Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1Darwin, Charles
History
Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1
Darwin, Charles
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence
He "kept" for a term or two in lodgings, over Bacon the tobacconist's;
not, however, over the shop in the Market Place, now so well known to
Cambridge men, but in Sidney Street. For the rest of his time he had
pleasant rooms on the south side of the first court of Christ's. (The
rooms are on the first floor, on the west side of the middle staircase.
A medallion (given by my brother) has recently been let into the wall of
the sitting-room.)
What determined the choice of this college for his brother Erasmus
and himself I have no means of knowing. Erasmus the elder, their
grandfather, had been at St. John's, and this college might have been
reasonably selected for them, being connected with Shrewsbury School.
But the life of an under-graduate at St. John's seems, in those days, to
have been a troubled one, if I may judge from the fact that a relative
of mine migrated thence to Christ's to escape the harassing discipline
of the place. A story told by Mr. Herbert illustrates the same state of
things:--
"In the beginning of the October Term of 1830, an incident occurred
which was attended with somewhat disagreeable, though ludicrous
consequences to myself. Darwin asked me to take a long walk with him in
the Fens, to search for some natural objects he was desirous of having.
After a very long, fatiguing day's work, we dined together, late in the
evening, at his rooms in Christ's College; and as soon as our dinner was
over we threw ourselves into easy chairs and fell sound asleep. I was
first to awake, about three in the morning, when, having looked at my
watch, and knowing the strict rule of St. John's, which required men in
statu pupillari to come into college before midnight, I rushed homeward
at the utmost speed, in fear of the consequences, but hoping that the
Dean would accept the excuse as sufficient when I told him the
real facts. He, however, was inexorable, and refused to receive my
explanations, or any evidence I could bring; and although during
my undergraduateship I had never been reported for coming late into
College, now, when I was a hard-working B.A., and had five or six
pupils, he sentenced me to confinement to the College walls for the
rest of the term. Darwin's indignation knew no bounds, and the stupid
injustice and tyranny of the Dean raised not only a perfect ferment
among my friends, but was the subject of expostulation from some of the
leading members of the University."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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