Birth and family of Sir H. Davy.--Davy placed at a preparatory school.--His peculiarities when a boy.--Anecdotes.--He is admitted into the grammar-school at Penzance.--Finishes his education under Dr. Cardew at Truro.--Death of his father.--He is apprenticed by his mother to Mr. John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon and apothecary.--He enters upon the study of Chemistry, and devotes more time to Philosophy than to Physic.--The influence of early impressions illustrated.--His poetical talent.--Specimens of his versification.--An Epic Poem composed by him at the age of twelve years.--His first original experiment in chemistry.--He conceives a new theory of heat and light.--His ingenious experiment to demonstrate its truth.--He becomes known to Mr. Davies Gilbert, the founder of his future fortunes.--Mr. Gregory Watt arrives at Penzance, and lodges in the house of Mrs. Davy.--The visit of Dr. Beddoes and Professor Hailstone to Cornwall.--The correspondence between Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Davies Gilbert, relative to the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, and the proposed appointment of Davy.--His final departure from his native town. Humphry Davy was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December 1778.[1] His ancestors had long possessed a small estate at Varfell, in the parish of Ludgvan, in the Mount's Bay, on which they resided: this appears from tablets in the church, one of which bears a date as far back as 1635. We are, however, unable to ascend higher in the pedigree than to his paternal grandfather, who seems to have been a builder of considerable repute in the west of Cornwall, and is said to have planned and erected the mansion of _Trelissick_, near Truro, at present the property and residence of Thomas Daniel, Esq. [1] I have been favoured by the Rev. C. Val. Le Grice, of Trereiffe, with the following extract from the Parish Register, kept at Madron:--"Humphry Davy, son of Robert Davy, baptized at Penzance, January 22, 1779." The house in which he was born has been pulled down and lately rebuilt. His son, the parent of the illustrious subject of our history, was sent to London, and apprenticed to a carver in wood, but, on the death of his father, who, although originally a younger son, had latterly become the representative of the family, he found himself in the possession of a patrimony amply competent for the supply of his limited desires, and therefore pursued his art rather as an object of amusement than one of necessity: in the town and neighbourhood of Penzance, however, there remain many specimens of his skill; and I have myself seen several chimney-pieces curiously embellished by his chisel.[2]