Product Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1911. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXI THE END IN his seventy-fourth year, Banks had one more carriage accident; this time having a rather beneficial result than otherwise, for in the course of a restless night after, he voided a large stone and was consequently relieved from one source of pain. Sir Joseph Banks to Sir E. Home. "Spring Grove, August 27,1818. "My Dear Sir Everard, --I was overturned two days ago by a drunken coachman, but received no hurt. Lady Banks and my sister and I were driving home from dining with Sir A. Macdonald. We are all three rather heavy, and I, as you know, quite helpless. We were obliged to lie very uneasily at the bottom of the coach for half an hour before assistance could be got to lift us out. We all bore our misfortune without any repining or any demonstration of the follies of fear; and we are all now quite recovered from the effects of our accident, except my sister, who has a cut on her head filled with lint and doing very well. But both the ladies have gone everywhere since, without an hour's confinement." This accident was doubtless of more consequence than at first appeared. Mistress Banks died on September 27, after a " slight indisposition," which had not prevented her calling, a few days previously, upon the Princesses at Kew. At the age of seventy-four, she could not afford to be shaken about as described. Mistress Sarah Sophia Banks was a zealous student of Natural History, and a most indefatigable collector of curiosities of all sorts. But her moral worth (says a cotemporary obituary), even more than her talents and knowledge, rendered her the object of esteem and regard to all who had the pleasure of being acquainted with her. The life-long attachment of Sir Joseph and his sister speaks well for both of them. And there seems to be no recogn...