[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.