Deceased Members Sir John St. Aubyn. 533 



appendices by himself, and brings down the account of families and 

 descent of property in that county from the death of those biogra- 

 phers, about the middle of the last century, to the present time. 

 Mr. Gilbert's additions and criticisms form no small part of its value ; 

 he has introduced also copious scientific notices by Dr. Boase and 

 other modern authors, relating to the geology of the county, a sub- 

 ject, he observes, of such recent origin, that the very word does not 

 occur in Chambers 's Encyclopaedia printed in 1783. In acknow- 

 ledgment of his indirect influence upon this science, I am bound to 

 state with gratitude that my Bridgewater Treatise would never have 

 existed, had not the appointment to write it been conferred upon 

 me by Mr. Gilbert whilst President of the Royal Society. 



Mr. Gilbert was an assiduous collector of ancient traditions, le- 

 gendary tales, songs and carols, illustrating the manners, sports, and 

 pastimes of the peasantry of Cornwall ; and he was a writer of several 

 anonymous letters and papers in the Gentleman's Magazine. He 

 possessed great memory and powers of quotation and anecdote, 

 enriched by vast stores of traditional information as to the personal 

 history of many of the most distinguished individuals of his time, 

 much of which will have perished with him. It has been truly said 

 of him by a contemporary biographer, that " His most endearing 

 talent was his power of conversation. It was not brilliant; it was 

 something infinitely beyond and better than mere display; it was 

 a continued stream of learning and philosophy, adapted with ex- 

 quisite taste to the capacity of his auditory, and enlivened with 

 anecdotes to which the most listless could not but listen and learn. 



" His manners were most unaffected, child-like, gentle, and na- 

 tural. As a friend, he was kind, considerate, forbearing, patient, 

 and generous ; and when the grave was closed over him, not one 

 man, woman, or child, who was honoured with his acquaintance, 

 but will feel that he has a friend less in the world. Enemies he can 

 have left not a single one." 



During the last twelve months his strength had been rapidly de- 

 clining, but he retained full possession of his intellectual faculties 

 till within a few hours of his death ; he breathed his last in the 

 bosom of his family at East Bourne, on the 24th of December 

 last, in the seventy-third year of his age. An exact and admirable 

 representation of his finely-formed head and intelligent countenance 

 is preserved in a bust by Westmacott in the Hall of Pembroke Col- 

 lege, Oxford. 



Sir JOHN ST. AUBYN, who died during the last year, was one 

 of the founders and early Vice-Presidents of the Geological Society, 

 and was among its most firm and valuable friends and supporters at 

 that perilous moment of its existence when the struggles and op- 

 position which attended its first establishment had nearly crushed it 

 in the bud ; he was also a liberal contributor to the supplies at 

 that time requisite for its advancement. 



He subscribed largely also to the funds then raised for the publi- 

 cation of Count Bournon's crystallographic work on Carbonate of 

 Lime, and for enabling Dr. Berger to undertake his tours in Corn- 

 wall, preparatory to his geological description of that county. 



