Charles Darwin; his life and work / by Charles Frederick Holder.

  • Charles Frederick Holder
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Charles Darwin; his life and work / by Charles Frederick Holder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/370 (page 15)
    Darwin was an indefatigable collector, and having an ample allowance was enabled to give full bent to his tastes and inclinations. He collected in a most systematic manner, following methods of his own devising. He employed a workman, who spent his time during the winter in scraping the decayed moss from trees and in collecting suitable material from various sources, all of which was placed in a bag and brought to the young naturalist, who in this way found many rare and choice specimens. Of the delights of this study Darwin was fond of talking, and in his Autobiography he wrote : No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem published than I did at seeing, in Stephen's ' Illus- trations of British Insects,' the magic words,' captured by C. Darwin, Esq.' Our hero had as a companion during his college days a cousin, W. D. Fox, a Christ's-College man, who encouraged him in his studies and introduced him to a number of well-known naturalists. Here he met Albert Way of Trinity, who in after years be- came a distinguished archaeologist. He was intimate with Whitley, Senior Wrangler, afterwards Hon. Canon of Durham, who, being a man of refined and cultivated tastes, influenced the young man for the best and inculcated in him a love for the beautiful in art, as well as nature. Whitley became his guide and censor to a certain extent, and trips were made together to the various art galleries, where Darwin, through observation and talks with his friend and the curator, acquired a good knowledge of the standard and various schools of art. This taste, he tells us, was not a natural one, and was perhaps in