court-yard in front of the hall door at the Mount House, Darwin's
birthplace and the home of his childhood, is surrounded by beds or
rockeries on which lie a number of pebbles. Some of these pebbles (in
quite recent times as I am informed) have been collected to form a
"cobbled" space in front of the gate in the outer wall, which fronts the
hall door; and a similar "cobbled area," there is reason to believe, may
have existed in Darwin's childhood before the door itself. The pebbles,
which were obtained from a neighbouring gravel-pit, being derived from
the glacial drift, exhibit very striking differences in colour and form.
It was probably this circumstance which awakened in the child his
love of observation and speculation. It is certainly remarkable that
"aspirations" of the kind should have arisen in the mind of a child of 9
or 10!

When he went to Shrewsbury School, he relates "I continued collecting
minerals with much zeal, but quite unscientifically,--all that I cared
about was a new-NAMED mineral, and I hardly attempted to classify them."
("L.L." I. page 34.)

There has stood from very early times in Darwin's native town of
Shrewsbury, a very notable boulder which has probably marked a boundary
and is known as the "Bell-stone"--giving its name to a house and street.
Darwin tells us in his "Autobiography" that while he was at Shrewsbury
School at the age of 13 or 14 "an old Mr Cotton in Shropshire, who knew
a good deal about rocks" pointed out to me "... the 'bell-stone'; he told
me that there was no rock of the same kind nearer than Cumberland or
Scotland, and he solemnly assured me that the world would come to an end
before anyone would be able to explain how this stone came where it
now lay"! Darwin adds "This produced a deep impression on me, and I
meditated over this wonderful stone." ("L.L." I. page 41.)

The "bell-stone" has now, owing to the necessities of building, been
removed a short distance from its original site, and is carefully
preserved within the walls of a bank. It is a block of irregular shape 3
feet long and 2 feet wide, and about 1 foot thick, weighing probably not
less than one-third of a ton. By the courtesy of the directors of the
National Provincial Bank of England, I have been able to make a minute
examination of it, and Professors Bonney and Watts, with Mr Harker and
Mr Fearnsides have given me their valuable assistance. The rock is a
much altered andesite and was probably derived fro