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While Robert Dick was
searching for organic remains among the rocks at Thurso during his leisure
hours, another scientific labourer was occupied in the same manner at the
opposite end of the island, among the rocks of Cornwall. Robert Dick had
discovered numerous remains of fossil fishes in Caithness, where
distinguished geologists had stated that no fossil fishes were to be found ;
and Charles William Peach had discovered fossil fishes in Cornwall, though
it had also been stated that the rocks there were non-fossiliferous. While
the one was disturbing the echoes of Pudding-gyoe, the other was hammering
in Ready-Money Cove. The two were working simultaneously amongst rocks of
the same epoch, and the results of their labours were in a remarkable degree
alike.
The Cornish worker in science was- then but a private in the mounted
coastguard service. Like Dick, in his hours of leisure he found time to add
materially to the facts upon which geology is based. Thus, at the same time,
Hugh Miller, originally a stonemason,—Robert Dick, a working baker,—and
Charles William Peach, a private in the coastguard service,—were all engaged
in like pursuits. “It is one of tlie circumstances of peculiar interest,”
said Hugh Miller, “with which geology in its present state is invested, that
there is no man of energy and observation, who may not rationally indulge in
the hope of extending its limits, by adding to its facts.”
While engaged in their respective pursuits, Dick
and Peach were quite unknown to each other. They worked on quietly and
unostentatiously, without any thought of fame. It might be said that theirs
was “the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.” But this is a mistake.
The pursuit of knowledge is always accompanied with pleasure, and the
pleasure is only enhanced by the difficulties with which it is surmounted.
But circumstances shortly occurred which led to Mr. Peach’s promotion in the
service, and to his removal to the north—first to Peterhead and afterwards
to Wick. Then it was that Dick and Peach became the most intimate of
friends. For this reason it is perhaps appropriate to couple the portrait of
the one friend with that of the other,—not only because their pursuits
during their leisure moments were in a great measure the same ; but because
it serves as an introduction to the correspondence which follows.
Mr. Peach has told us the story of his life. We think it full of interest.
It shows what a man in even the humblest ranks of life may do, to accumulate
knowledge and to advance science for the benefit of his fellow-creatures.
Mr. Peach was born in September 1800, at the village of Wansford in
Northamptonshire. At the time of his birth, his father was a saddler and
harness-maker, but he afterwards gave up the business and took a small inn
in the village, and also farmed about eighty acres of land. The time came
when young Peach had to be sent to school. He first went to a dame’s school,
where he speedily learned the ABC. After that he was sent to the village
school, the master of which had been an old sawyer. The man could no longer
saw, but it was thought he might teach. In those days any worn-out
brokenlegged man was thought good enough to be a schoolmaster. The old
sawyer knew very little about spelling. There was not a grammar-book about
the school.
But as old Mr. Peach was anxious to make his son a scholar, Charles was
taken from the old sawyer’s school at twelve years old, and sent to a school
at Folkingham, in Lincolnshire. There he made better progress. He learnt to
read and write well; and lie laid the foundations of the ordinary branches
of education. He remained at this place for three years, and at the age of
fifteen he left school altogether.
He returned to his father’s house to help in the work of the inn, and to
assist in the labours of the farm. It was not a very good training for a
lad. Peach was brought into contact with the people who frequented his
father’s inn. Wansford was then a very drunken village. Peach was often
invited to drink, but always refused,—a proof of moral courage at an early
age. He was consequently called “the milksop” of the house. Perhaps from
what he daily saw before him, he deter? mined to abstain from drink. In this
way the Spartans taught their children. At all events, though reared in an
inn, Peach abstained from liquor for the rest of his life.
Hot liking his position at home, Charles applied for the position of riding
officer in the Revenue Coastguard. He was appointed in January 1824, and
directed to proceed to Southrepps, in the county of Norfolk, and report
himself to the commanding officer there. After approval, he was directed to
take up his station at.Weybourn, in the port of Cley, Norfolk.
At that time Peach knew nothing of Natural Hist ory. He had never seen the
sea. What a sight, and how full of wonders, it was to him ! He was struck
with everything connected with it. He wandered along the shore, and found
brilliant seaweeds and zoophytes innumerable, the names of which he did not
yet know. He was particularly impressed by a splendid specimen, which was
placed on the parlour chimney-piece of the little inn where he stayed at.1
The appearance of the zoophyte strongly excited his curiosity. He determined
to know what it was, and where he could find a specimen for himself. This
little object had the effect of turning his attention to the study of
Nature.
He began to make a collection. He had no book on the subject. He collected,
more for the beauty of the forms and the colours of the agates. He would
know more by and by. Men in the Coastguard service were in those days turned
rapidly about from place to place, for no particular reason, but generally
at considerable expense to themselves. After being at Weybourn for a year,
Peach was removed to Sherringham, also in Norfolk.
It was while at this station that he met the Rev. J. Layton, then living at
Catfield. The reverend gentleman, finding that Peach was an enthusiastic
collector of zoophytes, asked him if he should not like to know the names of
the objects he collected. “Certainly,” was the reply. The clergyman then
invited him to his house, and showed him a book containing the history of
British zoophytes. He was delighted with the book ; but, as it was
expensive, and he could not purchase it, he went boldly to work, and copied
out the greater part of the letterpress. Although he had never had a lesson
in drawing, he also endeavoured, to the best of his power, to copy out all
the engravings. By this and other means, he laid the foundations of a great
deal of knowledge of the lower forms of marine life, while carrying on his
humble office of mounted guard in the Bevenue service along the northern
coast of Norfolk.
His business was to look after smugglers, and prevent them landing their
illicit goods at any part of the coast. His work was done partly at night
and partly by day. He must be constantly on the alert. The mounted guard
were not allowed to remain long in one place. After remaining at Sherringham
for about two years, Peach was removed to Hasboro. After a year’s service
there, he was sent to Cromer; then from Cromer back to Cley, where he
remained for two years. Here he married, and entered upon a new career, that
of bringing up a family on small wages. But he met every difficulty
cheerfully. He was fond of home life, and his wife helped to make his home
happy.
At Cley he was placed in charge of the station. He superintended the
look-out after smugglers, and he did his duty carefully. Notwithstanding
this, he was once charged with having neglected it. A jack-in-office, an
Irish naval captain in command of the coast service there, assembled the
Coastguard before him, and charged them all with being bribed by the
smugglers. Peach was justly indignant. He protested for himself and on the
part of his men that they were loyal and honest servants of her Majesty, and
he challenged the captain to prove his words. The captain could not; and
accordingly, after a little hard swearing, he drew in his horns, and said no
more on the subject.
It may here be mentioned that Mr. Peach was a handy man at everything. He
learnt to draw with correctness. He cultivated mechanics. When he went into
the Coastguard, he spent part of his spare time in making a turning-lathe.
With this he turned jet earrings, jet boxes, and other things. He afterwards
made a compound slide-rest, and turned things in iron and brass.
After two years’ service at Cley, Peach was sent to Lyme Regis in Dorset, at
the south-western part of the island. He then lived at Charmouth, hut he
remained there only four or five months, when he was removed to Beer, at the
mouth of the Axe, in Devonshire. He remained there for about two years,
always working in his leisure hours at zoology and natural history.
He was then removed to Paignton in Tor Bay, farther down the coast. He was
not allowed to rest there, but was shortly after removed to Gorranhaven,
near Mevagissey, in Cornwall. It was here that he indefati-gably pursued his
studies in zoology. He collected some of the most delicate specimens of
marine fauna. Many of these he sent to Dr. Johnston when preparing his
history of the British Zoophytes. Others were sent to the most distinguished
writers on zoology, and several of them were called after his name.
It was while living at Gorranhaven that Peach applied himself to a new
subject,—the geological formation of the coast. It had been stated by
well-known geologists that no relics of ancient life existed in the Cornish
rocks. “We have no exuviae,” said Pryce, “of land or sea animals buried in
our strata.” "The rocks of Cornwall and of Scotland are non-fossiliferous,”
said Dean Conybeare. The same statement was repeated by many writers, and
amongst others by Sir Roderick Murchison, who took the statement on trust.
In fact, geology was then in its infancy. During the last fifty years,
nearly everything has been changed.
The private in the mounted Coastguard service did a great deal to alter the
then state of geology. He was not satisfied with the statements of others.
He examined for himself. He had the quick eye and the keen judgment. He
possessed the gift of careful observation. Nor was he ever daunted by
difficulties. In fair weather and in foul, he worked among the Cornish
rocks, and found fossils where no fossils were said to have been— fossils
innumerable! 
Mr. Peach was not the man to let his light lie
hid under a bushel. A meeting of the British Association was about to be
held at Plymouth. Plymouth was not far from the place where he lived, and he
determined to put his facts together, and read them before the association.
He never wrote a paper before, nor had he ever read one. He had only heard
one scientific lecture. But with his ready mother wit he prepared his paper,
and it proved to be a thoroughly original one. He read if himself at the
Plymouth meeting in 1841. It was entitled, On the Organic Fossils of
Comical?.
“It is impossible,” he writes in 1847, “to describe the feelings under which
I then rose. That is over long since. The only beating of my heart now about
the British Association is, that of gratitude towards its members, and of
affection for their great kindness. I feel my love of scientific pursuits
strengthen every day. I have taken hold of that which every day affords f a
feast of reason and a flow of soul/”
In the following year (1842) he attended the meeting of the British
Association at Manchester, where he read a paper before the Zoological
section on his discoveries and observations of the marine fauna on the
Cornish coast. In 1843 he attended the meeting at Cork, and in 1844 he was
at York. He never went without a paper. Sometimes he read several. Men of
distinction began to notice this remarkable coastguardsman. He was
acknowledged to be one of the most original discoverers in geology and
zoology. Such men as Murchison, De la Beche, Buckland, Forbes, Daubeny, and
Agassiz, took him by the hand and greeted him as a fellow labourer in the
work of human improvement and scientific development.
Dr. Robert Chambers was present at the York meeting. He wrote a very
interesting article on the subject, which appeared in Chambers's Journal of
November 23, 1844. Here is his description of Mr. Peach:— “But who is that
little intelligent-looking man in a faded naval uniform, who is so
invariably seen in a particular central seat in this section? That is
perhaps one of the most interesting men who attend the association. He is
only a private in the mounted guard (preventive service) at an obscure part
of the Cornish coast, with four shillings a day, and a wife and seven
children, most of whose education he has himself to conduct. He never tastes
the luxuries which are so common in the middle ranks of life, and even
amongst a large portion of the working classes. He has to mend with his own
hands every sort of thing that can wear or break in his house. Yet Charles
Peach is a votary of natural history—not a student of the science in hooks,
for he cannot afford hooks; hut he is a diligent investigator by sea and
shore, a collector of zoophytes and echinodermata—strange creatures, many of
which are as yet hardly known to man. These he collects, preserves, and
describes; and every year he comes up to the British Association with a few
novelties of this kind, accompanied by illustrative papers and drawings
thus, under circumstances the very opposite of such men as Lord Enniskillen,
adding, in like manner, to the general stock of knowledge.
“On the present occasion he is unusually elated, for he has made the
discovery of a holothuria with twenty tentacula, a species of the
echinodermata, which Edward Forbes, in his hook on Starfishes, had said was
never yet observed in the British seas. It may be of small moment to you,
who perhaps know nothing of holo-thurias, hut it is a considerable thing to
the fauna of Britain3 and a vast matter to a poor private of the
Cornwall Mounted Guard. And accordingly lie will go home in a few days, full
of the glory of his exhibition, and strung anew by the kind notice taken of
him by the masters of science, to proceed in similar inquiries, difficult as
it may be to prosecute them under such a complication of duties,
professional and domestic.
“But he has still another subject of congratulation; for Dr. Carpenter has
kindly given him a microscope4 -wherewith to observe the structure of his
favourite animals,—an instrument for which he has sighed for many years in
vain. Honest Peach! humble as is thy name and simple thy learning, thou art
an honour even to this assemblage of nobles and doctors; nay more, when I
consider everything, thou art an honour to human nature itself; for where is
the heroism like that of virtuous, intelligent, independent poverty ? and
such heroism is thine!”
Some of the gentlemen who attended the meeting at York, and especially Dr.
Buckland, in their admiration for the character of Mr. Teach, proposed to do
something for his promotion in her Majesty’s service. Dr. Buckland wrote to
Sir Eobert Peel on the subject. The reply was, that there were no openings
at the time, but that the application of Dr. Buckland on behalf of Mr. Peach
should be kept in mind. At length the promotion came. A position of Landing
Waiter was vacant at London, and another at Fowey. Mr. Peach prelerred the
latter, though the salary was £50 less. He desired to remain in his quarters
by the sea-coast, to carry on his investigations among the zoophytes, and to
further examine the rocks of Cornwall at his leisure. His salary was now
£100 a year; and the advance of pay greatly helped him and hiğ lamily. He
removed to a pretty house overlooking the river Fowey and the English
Channel, and at this house Mr. Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, was a frequent
visitor.
While residing at Fowey, Mr. Peach became an honorary member of all the
scientific societies in Cornwall. But he was far more than an honorary
member. He greatly enriched their collections. He added many organic remains
of the Devonian Bocks to the admirable collection of the Boyal Geological
Society of Cornwall. Indeed, the collection seems to have remained as Mr.
Peach left it, some thirty years ago. The President of the Society, at the
meeting in 1877, thus referred to the museum at Penzance:—“Our collection
contains Devonian forms from the lower, middle, and upper series, in most of
those areas in the counties of Cornwall and Devon, where the rocks are
exposed. It must be allowed that it is essential to the credit and future
history of the Society that this, of all groups of rocks and associated
fossils, should be well, if not perfectly, represented in the museum. The
collection, as it now stands, is in the main due to the energy and industry
of Mr. Charles Peach, A.L.S., one of our oldest living naturalists, who for
many years resided on the south coast of Cornwall, there making a special
study of the coast sections, and who extensively collected from them,
especially at East and West Looe, Polperro, Polruan, and Fowey. This truly
great collection is now displayed in the cases of our Society, and has been
but little added to since,—a circumstance especially to he regretted, when
we take into consideration the great amount of work and research that has
been done and carried on in foreign countries.”
As constant movement from place to place seems
tc be the rule of the Ee venue Service, Mr. Peach left Fowey in 1849; and
this time he was sent to a far-distant place—to Peterhead, in the north-east
of Scotland. The removal cost him a great deal of money. His own expenses
were paid, but he had to remove his wife and family at his own expense. Yet
it was a promotion in the service. He was now Comptroller of Customs. The
dignity of the appellation was much greater than the advance of salary,
which was only £20 a year. Still it was a promotion, and it might lead to
better fortune.
At Peterhead, as in Norfolk, Devonshire, and Cornwall, Mr. Peach went on
with his study of zoology and geology. He added to the list of British
fishes, Yarrell’s Blenny, Pay’s Bream, and the Anchovy,— which had not
before been known to inhabit the seas which wash the north-eastern coast of
Scotland. He also devoted much attention to the nest-building habits of
certain sea shells and fishes. “At Peterhead,” says Professor Geikie, “he
made himself intimately acquainted with the family arrangements of that
rather fierce-looking little fish, the fifteen-spined stickle-back (Gaster-osteus
spinachia). In a rocky pool he discovered a colony of them, and learnt how
they built their nests and deposited their ova. He watched the hatching and
growth of the young until the whole colony, young and old, took to the sea.
As he used to visit them five or six times a day, the parents grew so
familiar that they would swim round and touch his hand, though on the
appearance of a stranger they would angrily dash at any stick or incautious
finger that was brought near them. The same habit of close and cultivated
observation was shown by his study of the maternal instincts of the female
lobster in its native haunts.”
Mr. Peach’s next removal was to Wick,—the greatest fishing town in the
North. Though an ardent lover of nature, he never neglected his duty. He was
as accurate and quick-sighted in business as in science. He was alike
shrewd, wise, and observant in both. He was the model of a Comptroller of
Customs, as he was of a true collector and naturalist. His removal to Wick
was a promotion. His salary was advanced to £150 a year, though his duties
were to a certain extent enlarged. Part of his work consisted in travelling
round the coast of Caithness in search of wrecks, and reporting them to the
Board of Trade. This led him to travel to the rocky points of the coast,
where the wrecks principally occurred; and he made good use of his spare
time by hammering the rocks in search of fossils, and more particularly the
fossil plants with which the dark flagstones of the district abounded.
His removal to Wick occurred in 1853. One of the first things that he did
was to travel across the county to pay a visit to Eobert Dick at Thurso.
While he resided in Cornwall, the name of Eobert Dick had been a household
word with him. He knew what he had done from Hugh Miller’s writings, and he
had no doubt that he would find Dick to be a man after his own heart. for
was he disappointed. When he first called at Dick’s shop in Wilson’s Lane,
on the 19th October 1853, he found that the “maister,” as his servant called
him, was in the bakehouse. The caller sent in his name, and the baker
speedily appeared in the front shop, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and his
arms covered with flour.
“I’m Charles Peach of Eeady Money Cove in Cornwall ; and you are Eobert Dick
of Pudding Goe.” That was Mr. Peach’s first introduction. “How are ye?”
answered Eobert Dick, with a firm grasp of the hand; “come into the
bakehouse!” That was an honour accorded to few, but in the case of a
renowned geologist it was readily granted. Dick went on with his work at the
oven mouth, or at the side of the dough, while the two talked together. It
was an interesting conversation, which Mr. Peach long remembered. The latter
observed on the wall of the bakehouse a full-sized sketch of the Greek boy
taking the thorn from his foot, with an Egyptian god on each side,—all
accurately done in pencil or charcoal by the Thurso baker.
Mr. Peach called again in the evening, and again t’ound Dick at the oven in
the bakehouse. After he had done his evening’s work, lie had a fire lighted
in his parlour, and took his new friend upstairs to see his collection. Mr.
Peach was first attracted by the fine busts of Sir Walter Scott and Lord
Byron, and a large plaster figure of the Yenus of Milo, which the apartment
contained. Dick then showed his collection of fossils, plants, ferns, and
entomological specimens. Mr. Peach, in an entry in his diary, written the
same evening, says—“ He is a very diffident man, but an enthusiast in
natural history pursuits. He is unmarried, and lives most retired. In fact,
he is very little known in Thurso. He has a nice collection of Caithness
ferns, beetles, and insects. He is deeply interested in botany. His
researches in geology have been great, especially in the Old Bed Sandstone;
and some of his specimens have added new links to the history of these
ancient rocks.”
Mr. Peach soon repeated his visit. He called again at the beginning of the
following May, and again found Dick very busy in his bakehouse. The fire was
not again lighted in the parlour. Peach was now regarded as a friend. All
the subsequent interviews between the two occurred at the mouth of the oven,
or in the kitchen, or in the fields, or among the rocks. All ceremony and
formality were laid aside; and although they had many differences of opinion
and stout debates, these were, like lovers’ quarrels, soon made up.
Mr. Peach entered the following passage in his diary, descriptive of his
second visit to Dick :—“2d May 1854. Bose early; called upon Mr. Dick; found
him at his oven, and very busy; had a nice chat with him. ... In the evening
I saw him in his bedroom. What an industrious man he is. He is through
nineteen volumes of plants, and hopes soon to finish his herbarium. He has
heaps upon heaps of specimens, and appears to thoroughly understand Ills
subject. After two hours’ chat I left him to go to his bed, to which, if
possible, he retires at 9 p.m., to rise again between 3 and 4 a.m. I have
often been up and with him at that time, not willing to lose time when I had
an opportunity of enjoying his society. His conversation was too precious to
lose.” During the ensuing summer, when the grasses and plants were in bloom,
the two took a long walk up the Thurso river. Dick pointed out to his friend
the habitat of the Holy Grass (Hierochloe borealis), which he had long
known; and also what was then called Drummond’s Horsetail (Kquisetumpratense).
Dick also pointed out the Baltic rush (Juncus balticus), which Mr. Peach had
never before seen. Mr. Peach says of this walk, that “Dick’s cheerful
manner, his sparkling wit, and frolicsome playfulness, added to the other
beauties of the excursion, made it a treat indeed.”
“My next visit to Thurso,” says Mr. Peach, “occurred in connection with a
wreck, happily unattended with loss of life. On this occasion, our first
difference broke out. The Old Bed Sandstone period was said to be one of
seaweeds and cartilaginous fish. That I felt to be unstable, from specimens
which I had picked up in my spare minutes snatched from duty. We both
defended our views. He was strenuous in his defence of Hugh Miller’s and his
own opinions, and although I felt a sad heretic, I warmly, but I hope
modestly, suggested that I might be right. Time has since proved that I was
so, and dear Dick set to working out the problem for himself as usual, and
at last lie came to the same conclusion that 1 had done. I have just found a
note in reply to one of mine. After saying that he is ready to be my pupil
in seaweeds, zoophytes, and in every other department of natural history, he
adds, and ‘even in fossil wood’—a jocular allusion to our discussion on this
point.”
Mr. Peach, in a recent letter, referring to the many happy hours and tough
battles fought in Dick’s bakehouse, says that old Annie, the housekeeper,
would sometimes interfere, and say, “ Eh, maister, ye’re awfu’ hard wi’ Mr.
Peach; he’ll never come back again after sic rough usage.” But Peach came
back as before. The lovers’ quarrels soon healed, and they were more
affectionate than ever. “ I had the advantage,” says Mr. Peach, “ in having
read all that Hugh Miller had done, and also many of Dick’s letters on the
same subject. Besides, I had had lots of experience in Devonian and Old Bed
rocks in more places than Scotland. I had also a mode of my own for
collecting. I got all the weathered and detached portions of fishes and
plants, studied them, and fitted them into more perfect specimens. But Dick
did much good service. He was fortunately in time to reap the harvest. I
only got his gleanings. But I found for myself new fields of unworked rocks
in Suther-landshire, and got new fishes there, and also new ones in the old
fields that Dick had so long been working in.
I was very fortunate. My duties led me so far about, and gave me many
opportunities that I should not otherwise have had ; whereas Dick was
confined to the neighbourhood of his bakehouse in Thurso. All this I took
advantage of, after duty had been done. By rising early in the morning and
working until late at night; by often giving up my meal times, and
satisfying myself with a crust of bread and butter, and at night with a
Highland tea and something to eat, I fortunately contrived to fill up my
leisure hours with a good deal of useful work.” The principal new field to
which Mr. Peach refers, was the limestone of Durness in Sutherland. The spot
was too far from Caithness to enable Dick to investigate it. But it was in
the Comptroller’s way. He went to Durness to visit a wrecked ship, and he
did not neglect liis opportunity. He was the first to find fossils in the
limestones of Durness. Obscure organic remains had before been detected by
Macculloch in the quartz rocks of Sutherland; but they had gradually passed
out of mind, and their organic nature was stoutly denied even by such
geologists as Sedgwick and Murchison. Mr. Peach, however, brought to light,
in 1854, a good series of shells and corals, which demonstrated the
limestones containing them to lie on the same geological horizon as some
part of the great Lower Silurian formations of other regions.
The discovery remained without solution for some years, the principal
geologists still doubting its reality. But about five years after, Sir
Roderick Murchison again visited the spot, and the discovery was confirmed.
Professor Judd, of the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, London, said in
the Geological Society's Quarterly Journal that “Charles Peach’s discovery
in 1854 of Silurian fossils at Durness, Sutherland, has already borne the
most important fruit; and, in the hands of Murchison, Ramsay, Geikie,
Harkness, and Jamieson, has afforded the necessary clue for determining the
age of the great primary masses of the Highlands of Scotland.”
We have thus described the origin of the friendship between Charles Peach
and Robert Dick. It strengthened as it grew. Charles Peach shared all Dick’s
enthusiasm, and bore a warm and constant friendship for the solitary
student. They communicated to each other, as all true labourers in science
do, the results of their respective discoveries. They kept up a regular
correspondence, and many of their communications with each other will be
found referred to in the following pages. |
