associated a good deal with Mr. Clift, the conservator of the museum of the College of Surgeons. I ought not to mention Mr. Clift's name without expressing not only how much I am indebted to him for the information which he afforded me on the subjects with which he was conversant, but also the great esteem which I have always had for his general character. His history, as I have heard it related by those who were acquainted with it, was nearly as follows: -Mr. Hunter was acquainted with Mrs. Gilbert, a lady of fortune in Cornwall. In conversation with her he observed that he had great difficulty in obtaining fit persons to assist him in making his anatomical museum, and that he believed that his best way would be himself to educate a lad especially for this purpose. Mrs. Gilbert said that she knew a very clever boy, who was accustomed to come into her kitchen in Cornwall and make drawings with chalk on the floor, who would, with proper instruction, become an excellent draughtsman, and who, from the ability which he displayed, would probably answer his purpose very well in other matters; and she

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offered to negotiate with the boy and his parents or him to come to London on trial. Mr. Hunter gladly availed himself of this offer, and the negotiation ended in Clift becoming an inmate in Hunter's house. I do not know the exact date, but I believe that this was not more than two or three years before Hunter's death. On the occurrence of this event, Hunter's executors (Dr. Baillie and Mr. Home) engaged Clift to take charge of the museum until they had found the means of disposing of it for the benefit of his family; and when it was purchased by Parliament, and consigned to the care of the College of Surgeons, the council of the college retained him for the same purpose, under the name of conservator, a situation which he retained during the remainder of his life.

Clift's early education had probably not extended beyond reading and writing, but he had a vast desire of acquiring knowledge; had read a great deal in an irregular manner; but his chief study was that of the museum in which he lived for many years; and with this he had a more intimate acquaintance than any other per

son after the death of the great philosopher by whom it was founded. He had great sagacity, great powers of observation, and great memory, but he wanted that method which a better early education would have afforded him; and his knowledge, though extensive, was of a very desultory kind. His devotion to the memory of Hunter, and his attachment to the museum, formed a remarkable feature of his character, at the same time that his simplicity of mind, his disinterestedness, and the kindness of his disposition, gained him the affection of all who knew him.

It was during the period of which I am now speaking, and not very long after I had ceased to be house surgeon, that Mr. Home introduced me to Sir Joseph Banks. Sir Joseph took much interest in any one who was in any way engaged in the pursuit of science, and as I suppose, partly from Home's recommendation, and partly from knowing that I was occupied with him in making dissections in comparative anatomy, was led to show me much kindness and attention, such as it was very agreeable for

so young a man to receive from so distinguished a person. He invited me to the meetings which were held in his library on the Sunday evenings which intervened between the meetings of the Royal Society. These meetings were of a very different kind from those larger assemblies which were held three or four times in the season by the Duke of Sussex, the Marquis of Northampton, and Lord Rosse, and they were much more useful. There was no crowding together of noblemen and philosophers and would-be philosophers, nor any kind of magnificent display. The visitors consisted of those who were already distinguished by their scientific reputation, of some younger men who, like myself, were following these greater persons at a humble distance, of a few individuals of high station who, though not working men themselves, were regarded by Sir Joseph as patrons of science, of such foreigners of distinction as during the war were to be found in London, and of very few besides. Everything was conducted in the plainest manner. Tea was handed round to the company, and there were no other refreshments.

But here were to be seen the elder Herschel, Davy, Wollaston, Young, Hatchett, Wilkins the Sanscrit scholar, Marsden, Major Rennell, Henry Cavendish, Home, Barrow, Maskelyne, Blagden, Abernethy, Carlisle, and others who have long since passed away, but whose reputation still remains, and gives a character to the in which they lived.

age

In the course of the first few years which elapsed after my introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, I derived so much advantage from the society which I met in his library, and occasionally at his dinner-table, that I feel it in some measure a duty not to omit some further notice of this eminent individual. I have been informed by those who might be supposed to be well acquainted with his history, that as a boy at Eton he was a very indifferent student of Greek and Latin, and that he was himself mortified to find how much less a proficient he was in the school cxercises than his fellow-pupils. But even at this early period he began the study of plants; examining the different parts of their structure, and laying the foundation of that extensive