220 EARLY REMINISCENCES how hopeless I was as material. At this present day, in addition, I have to use my fingers for counting ; and in compound addition, I have to take my bills into the kitchen and get one of the servant maids to do the calculation for me. And to make of me a mathematician ! It was beyond the powers of mortal man. But, if I could not be made a mathematician, then no prospect lay open before me of becoming a mechanical engineer, which was the ultimate aim of my father. It is true that I did study hydrostatics and mechanics, and made a brilliant display in answer to a question put to me in the Senate House, as to the reason why a cup was put into a plum tart. I gave a quite satisfactory reply, but added, " the cup must not be over thirty-four feet high," which exhibited a surprising acquaintance with the efficacy of the pressure of the air. My two brothers were given a like object for which they were trained, and both broke down in health—William in England, through mental overstrain when engaged on a line in Lincolnshire, at a time when his " boss " was ill, and all the responsibility rested on his shoulders ; Edward Drake collapsed through two attacks of yellow fever in Brazil, and a day and two nights spent in an open boat at sea in winter, after a wreck. Neither had any real ability for the work they had been set to execute. Mrs. Goodwin was totally devoid of taste, so much so that I very much doubt whether she were not colour-blind. But her lack of discernment as to what was becoming in dress was not confined to colour. If left to herself she dressed outrageously. Harvey Goodwin had great taste, and was sensitive in such matters as female costume. Accordingly he commissioned me to accompany his wife on her expeditions to the dressmakers and milliners and drapers, and select her gowns and bonnets. She received strict injunctions from him not to go dressed into the town till she had been subjected to my scrutiny. Accordingly I had to turn her about and pass or reject her, every time she exhibited a resolve to go a-shopping in Cambridge. She was such a good-natured woman, and so conscious of her defects, that she submitted like a lamb. Harvey Goodwin was an ecclesiologist, and often took me out walks with him to visit the churches in the neighbourhood of Cambridge and point out to me the different styles of architecture.
