LIFE OF ALBANY HANCOCK. XIX 



indentured, and served as an articled clerk to Thomas Chater, 

 Solicitor, of this town. At the end of his clerkship he 

 studied at the office of Thomas Brown, Solicitor, in London, 

 and was afterwards duly admitted as an Attorney. He 

 returned to Newcastle in 1830, and the next year he took an 

 office over the shop of his friend, Joshua Alder, in the Side. 

 There he awaited practice for two years ; but, attracted by 

 the superior charms of Natural History, he quitted the office 

 and the legal profession together. 



He was one of the founders of the Natural History Society 

 of Northumberland and Durham (the first part of whose 

 1 Transactions ' appeared in 1830), and an Honorary Curator 

 of its Museum, to which, by his application and industry, 

 he rendered essential assistance. 



Letters left by him, dated 1832, 1833, and 1834, from Dr. 

 W. S. Hooker of Glasgow, and Dr. Johnston of Berwick- 

 upon-Tweed, show that he and his brother John had formed 

 a project for a work on British Birds, which, not having 

 been sufficiently encouraged, was dropped, though John had 

 already executed some of the drawings for the work. [Some 

 of these, however, were subsequently published in his " Cata- 

 logue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham" (' Nat. 

 Hist, Trans. Northumb. and Durham,' Vol. VI. 1874).] 



From about 1835 to 1840 Albany had been turning his 

 attention to modelling in clay and in plaster, and had accom- 

 plished a fair bust or two. He also designed and painted 

 fish, flowers, and fruit, thus cultivating and improving the 

 faculties and the tastes he was becoming more and more 

 conscious of possessing, and preparing, without knowing it, 

 for his future work. He delighted in beautiful and tasteful 

 combinations of form and colour, and was a great admirer 

 and good critic of Poetry and the Fine Arts generally. 



Up to the age of thirty the subject of this memoir seems to 

 have had no fixed object in life. He had withdrawn entirely 

 from business, and indee-1 the simplicity of his habits and of 

 his whole life made business of little interest to him, and the 

 purity of his tastes and aspirations rendered work which had 

 gain only for its object utterly distasteful to him. 



Following the example of their father, Albany and his 

 brothers Thomas and John, together with their friends, 

 Joshua Alder, the Burnetts, William Huttoii (joint author 

 with Professor Lindley of 'The Fossil Flora'), William 

 Robertson, R. B. Bowman, and John Thonihill, botanists, and 

 W. C. Hewitson (author of ' The Eggs of British Birds/ and 

 of ' Exotic Butterflies '), examined afresh the whole of the 

 surrounding district, making collections of all natural objects. 



