Two hundred years after Charles Darwin's birth, historians have gained new insight into his days as a student at Cambridge after unearthing bills that record intimate details of how he spent his money.
The revolutionary scientist was, it would appear, ahead of his time in his willingness to pay extra to supplement his daily intake of vegetables. And, as one would expect of a 19th-century gentleman, he was happy to pay others to carry out menial tasks for him, such as stoking his fire and polishing his shoes.
But there is little to suggest that he bought many books, or that he did much else to further his studies. The evolutionist famously spent little of his time studying or in lectures, preferring to shoot, ride and collect beetles.
The records, which were found in six previously overlooked college books, are due to be published online tomorrow on the Complete Works of Charles Darwin website (darwin-online.org.uk). They allow historians to pinpoint the date of his arrival at Christ's College (26 January 1828), as well as providing previously unknown detail of his undergraduate life.
Darwin's time at Cambridge, from 1828 to 1831 - which he would later describe as "the most joyful of my happy life" - is also one for which there is a comparative shortage of information. "Before this, we didn't really know very much about Darwin's daily life at Cambridge at all," said Dr John van Wyhe, director of the Darwin website. "It had been assumed that there were no significant traces of his time here left to discover, which meant that we were short of information about one of the most formative parts of his life.
"Now, in his 200th anniversary year, we have found a real treasure trove right in the middle of Cambridge."
The six books at Christ's are believed to have been dismissed as dull administrative records proffering little of historical import until they were spotted by Professor Geoffrey Thorndike Martin in a pile of old college papers and documents.
In total, Darwin's college bills amounted to £636 0s 9½d over the three years, which did not include the £14 he paid for his BA degree in 1831 or the £12 he spent collecting his MA in 1836, following his return from the Beagle voyage.
They reveal that he paid a bed-maker, a shoe-black to polish his footwear and someone to bring in the coal for his fire.
They also show that in addition to the basic college dinner ration of a joint of meat and a glass of beer, he was prepared to spend an extra 5½d on fresh vegetables each day.
Some details remain unknown. "How much he spent on alcohol, for example, or to have his horse stabled, we still don't know," said Van Wyhe, a science historian at the University of Cambridge and founder of the website. "What we do know is that a friend made a joke coat of arms for Darwin that made drinking and smoking Darwin's trademarks."
The books also contain accounts for his barber, grocer, tailor, chimney-sweep, apothecary, porter, brazier, scullion (servant), glazier, hatter, smith, laundress, linen-draper and painter, among others.
His rooms at Christ's College, which were recently restored and opened to the public, appear to have been some of the best available to undergraduates of his standing at the time. He clearly enjoyed a privileged existence.
Students of the day did not pay cash for many services, instead paying local tradesman by account. According to researchers, the individual bills would have been reported to the college, which then charged Darwin and his fellow students on a quarterly basis.
The Darwin website is the world's largest, most widely used resource on Darwin. When it launched in 2006, it was swamped with millions of hits in the first 48 hours. Since then, the site has been accessed by readers from every country in the world.