8 HERBERT SPENCER

JBoyhood.--The father's ill-health had thin com-
pensation, that Herbert Spencer spent much of his
childhood (set, 4-7) in the country—at New Radford,
near Nottingham. In his later years he had ncili vivid
recollections of rambling among the gorse-bushes
which towered above his head, of exploring the
narrow tracks which led to unexpected places» arid
of picking the blue-bells " from among the prickly
branches, which were here and there flecked with
fragments of wool left by passing sheep," lie was
allowed freedom from ordinary "lessons/* And
enjoyed a long latent receptive period.

In 1827 the family returned to Derby, but for
some time the boy's life was comparatively un-
restrained, There was some gardening to do—an
educational discipline far too little appreciated—Hand
there was "almost nominal" school-drill j but there
was plenty of time for exploring the neighbourhood,
for fishing and bird-nesting, for watching the bees
and the gnat-larvae, for gathering mushrooms and
blackberries. " Beyond the- pleasunble exercfoe tnd
the gratification of my love of adventure, there
gained during these excursions much miacellaneoui
knowledge of things, and the perceptions were bene-
ficially disciplined." " Most children are instinctively
naturalists, and were they encouraged would readily
pass from careless observation* to careful and
deliberate ones. My father was wise in such
matters, and I was not simply allowed but en-
couraged to enter on natural hittory,**

He had the run of a farm it Inglcby during holi-
days 5 he enjoyed fishing in the Trent, in which lit
was within an ace of being drowned when itbotit tenif I urn greatly given to it, She wai