The Age of Wonder (98 page)

Venice, 380

Venus, Transit of (1768), 5, 10, 21-2, 91

Versailles: balloon ascents at, 126, 135

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
(anon.), 451

Vesuvius: Davy visits, 356, 358, 378, 381

Victoria, Queen: takes chloroform during childbirth, 284

Vineyard Nurseries, Hammersmith, 11

Vitalism (Life Force), xix, 307, 309-18, 321-3, 325, 327, 354, 356, 421, 428, 431

Volta, Alessandro, 173, 295, 314, 355

voltaic batteries, 245, 273-4, 286, 295, 297, 299, 317, 328-9

Voltaire, François Marie Arouet: in Haydon painting, 319;
Candide,
68;
Letters on the English Nation,
xviiin;
Micromégas,
426

Voyager
(spacecraft), 190

Wagner, Richard:
Tristan and Isolde
(opera), 242

Wakefield, Priscilla, 179

Wakley, Thomas, 336

Walker, William:
Eminent Men of Science Living in 1807-8
(painting), 303

Waller, Edmund, 424

Wallis, Captain Samuel, 3, 17

Walls End colliery, Northumberland, 361-2, 368-9

Walmer Castle, Kent, 200

Walpole, Horace, 135-8, 140, 338

Walton, Izaak, 276;
The Compleat Angler,
339

Wansey (musician), 265

Waterton, Charles, 232, 382;
Wanderings in South America,
382

Watson, James:
The Double Helix,
373n

Watson, Sir William, 60-1, 101

Watson, Sir William, junior: friendship with Herschel, 60-2, 92-3, 98, 100-1, 108-9, 135, 164, 166, 178, 180; and Herschel’s marriage to Mary Pitt, 185-6; and philosophical significance of astronomy, 203

Watt, Gregory: friendship with Davy, 150, 263-4, 266, 275, 362; death, 293-4

Watt, James: recommends Beddoes to Banks, 235; son stays with Davy’s mother, 250; Beddoes seeks financial support from, 251; encourages Beddoes to recruit Davy, 252; Davy visits, 256; in Davy’s nitrous oxide experiments, 263; designs portable gas chamber, 269; letter from Banks on Beddoes’s project, 281

weather forecasting, 160n

Webb, T.H., 87

Wedgwood, Thomas, 263, 281

Wedgwood family, 256

Wells, Dr Horace, 283

Wells, Sarah, 49, 53-6, 384

Whewell, William: and John Herschel, 387; supports Wollaston for presidency of Royal Society, 397; and John Herschel’s
Study of Natural Philosophy,
441; and formation of British Association, 446-7, 449; and
Bridgewater Treatises,
452; reviews Mary Somerville, 459; befriends Charles Darwin, 460;
On the Plurality of Worlds,
209

White, Gilbert, 12, 48, 136, 146, 249n

Whitehaven Collieries, 369

Wilberforce, William, 386

Wilson, Frances:
The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth,
187n

Windham, William, 140

Wiverou (Tahitian chief), 30

Wollaston, William Hyde, 369, 374, 397-9, 401-2, 417, 436, 438-9

Wollstonecraft, Mary: published by Johnson, 106, 271; earnings, 179; Godwin writes
Memoir
of, 267; Davy supports, 304

women: earnings and professional status, 179-80; Davy advocates scientific knowledge for education of, 304; and third British Association meeting, 447, 452; membership of British Association, 459

wonder: nature of, xx

Woodford, Revd James, 136

Wooster, David:
Paula Trevelyan,
460n

Wordsworth, Dora (William’s daughter), 203n

Wordsworth, Dorothy, 186n, 203n, 249n

Wordsworth, John (William’s son), 203n

Wordsworth, Mary
(née
Hutchinson), 186n

Wordsworth, William: on Newton, xvi-xvii, 320, 469n; published by Johnson, 106, 271; marriage to Mary Hutchinson, 186n; regional roots, 236; Coleridge visits in Lake District, 267; influence on Davy’s poetry, 276; Davy visits in Lake District, 295; at Haydon’s ‘Immortal Dinner’, 318; in Haydon painting, 319; quarrel with Coleridge, 340; honoured with dinner, 348; on Davy’s decline, 414; John Davy acts as doctor to, 433; effect of poetry on John Stuart Mill, 441; Coleridge on poetry of, 449;
Lyrical Ballads
(with Coleridge), 254, 275, 291;
On Church and State,
449;
Peter Bell,
162;
The Prelude,
232, 320, 431, 469n; ‘The Tables Turned’, 320; ‘Tintern Abbey’, 316

Wright, Joseph (of Derby): paintings, xix; influenced by Priestley, 246

Wright, Thomas, 77;
Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe,
91

Wynn, William, 265

Yansong, West Africa, 230

York, Edward, Duke of (George III’s brother), 75, 177

Young, Edward:
Night Thoughts,
92 & n

Young, Thomas, 436

Zoffany, Johann, 8, 47

ALSO BY RICHARD HOLMES

One for Sorrow (poems)
Shelley: The Pursuit
Shelley on Love (editor)
Gautier: My Fantoms (translations)
Nerval: The Chimeras (with Peter Jay)
Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin: A Short Residence in
Sweden and Memoirs (editor, Penguin Classics)
De Feministe en de Filosoof
Dr Johnson & Mr Savage
Coleridge: Early Visions
Coleridge: Darker Reflections
Coleridge: Selected Poems (editor, Penguin Classics)
Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer
Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer
Insights: The Romantic Poets and their Circle
Classic Biographies (series editor)

Copyright

Harper
Press
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by Harper
Press
in 2008

Copyright © Richard Holmes 2008

FIRST EDITION

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34988-3

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

About the Publisher

Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com