until twelve at night, besides a long hot summer's walk over to Chelsea
two or three times a week to hear Lindley. A great part of the time I
worked till sunrise. The result was a sort of ophthalmia which kept me
from reading at night for months afterwards.

The day of the examination came, and as I went along the passage to go
out I well remember dear Lizzie [His eldest sister, Mrs. Scott.], half
in jest, half in earnest, throwing her shoe after me, as she said, for
luck. She was alone, beside S., in the secret, and almost as anxious as
I was. How I reached the examination room I hardly know, but I recollect
finding myself at last with pen and ink and paper before me and five
other beings, all older than myself, at a long table. We stared at one
another like strange cats in a garret, but at length the examiner (Ward)
entered, and before each was placed the paper of questions and sundry
plants. I looked at my questions, but for some moments could hardly hold
my pen, so extreme was my nervousness; but when I once fairly began, my
ideas crowded upon me almost faster than I could write them. And so we
all sat, nothing heard but the scratching of the pens and the occasional
crackle of the examiner's "Times" as he quietly looked over the news of
the day.

The examination began at eleven. At two they brought in lunch. It was a
good meal enough, but the circumstances were not particularly favourable
to enjoyment, so after a short delay we resumed our work. It began to be
evident between whom the contest lay, and the others determined that I
was one man's competitor and Stocks [John Ellerton Stocks, M.D., London,
distinguished himself as a botanist in India. He travelled and collected
in Beloochistan and Scinde; died 1854.] (he is now in the East India
service) the other. Scratch, scratch, scratch! Four o'clock came, the
usual hour of closing the examination, but Stocks and I had not half