In speaking of his public readings he refers to wearing a flower given him. This doubtless explains why, when he read at Cambridge, he wore first a red rose and then a white one in his buttonhole, which to my undergraduate mind seemed “dandiacal.” Of this occasion he wrote: “The reception at Cambridge last night was something to be proud of in such a place. The colleges mustered in full force from the biggest guns to the smallest, and went far beyond even Manchester in the roars of welcome and the rounds of cheers. . . . The place was crammed, and the success the most brilliant I have ever seen” (ii., p. 284).
In 1867 we again come across a reference to the exhaustion caused by his public readings. “On Friday night I quite astonished myself; but I was taken so faint afterwards that they laid me on a sofa at the hall for half an hour.”
In spite of protestations he went to America, and in regard to his visit he wrote in 1867: “I do not expect as much money as the calculators estimate, but I cannot set the hope of a large sum of money aside.”
And from Boston he wrote to his daughter: “At the New York barriers, where the tickets are on sale, . . . speculators went up and down offering twenty dollars for anybody’s place. The money was in no case accepted” (ii., p. 310).
And again: “At nine o’clock this morning there were two thousand people in waiting, and they had begun to assemble in the bitter cold as early as two o’clock” (ii., p. 311).
And to Miss Hogarth, 16th December 1867, N.Y.:—“Dolby continues to be the most unpopular man in America (mainly because he can’t get four thousand people into a room that holds two thousand), and is reviled in print daily.”
Dickens returned from America in April 1868, but soon made another visit. He wrote to Wilkie Collins from Boston:—“Being in Boston . . . I took it into my head to go over the medical school, and survey the holes and corners in which that extraordinary murder was done by Webster” (12th Jan. 1868).
This must be the man who (as I was told in the U.S.) said to his daughters, “What should you sayif I were the murderer?” They were looking at the notice of a reward for the detection of the murderer. I think the body was burnt by Webster in his laboratory.
In regard to his readings, he wrote: “It was but this last year that I set to and learned every word of my readings; and from ten years ago to last night, I have never read to an audience but I have watched for an opportunity of striking out something better somewhere” (11th Feb. 1868).
He was evidently overstrained and was only kept going by stimulants. He wrote to Miss Dickens (29th March 1868): “I have coughed from two or three in the morning until five or six, and have been absolutely sleepless. I have had no appetite besides, and no taste.”
And again, to the same correspondent, he writes that he has established this system:—“At seven in the morning (in bed) a tumbler of new cream and two tablespoonfuls of rum. At twelve, a sherry cobbler and a biscuit. At three (dinner-time) a pint of champagne. At five minutes to eight, an egg beaten up in a glass of sherry. Between the parts, the strongest beef-tea that can be made, drunk hot. At quarter past ten, soup, and anything to drink that I can fancy. . . . Dolby is as tender as a woman and as watchful as a doctor” (2nd April 1868).
On the return voyage he was asked to read, and “I respectfully replied that sooner than do it, I would assault the captain, and be put in irons.”
When he arrived at home the two Newfoundland dogs behaved exactly as usual: this may remind usof another C.D. My father used to tell us how, after his five years’ voyage in theBeagle, he went into the yard at his Shrewsbury home and whistled in a particular way, and the dog came for a walk as if he had done the same thing the day before. Two of Dickens’ dogs were, however, greatly excited: the faithful Mrs Bouncer being one of them.
A letter to Cerjat (1868) gives an echo from the great railway accident in which Dickens had so lucky an escape:—
“My escape in the Staplehurst accident of three years ago is not to be obliterated from my nervous system. To this hour I have sudden vague rushes of terror, even when riding[228]in a hansom cab, which are perfectly unreasonable but quite insurmountable. I used to make nothing of driving a pair of horses habitually through the most crowded parts of London. I cannot now drive, with comfort myself, on the country roads here; and I doubt if I could ride at all in the saddle.”
In 1866 he consulted Dr Beard about symptoms of grave significance. And in 1869 Beard went down to Preston and put a stop to a projected reading, and ruled, with the approval of Sir Thomas Watson, that anything like a reading tour must be finally stopped.
In January and March 1870, he was working atEdwin Drood, his unfinished book. He gave some farewell readings, and his last public appearance was at the Royal Academy dinner, where he spoke of Maclise.
His daughter has given a touching account of his death. He was at Gad’s Hill on 30th May 1870 at work overEdwin Drood, but there was “an appearance of fatigue and weariness about him very unlike his usual air of fresh activity.”
On 8th June 1870 he owned to being very ill. He became incoherent, and being advised to lie down, he said indistinctly, “Yes, on the ground,” and these were his last words. In the evening of 9th June, he shuddered, gave one sigh, a tear rolled down his face, and he died.
Dickens had wished to be buried in the little churchyard of Shorne in Kent; but the authorities of Rochester Cathedral asked that he might be buried there. Finally, Dean Stanley intervened and he was buried on 14th June in Westminster Abbey. His daughter says that every year on the ninth of June flowers are strewn by “unknown hands on that spot so sacred to us, and to all who knew and loved him.”
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’sNaturalist’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 numberof 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 isRanunculus 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 orchisSpiranthes, well calledautumnalis, gain from flowering in August or September? Or again, whatbiological 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 rushor 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 onPrunus 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 offorcing 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, youmust sow your barley be it dry or wet.” Miss Jekyll in her bookOld 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’sCalendar, 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. ThusDaphne laureolahas a range of twenty-two days, whereas forVinca minorthe 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’smeandates.
+ S is the date on which the song was first heard.
L is 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
[1]From theCornhill 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 inThe 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’sNaturalist’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’sPopular Names of British Plants, 3rd ed., 1879, p. 59.
[15]Reprinted from theCornhill 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’sDictionary 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 acause 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.”
“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 inThe 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 theDictionary 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 fromReliquiæ 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.”
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.
[31]Transcriber’s note: reproduced as printed.
[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 wordheartickdoes 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 inRustic 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 ofUncle Rasby all his nephews and nieces.
[68b]In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of theOrigin 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 spellingClarsy(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’sThe Interpretation of the Music of the XVIlth and XVIIIth Centuries(N.D.), the author also points out, p. 446, that thefretsof 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 wasnakers, 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 asA 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’sHimalayan Journalswas 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]TheHistory 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]SeeHenry IV., Part ii., Act v., Scene v.