[101] He was one of five children, two of whom were boys and three
girls.
[102] The Scilly Isles.
[103] Presented to the Royal Society by Lady Davy, after her husband's
decease. This picture had a narrow escape from being lost; it was,
however, discovered by Mr. Davies Gilbert in the garret of a man named
Newton, who was to have engraved it, and was rescued at the cost of
£10, paid to the landlady, who was unable to get her rent from her
impecunious lodger. There are other portraits of him by Lonsdale, as
P.R.S.; by Howard (when Davy was twenty-three); by Jackson (when he was
forty-five); a bust; and the statue erected in December, 1878 (after
the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, in front of the Market-house,
Penzance, near Davy's old house in Market Jew Street, (now rebuilt,)
and about half-way between it and the Star Inn.) He also appears in the
print of the Woburn Sheep-shearing, published by Garrard in 1811.
[104] More than enough has been made by Davy's critics of his
admiration for the aristocracy; but 'it is not true' (as George Eliot
observed) 'that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a
timber beam, to be measured by its weakest point.'
[105] The house was in the corner which formed the north angle of the
square.
[106] Just as another Cornishman--Richard Trevithick--was the first who
applied steam to agriculture.
[107] Becker tells us how the ladies so admired his handsome eyes that
they vowed they were 'made for something besides poring over crucibles.'
[108] Amongst the former of whom may be mentioned De Quincey, Godwin,
and Coleridge, who used frequently to meet at the miserable rooms of
the latter, then at the office of the _Courier_ newspaper, in the
Strand.
[109] It was on one of these occasions that Davy, when out shooting
partridges one day at Rokeby, persuaded Roderick Murchison to come up
to town, and '_set to_ at science.'
[110] On 20th October, 1818, he was made a Baronet.
[111] By his will Davy provided that, in certain contingencies, this
service should be melted down in order to provide a fund for the reward
of original, meritorious discoveries in Science, either 'in Europe or
Anglo-America.'
[112] Byron's lines in the first canto of 'Don Juan' will doubtless
recur to many of my readers:
'This is the patent age of new inventions
For killing bodies and for saving souls,
All propagated with the best intentions;
Sir Humphry Davy's lantern by which coals
Are safely mined for in the mode he mentions.'
Jackson's account of Timbuctoo; the narrative of Robert Adams, a
sailor; Dr. Leyden's 'Discoveries in Africa,' and other works, are then
hinted at; and the poet goes on, sardonically, to say that _all these_
'Are ways to benefit mankind, as true
Perhaps, as shooting them at Waterloo.'
[113] Whilst at Naples he made the acquaintance of one of the guides
up Vesuvius, whom Davy commissioned to inform him from time to time
of the state of the volcano; the man used occasionally to communicate
with him, and the letters reached Sir Humphry, notwithstanding their
phonetic address:
'Siromfredevi,
'Londra.'
[114] As a rule he is said to have been careless about his costume;
it was with the greatest difficulty that he was persuaded to don a
quasi-court dress in order to be presented to the Empress Josephine,
and his negligent appearance and manners often surprised his
Continental acquaintances. About one thing, however, he was rather
particular; and that was to wear a wide-brimmed hat whenever he could.
[115] The Davy medal of the Royal Society was, in 1882, presented, in
duplicate, to D. Mendelejeff and Lothar Meyer for their discovery of
the periodic relations of the atomic weights.
[116] He would often go two or three hundred miles for a day's fishing,
and has more than once patiently fished all day long without a rise;
he was, however, generally a successful as well as an enthusiastic
fisherman, but seems to have been thought somewhat clumsy in his
manipulation.
[117] The first edition was genially reviewed by Sir Walter Scott in
the _Quarterly Review_, xxxviii. 503. Sir Walter used to say of Davy,
in allusion to his well-known preference for his _old_ associates and
acquaintances, that 'he never forgot a friend.'
[118] It should, perhaps, be remarked here that Davy was an excellent
linguist.
[119] The centenary of his birth was celebrated at Penzance in
February, 1879.
[120] There is also a tablet to his memory in the north transept of
Westminster Abbey.
[121] Dr. Paris, F.R.S., has appended to his 'Life of Davy' an
historical sketch of the revolutions in chemical science produced
by his discoveries, and also a list of his chief works, which may
conveniently be consulted by those who desire more detailed information
as to Davy's scientific triumphs.
_ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH._
[Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)]
_ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH._
'Hearts of oak! our captain cried--
When each gun
From its adamantine lips
Spread a death-shade round the ships,
Like the hurricane eclipse
Of the sun.'