XXll PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



he adopted and maintained the circular and numerical system of 

 MacLeay, as modified by Swainson. He also commenced the 

 publication of a work entitled " Cheshire ; its Historical and Lite- 

 rary Associations, illustrated in a series of Biographical Sketches," 

 8vo, Manchester, 1852 ; but these sketches were not continued 

 beyond a few remarkable names, occurring under the letter B. 



The Bev. John Branshy, M.A., was educated at St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, where he took his Bachelor's degree in 1805, 

 and that of Master of Arts in 1808. For many years he was curate 

 of the parish of Stoke Newington, and in 1845 he became rector of 

 Testerton, in the county of Norfolk. In 1814 he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society ; and he was also a Fellow of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, of the Geological Society, and of the Cam- 

 bridge Philosophical Society. He died at King's Lynn, after a short 

 illness, on the 5th of March of the present year, at the age of 74. 



Walter Buchanan, Esq., well known to most of our older 

 Members by his former frequent attendance at our Meetings, was 

 originally engaged in mercantile pursuits, but had for some years 

 past retired from business. He was latterly an active magistrate 

 of the county of Middlesex, and took a prominent part in the 

 management of the County Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell. He 

 became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1817, and was likewise 

 a Fellow of the Horticultural Society. His death occurred at his 

 residence in Sussex Terrace, Hyde Park, on the 9th of November 

 last, in the 70th year of his age. 



The Very Bev. William BucUand, D.D., F.B.S., F.G.S., ^c, 

 Dean of Westminster, was born at Axminster, in the county 

 of Devon, in the year 1784. He was educated first at Tiverton 

 School, and was afterwards, in 1798, removed to St. Mary's Col- 

 lege, Winchester ; thence he passed, in 1801, to a scholarship in 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which in 1808 he became a 

 Fellow. His degree of B.A. was taken in 1803. His taste for 

 the study of geology was manifested at a very early age : while 

 yet a child his attention had been directed to the " Cornua Am- 

 monis," found in the rocks around his home; at Winchester he 

 collected the fossils of the chalk ; and during his early residence 

 at Oxford, those of the oolite. From 1808 to 1812 he made fre- 

 quent excursions on horseback to various parts of England, Scot- 

 land, Ireland, and Wales, collecting sections of the strata and 

 specimens of their organic contents. In 1813, on the resignation 

 of Dr. Kidd, he was appointed Eeader of Mineralogy in the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford, to which, in 1818, was added the Keadership of 



