[ ^17 ] 



^be late 1Re\>. Xeonarb Blomcficlb, flD.a. 



(1800-1893). 



BY the death, at an advanced age, of the Rev. Leonard 

 Blomefield, a prominent figure has been removed from 

 the world of science, and another of those hnks which 

 connect the past with the present has been severed. The deceased 

 gentleman was born in London in 1800 and was the son of the 

 Rev. Leonard Jenyns, a Canon of Ely. He changed his name to 

 that by which he will long be remembered on coming into the 

 Blomefield property in Norfolk. It would appear that he derived 

 his fondness for science generally from his mother, the daughter 

 of the famous physician to the Royal Family, Dr. Heberden. His 

 taste for natural history was fostered by his uncle, Mr. Chappelow. 

 He was first educated at Putney, and went to P^ton in 1813, 

 going from there in 18 18 to St. John's College, Cambridge. It 

 was at Cambridge where he made the acquaintance of Charles 

 Darwin and Henslow, the botanist. Henslow married his sister in 

 1823, and was a constant companion in his botanical work. The 

 herbarium which Blomefield commenced about this time gradually 

 grew until in [887 it consisted of over forty large folio volumes 01 

 phanerogams, besides many smaller volumes of mosses, hepaticas, 

 and fresh-water and marine algje. This collection was deposited 

 in 1869 in the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. 



Having taken his degree he was ordained in 1823 by the Bishop 

 of Exeter and appointed to the curacy of Swaffham Bulbeck, 

 Cambridgeshire, close to his father's Bottisham Hall property. After 

 holding the curacy for five years, he was presented with the living by 

 the Bishop of Ely. Owing to the state of the health of his first 

 wife (Jane, daughter of the Rev. Andrew Daubeny), he left Swaff- 

 ham Bulbeck, having held the living about thirty years, and, after 

 staying at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, for a short time, he finally settled 

 in Bath. His first wife died in i860, and in 1862 he married 

 Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Robert Hawthorn, who now survives 

 him. There was no issue by either marriage. 



One of Mr. Blomefield's ambitions was to have a good scien- 



International Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science. 

 Third Series. Vol. III. e e 



