken from my introduction to Blomefield’s Naturalist’s Calendar, 1903.

12a Observations in Natural History, p. 334.

12b Earliest date noted, 21st April; latest, 8th May.

12c Earliest date, 21st March; latest, 7th May (fifteen years’ observation).

12d Quoted in Prior’s Popular Names of British Plants, 3rd ed., 1879, p. 59.

15 Reprinted from the Cornhill Magazine, June 1919.

16 Though, I confess, I only guess at some of them.

17a Fogle means a silk handkerchief, according to Farmer and Henley’s Dictionary of Slang, 1905, and may perhaps suggest the picking of pockets. Its connection with Bandanna is obvious.

17b The appropriateness of Burke is sufficiently obvious. The trial of Thurtell by Judge Park was also a cause celèbre. There was a ballad of the day in which the victim is described with some bloodthirsty detail which I omit:
“His name was Mr William Weare,
He lived in Lyons Inn.”

After the murder Thurtell drove back to London and had a hearty supper at an eating-house. Judge Park, who tried him, is said to have exclaimed: “Commit a murder and eat six pork chops! Good God, what dreams the man must have had.” Catherine Hayes was also a well-known miscreant.

18 A collocation preceding by half a dozen years Doyle’s immortal travels of Brown, Jones, and Robinson.

19 There is also a Mrs Glowry (chap. xxvi.), who speculates as to whether the Pope is to fall in 1836 or 1839.

20 The History of Pickwick, 1891, pp. 14, 15.

21 The History of Pickwick, 1891, p. 153.

23 How much better is the name Madge Wildfire for a somewhat similar character in The Heart of Midlothian.

25 The name of the ducal seat Gatherum Castle is utterly bad.

26 Here referred to by his Christian name only. I think it was this eminent M.D. who was called in when Bishop Grantley was dying.

29a In two volumes: Oxford, 1857.

29b The book, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, was edited by Warton and Huddesford.

30a “Even when a Boy, he [T. H.] was observed to be continually poring over the Old Tomb-Stones in his own Church-yard, as soon almost as he was Master of the Alphabet.”

30b The following description is taken from Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, vol. ii., p. 904. Hearne wrote:—

5th Feb. 1729.—“My best friend, Mr Francis Cherry, was a very handsome man, particularly when young. His hands were delicately white. He was a man of great parts, and one of the finest gentlemen in England. K. James II., seeing him on horseback in Windsor forest, when his majesty was hunting, asked who it was, and... said he never saw any one sit a horse better in his life.

“Mr Cherry was educated at the free school at Bray.... He was gentleman commoner at Edem-hall anno 1682.... The hall was then very full, particularly there were then a great many gentlemen commoners there.”

30c To this school he went daily on foot, three miles there and three back.

39 The close of the parenthesis is wanting in the original.

41 10th Feb. 1721–2.—“Whereas the university deputations on Ash Wednesday should begin exactly at one o’clock, they did not begin this year till two or after, which is owing to several colleges having altered their hour of dining from eleven to twelve, occasioned from people’s lying in bed longer than they used to do.”

46a The word heartick does not occur in the New Oxford Dictionary.

46b Of Lord Baltimore’s family.

56a Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, i., p. 138.

56b As described in Rustic Sounds, p. 2.

60 Pickwick, chap. xliv.

62 The “scorers were prepared to notch the runs” (Pickwick, chap. vii.).

63 He was afterwards Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford: he died in 1893.

67 Rustic Sounds, p. 92.

68a During my life in London as a medical student I had the happiness of living with my uncle, Erasmus Darwin, one beloved under the name of Uncle Ras by all his nephews and nieces.

68b In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species.

71 Old English Instruments of Music, by Francis W. Galpin, 1910.

72 Modern harps, however, have pedals for raising the natural note of any string by a semi-tone.

73a It has also a greater compass than the rote.

73b In obedience to good authority I have here adopted the spelling Clairsech instead of Clarsech. I presume that the spelling Clarsy (p. 74) is intentionally phonetic.

74a We imagine the gittern to be laid flat on a table with strings uppermost.

74b Galpin, p. 21.

77a In Mr Dolmetsch’s The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIlth and XVIIIth Centuries (N.D.), the author also points out, p. 446, that the frets of the viol give to the stopped notes the “clear ring” of the open strings. He claims also that in the viol “the manner of holding the bow and ordering its strokes... prevents the strong accents characteristic” of the violin, and facilitates “an even and sustained tone.”

He recommends (p. 452) that frets should be added to the Double Bass, which would “give clearness to many rapid passages which at present only make a rumbling noise.”

77b On Mace’s title-page he describes himself as “one of the Clerks of Trinity Colledge in the University of Cambridge.”

85 See my book, Rustic Sounds, 1917, where the pipe and tabor are more fully treated.

87 A curious rustic shawm which survived in Oxfordshire until modern times is the Whithorn or May Horn. It was made by a strip of bark twisted into a conical tube fixed together with hawthorn prickles and sounded by a reed made of the green bark of the young willow. The instruments were made every year for the Whit Monday hunt which took place in the forest.

88 They were also known as wayte pipes, after the watchmen (waytes) who played on them.

89a It is believed to have given its name to the well-known dance.

89b Galpin, p. 172.

90 A straight horn, however, existed.

91 So spelled, in order to distinguish it from the cornet à piston, once so popular.

92 Mr Dolmetsch, op. cit., p. 459, says that the serpent “was still common in French churches about the middle of the nineteenth century; and although, as a rule, the players had no great skill, those who have heard its tone combined with deep men’s voices in plain-song melodies, know that no other wind or string instrument has efficiently replaced it.”

94a No specimen of the true portative is known to be in existence (Galpin, p. 228).

94b Rustic Sounds, p. 197.

96a Page 244.

96b Page 249.

96c The old name for the kettle-drum was nakers, a word of Arabic or Saracenic origin.

96d The larger of the kettle-drums has a range of five notes from the bass F, immediately below the line. The smaller drum’s range (also of five notes) is from the B flat, just below the highest note of the bigger drum (p. 253).

97 The earliest use of the name kettle-drum is in 1551 (Galpin, p. 251).

100a The name, however, is apparently not as old as the ceremonies. It is said by Britten and Holland (Dictionary of Plant-names) to have been invented by Gerard (1597).

100b Prior, The Popular Names of British Plants, ed. iii., 1879, p. 89.

100c Blomefield (formerly Jenyns) was a contemporary of my father’s at Cambridge, and was remarkable for wide knowledge, and especially for the minute accuracy of his work. He kept for many years a diary of the dates of flowering of plants and of other phenomena, which the Cambridge University Press republished in 1903 as A Naturalist’s Calendar.

106 Guy Mannering, vol. ii., ch. xxiv.

107 Britten and Holland.

114 Bentham, Illustrations of the British Flora, 5th ed., 1901, p. 68.

115a Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, O.M., G.C.S.I., by Leonard Huxley, 2 vols. John Murray, 1918.

115b The only obvious exception seems to be that too much space has been given to Sir Joseph’s letters to Mr La Touche, inasmuch as they are not especially interesting. It is not clear why Sir Joseph corresponded so much with Mr La Touche. Can it be that he wished to placate him as being his son’s schoolmaster?

116 i., p. 5.

122a Hooker’s son Brian was named after him.

122b Hooker’s Himalayan Journals was published in 1854, and dedicated to Charles Darwin by “his affectionate friend.”

123 As a further instance of the treatment Hooker received from the Indian authorities, I cannot resist quoting from vol. ii., p. 145: “The Court of Directors snubbed him before he set out, refusing him assistance and official letters of introduction to India, and even a passage out.... It was Hooker who surveyed and mapped the whole province of Sikkim, and opened up the resources of Darjiling at the cost of captivity... and the consequent loss of all his instruments and part of his notes and collections. Yet the India Board actually sold on Government behalf the presents the Rajah made him after his release,” though they owed to his energy the Government sites of the tea and cinchona cultivation.

124 “On the Reception of the Origin of Species,” Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ii., p. 197.

125 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ii., p. 241.

127a More Letters, i., p. 117.

127b Life of Hooker, i., p. 536.

128a And finally, after Hooker’s retirement, Director.

128b ii., p. 139.

128c ii., p. 142.

131 In 1882 Hooker had written to Darwin:—“The First Commissioner (one of your d—d liberals) wrote a characteristically illiberal and ill-bred minute... in effect warning me against your putting the Board to any expense!... I flared up at this, and told the Secretary... that the F. C., rather than send me such a minute, should have written a letter of thanks to you.”

133 That is to say, to a great-grandson of Josiah Wedgwood.

137a The History of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, by Norman Moore, M.D., London. C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, 1918.

137b Sir Norman Moore expresses his thanks to Mr Thomas Hayes, the present Clerk of the Hospital, for his courtesy on innumerable occasions during the progress of the author’s researches.

141 It is curious that, although the Christian names of men occurring in the history are quite ordinary, the women’s names are often unfamiliar, e.g., Godena, Sabelina, Hawisia, Lecia, Auina, Hersent, Wakerilda.

142 Doubtless Dr Moore himself.

144 William may have come from the village of Bassingbourne, near Cambridge.

145 See Henry IV., Part ii., Act v., Scene v.

150 In 1561 a new seal was made which is still in use.

154 Here and elsewhere I have fallen a victim to Dr Moore’s pleasant gift of narrative, for I cannot pretend that either Paulus Jovius or Robert Browning are connected with the hospital.

161 Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy, edited by Wilfrid Airy. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1896.

164 My uncle, Henry Wedgwood, as an undergraduate at Jesus, made a happy use of Peacock’s name:—
“Walk in and see
Our menagerie,
For amateurs a feast,
Where Dawes and Peacock
Are our birds
And... is our beast.”

I have forgotten the name of the beast, but he was an unpopular fellow of Jesus.

166 I am surprised that so large a sum was charged in those days; in my time the coach received £8.

175a A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady Holland. With a selection from his letters, edited by Mrs Austin. 2nd Edit., 1855.

175b Her maiden name was Pybus; they were married in 1799 or 1800.

175c Sydney Smith believed (i., p. 403) that “one of the Duke of Wellington’s earliest victories was at Eton, over” Sydney’s “eldest brother Bobus.”

176a The remark was allowable since Robert was singularly handsome (i., p. 4).

176b I gather that the fellowship was but £100 per annum.

177a Francis Jeffrey, afterwards Lord Jeffrey, 1773–1850, was the son of a high Tory, but personally a Liberal. He is described as being healthy though diminutive. Sydney Smith makes jokes about his stature: e.g., 3rd September 1809, “Are we to see you? (a difficult thing at all times to do).” In character he is described as “nervous, sensitive, and tender.” Sydney wrote to him in 1806:—If “you could be alarmed into the semblance of modesty you would charm everybody; but remember my joke against you about the moon;—‘D—n the solar system! bad light—planets too distant—pestered with comets—feeble contrivance;—could make a better with great ease.’”

177b Horner, Francis (1778–1817), called to the Bar in 1807, and was through the influence of Lord Carrington returned for the borough of Wendover. He was a man of sound judgment and unassuming manners, of scrupulous integrity, and great amiability of character. He was a correct and forcible speaker, and though without the gift of humour, exercised a remarkable influence in the House of Commons, owing to his personal character. He was one of the original founders of the Edinburgh Review, the other two being Jeffrey and Sydney Smith.

178a The closely allied name, Sabelina, occurs in Sir N. Moore’s History of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, vol. i., p. 64.

178b It was said (i., p. 138) that the King, who had been reading Sydney’s Edinburgh Review articles, remarked that he was a very clever fellow but would never be a bishop.

183 It appears (i., p. 282) that he felt deeply the fact that he had not been offered a Bishopric, though he had made up his mind to refuse it. Lord Melbourne is said to have much regretted not having made a bishop of Sydney.

185 Sydney wrote of Macaulay: “I always prophesied his greatness from the first moment I saw him, then a very young and unknown man, on the Northern Circuit.” His enemies might say he talked rather too much, “but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful” (i., p. 415).

186 The wife of Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (1773–1840), only son of Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland by Lady Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the Earl of Upper Ossory. He was a consistent Liberal in politics, and supported all measures against the slave trade and was in favour of emancipation, and this in spite of being the owner of “extensive plantations in Jamaica.” After his death the following verse in his handwriting was found on his dressing-table:—
“Nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey,
   Enough my mead of fame
If those who deign’d to observe me say
   I injured neither name.”

In the version quoted by Sydney Smith (Memoir and Letters, vol. ii., p. 457) the last line is “I tarnished neither name”; the punctuation is slightly different from the above, which is taken from the Dict. of Nat. Biog.

199 My authorities are:—The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, 2 vols., 1882; The Life of Charles Dickens, by John Forster, 8th Edit., 1872; My Father as I recall him, by Mamie Dickens, Roxburghe Press, N.D. The authoress says that “it is twenty-six years since my father died”; this would make the date of her book 1896.

200a His son.

200b M. Dickens, p. 26.

201 Forster, i., p. 4.

202a Forster, i., p. 9.

202b In writing to Walter Savage Landor (Letters, ii., p. 48), 1856, he asks (in reference to Robinson Crusoe) if it is not a testimony to the homely force of truth that—“One of the most popular books on earth has nothing in it to make anyone laugh or cry. Yet I think, with some confidence, that you never did either over any passage in Robinson Crusoe. In particular, I took Friday’s death as one of the least tender and (in the true sense) least sentimental things ever written....” He goes on:—“It is a book I read very much; and the wonder of its prodigious effect on me and everyone, and the admiration thereof, grows on me the more I observe this curious fact.”

203 Was it chance or intention that gave his hero the initials D.C., an inversion of C.D.?

205 Pickwick, chap. ix.

206 A corruption of Moses in the Vicar of Wakefield.

208 His sense of the reality of his characters is shown by his daughter’s recollection of her father pointing out the exact spot where Mr Winkle called out, “Whoa! I have dropped my whip.”

209 William Charles Macready, 1793–1873, the son of William Macready, actor and manager, was born in London; his mother was an actress.

In 1803 he went to Rugby, the idea being that he should go to the Bar. In 1810 Macready made his first appearance on the stage, taking the part of Romeo with considerable success. Mrs Siddons, with whom he acted, encouraged him—telling him to “study, study, study, and do not marry till you are thirty.” During the four years he remained with his father he played seventy-four parts. He seems to have failed to agree with his father, and took an engagement at Bath in 1814. In 1816 he made his first appearance at Covent Garden. Kean was in the audience and applauded loudly. His Richard III. (in London 1819) took a firm hold of the public and established “a dangerous rivalry for Kean.” His temper seems to have been violent, for in 1836 he knocked down Bunn as “a damned scoundrel” and had to pay damages. In 1837 he was manager of Covent Garden Theatre. He was the original Claude Melnotte in 1838.

In 1850 he played at Windsor Castle under Charles Kean, who “sent him a courteous message and received a characteristically churlish reply.” He took the last of many farewell performances in 1851. His diary and reminiscences have been edited by Sir F. Pollock.

216 In 1858 he wrote to a friend asking him to convey a note of thanks “to the author of Scenes of Clerical Life whose two first stories I can never say enough of, I think them so truly admirable.” He adds that they are undoubtedly by a woman.

219 Lady Holland.

221 Mr Arthur Smith, his friend and secretary.

228 It was curious that he should use so provincial an expression as riding in a cab.

231a Originally published in the proceedings of the Cotteswold Nat. Field Club, 1918, under the title, “The Effects of the Cold Spring of 1917 on the Flowering of Plants.”

231b A Naturalist’s Calendar kept at Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire. By Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Edited by Francis Darwin. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1903.

232 I am also indebted to Mr Embrey for his kind help in this matter.

233 Kjellman, in Nordenskiold’s Studien und Forschungen, 1885, pp. 449, 467.

234 Botan: Zeitung, 1877.

235 A Naturalist’s Calendar, p. xii.

237 The Times Literary Supplement, 12th January 1917, p. 326.