The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh.

  • Rayleigh, John William Strutt, Baron, 1842-1919
Date:
1932
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    drons at Beaufront Castle, near Hexham, but J.J. during several days visit there did not take any notice of them, or apparently even discover that a common interest existed. In his own home he has been heard to abuse a large rose in a vase on the dinner table, sayiftg it was ‘blowsy’ and that there was nothing to com¬ pare with the English wild rose. Good colour was the thing that appealed to him most of all in flowers, and he seemed to have a real affection for little plants. He was just as fond of wild flowers as of garden ones. His great holiday interest was to look for the characteristic wild flowers of wnatever place he happened to be in. Regularly every year he went to Hunstanton for a few days’ holiday at the end of June. He liked the place, which suited his health; he played golf there, and after he had given that up, he still went and looked for the wild flowers to be found on the links. He was chairman of the Wicken Fen Committee of the National Trust, formed to deal with a bequest of Charles Rothschild, a son of the first Lord Rothschild, who was a Trinity man and an enthusiastic naturalist. The testator’s object was to preserve this piece of unspoilt nature for the nation. J.J. thoroughly enjoyed the annual excursion to the Fen, and used to talk of it with interest and pleasure. One of the subjects- which he emphasised when addressing young people at prize givings and the like was the pleasure to be got from scenery, even when it is nothing out of the common. The best things, he said, were not as a rule those chosen for picture postcards. Boys should learn to appreciate for example the beauty of a field of corn swayed by the wind, and they might gain much happiness from such things. He liked to go every year to see the Anemone pulsatilla in one of the two places near Cambridge where it is found. He never grudged time or trouble in looking up the names of wild flowers, which he did not already know, whether found by himself or other people. From Sir W.B. Hardy: 5 Grange Road, Cambridge. 17. vil. 1928. In or about a pond on Quy Fen, last Sunday, 1. Common Bladderwort in full flower.