42 Rhodora [Marcu 
acter. Coming a poor immigrant, he soon acquired property in New 
Hampshire, where he lived as a good citizen, adding to the happiness 
of all who knew him “with his eyes brimful of laughter, and his 
mouth as full of song." He came from Ireland, but he was a member 
of the church of England, and probably from one of the “transplanted ” 
English families of Cromwell's time. Our friend just lost had his 
musical gifts in fullest measure, and his gaiety of temperament; 
would that he might have inherited the vitality of these two ancestors, 
for Hugh lived through a vigorous old age to be 108. 
The young Batchelder was fitted for Harvard in the Boston Latin 
School, and was graduated from college in the "fighting class" of 
1860 — the class of whose 146 members 79 went to the war and 19 
gave their lives. Mr. Batchelder entered the service as surgeon 
steward in the navy, on the bark Kingfisher of the South Atlantic 
blockading squadron, and after thirteen months of service was honor- 
ably discharged on account of disability. 
From that time he made Manchester, New Hampshire, his home 
except for a few years spent in Springfield, Massachusetts. He 
married, in Manchester, Miss Annie Varney, daughter of the Hon. 
David Varney of that city. 
The lifework of the young man was already outlined at his gradua- 
tion. He had studied medicine under Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
and had been a pupil of Agassiz. He became an excellent botanist 
in after years and also an ornithologist of good standing. His cata- 
logue of the plants of southern New Hampshire and his editing of - 
Allen's “Birds of New Hampshire" and Wright's “Birds of the 
Jefferson region" show what thorough work he could do in both 
these branches of science. Thoroughness, indeed, was a characteristic 
of all that he did. 
Mr. Batchelder was gifted in many ways, but he was, first of all, 
a musician. As a composer, particularly for the organ, he had high 
rank; the fine quality and originality of his work were recognized 
as admirable by the best judges; but his musical and scientific work 
were both hampered by ill health. For the last fifteen years of his 
life he worked constantly with more or less suffering, but always per- 
sistently, cheerfully and with indomitable courage. Neither ill 
health nor ill fortune could ever shake his beautiful optimism, as 
prominent and winning a trait as any part of his character. He was 
an organist for fifty-two years without interruption, from his college 
