Herbert Spencer

An Autobiography

Williams & Norgate, 1904.

14th June 1861. I am much better this week and am doing some work. I am doing it in a very odd way - uniting dictating and rowing. I take my amanuensis on the Regent's Park water, row vigorously for five minutes and dictate for a quarter of an hour; then more rowing and more dictating alternatively. It answers capitally

The philosopher and sociologist was at that time working on First Principles, the first volume of A System of Synthetic Philosophy which argued that all phenomena could be explained in terms of evolution. As a proponent of evolutionary theory his reputation would later rival Darwin's.

Other great minds found the park a congenial place in which to work. Leigh Hunt had written verses there, Bernard Shaw wrote plays there, Virginia Woolf thought 'the greatest happiness in the world' was walking through the park 'making up phrases there', though none of them ventured on the water.