while he judiciously escaped
to bed.

So for a home-bred boy, thrown into rather difficult surroundings, his
first appearance at Christ Church was distinctly a success.
"Collections" in March, 1837, went off creditably for him. Hussey,
Kynaston and the Dean said he had taken great pains with his work, and
had been a pattern of regularity; and he ended his first term very well
pleased with his college and with himself.

In his second term he had the honour of being elected to the Christ
Church Club, a very small and very exclusive society of the best men in
the college: "Simeon, Acland, and Mr. Denison proposed him; Lord Carew
and Broadhurst supported." And he had the opportunity of meeting men of
mark, as the following letter recounts. He writes on April 22, 1837:

"My Dearest Father,

"When I returned from hall yesterday--where a servitor read, or
pretended to read, and Decanus growled at him, 'Speak out!'--I
found a note on my table from Dr. Buckland, requesting the pleasure
of my company to dinner, at six, to meet two celebrated geologists,
Lord Cole and Sir Philip Egerton. I immediately sent a note of
thanks and acceptance, dressed, and was there a minute after the
last stroke of Tom. Alone for five minutes in Dr. B.'s
drawing-room, who soon afterwards came in with Lord Cole,
introduced me, and said that as we were both geologists he did not
hesitate to leave us together while he did what he certainly very
much required--brushed up a little. Lord Cole and I were talking
about some fossils newly arrived from India. He remarked in the
course of conversation that his friend Dr. B.'s room was cleaner
and in better order than he remembered ever to have seen it. There
was not a chair fit to sit upon, all covered with dust, broken
alabaster candlesticks, withered flower-leaves, frogs cut out of
serpentine, broken models of fallen temples, torn papers, old
manuscripts, stuffed reptiles, deal boxes, brown paper, wool, tow
and cotton, and a considerable variety of other articles. In came
Mrs. Buckland, then Sir Philip Egerton and his brother, whom I had
seen at Dr. B.'s lecture, though he is not an undergraduate. I was
talking to him till dinner-time. While we were sitting over our
wine after dinner, in came Dr. Daubeny, one of the most celebrated
geologists of the day--a curious little animal, lo