ABSTRACT
Given the value that his parents placed on education, John must have felt a keen sense of disappointment at his failure to gain much benefit from his time at Eton, and he seems to have been determined to make up for lost time. He approached his self-education with an almost obsessive enthusiasm. In 1852, he described his daily routine (on days not spent at the bank) as follows:
I get up at past 6, dress, say my Prayers, read the Psalms and Chapters and go to Papa with my Mathematics, which takes about ten minutes before breakfast. From 8 till 9 read Natural History; 9 to past Prayers; past 9 till past 1 1 work with the microscope; past 11 to 1 read Natural History; 1 to past lunch. I generally go out for an average of 2 hours in the afternoon and do half an hour Poetry and half an hour Political Economy; tea past 4 to 5; till 5 more Science; hour's Natural History; 6 to 7 History; 7 to 8 Whist; 8 to past History; 8 to 9 Mathematics; 9 to 10 Sermons; 10 to 1 1 German; 11 to 12 Prayers; 12 Bed. 1
