26 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



ingly moved there and remained for many years. After 

 a time, my great-grandmother, Mrs. Biddle, also moved 

 to^ Carlisle, and her two sons, William and Edward, 

 having studied law, settled down there to practice their 

 profession. After my Grandfather Baird's death, my 

 grandmother moved there with her children, as did also 

 the youngest sister, Mrs. Blaney, with her children, on 

 becoming a wido\v. As a consequence during a great 

 part of my father's childhood and early youth Carlisle 

 was the home, not only of his grandmother but of all 

 her descendants, five children and twenty-seven grand- 

 children, as well as her two daughters-in-law and her 

 surviving son-in-law. 



"I think that one of the great evidences of my great- 

 grandmother's penetration was her recognition of merit 

 in my father's scientific tastes. His love of Natural 

 History was not regarded as a matter of importance by 

 his uncles. Many of the boys and men of the family 

 were keen sportsmen, but their interest in Nature was 

 that of those who hunt and fish for amusement and exer- 

 cise. That there could be anything deeper and more 

 serious in the study of Nature was little realized in those 

 days. A professional Naturalist who not only depended 

 upon it for his living but made scientific research his life 

 work was at that time nearly unknown in this country. 

 My great-grandmother seems in this as in some other 

 things to have been ahead of her time. My gentle grand- 

 mother always encouraged her children to do anything 

 they wished, when it was possible for her to afford it, 

 and which she did not consider wrong. It was thought, 

 however, by the rest of the family, with the exception 

 of his grandmother, that the months and years which 

 my father devoted to the study of animal life, when they 



