"These amusements seemed to become more and more important in his estimation, as his health declined. It was affecting to observe the efforts he made to continue them with diminished strength. From being unable to walk without fatigue for many hours, he was, when he came to me in November 1826, obliged to have a pony to carry him to the field, from which he dismounted only on the certainty of immediate sport. In the following year, he could only take short and occasional rides to the covers, with his dogs around him, and his servant walking by his side and carrying his gun, but which I believe he never fired.
"During this visit, he more than once observed, 'I do not wish to live, as far as I am personally concerned; but I have views which I could develope, if it pleased God to save my life, which would be useful to science and to mankind.'"
Davy returned to town in December, and after an interval wrote the following letter:
Park Street, Grosvenor Square, Dec. 27, 1827.
I know no reason why I have not written to you. It has been my intention every day, and I have been every day prevented by the sense of want of power, which is so painful a symptom of my malady.
I continue much as I was. My physicians augur well, and I have some repose in the hopes connected with the indefinite future. In the last twelve-month, which I hope is a large portion, on the whole, of my purgatory expiation for crimes of commission or omission, the most cheerful, or rather the least miserable, days that I spent, were a good deal owing to your kindness, which I shall never forget. I would, if it were possible, make my letter something more than a mere bulletin of health, or the expression of the feelings of a sick man; but I can communicate no news. The papers will tell you more than is true; and our politicians seem ignorant of what they are to do at home, much more abroad.
I have got for you a copy of my lectures on the Chemistry of Agriculture, which I shall send to you by the first opportunity. God bless you, my dear Poole.
I am always your sincere, Grateful, and affectionate friend,
In the letter which follows, Davy dwells upon a subject in Natural History, which appears to have greatly occupied his thoughts, and to have continued a predominant subject of his contemplation, even to the latest day of his life.