I9I9- R^'V' Charles William Benson. yy 



He kept well in touch with the Dublin Naturalists' 

 Field Club — conducting some of its excursions when orni- 

 thology was the object — and gave occasional " bird-talks " 

 at meetings within his parish and elsewhere, taking a special 

 interest in those of the " Irish Society for the Protection of 

 Birds," by whom an address of his delivered in 19 13 on 

 the subject of " Swiss Birds " was afterwards issued in 

 pamphlet form. Though he had now reached a ripe old 

 age, his walking powers were still remarkable, and in 

 default of trains he was known in the course of his 

 seventy-seventh year to walk from Balbriggan into Dublin — 

 a distance of 22 miles. His mental energy found scope in 

 unwearying correspondence with those who shared his 

 enthusiasm for one or more of his three great hobbies — 

 " birds, boys, and boats." Among the many other sub- 

 jects that attracted him, that of dreams held a distinct 

 place, and a drawingroom lecture he delivered when 

 visiting his friend and brother-naturalist Canon Flemyng 

 on the " invisible visions to which we are a\\ake in sleep" 

 left lasting impressions on the memories of some at least 

 of the audience. 



His last Continental holiday (1914) was interrupted by 

 the outbreak of the war, which found him in Switzerland ; 

 and it was no lack of activity on his own part that restricted 

 his range during the four summers that remained to him. 

 He took his share in the toils, as he did in the anxieties, 

 of those years ; but his thirst for fresh knowledge of nature 

 never flagged. To the last, his letters and conversation 

 were full of energy, and his interest in all that concerned 

 the welfare of his friends was an irrepressible feature in 

 both. That this sympathy extended to the feathered 

 friends whose ranks had been so sadly thinned by the winter 

 of 1 9 16-17 — 3.nd perhaps by other causes not yet explained 

 — is only what all who knew him would expect ; and it is 

 not uncharacteristic that in his last published note [Irih 

 Naturalist, vol. xxvii., p. 173) he expresses his fear that 

 the aeroplanes constantly circling about Balbriggan have 

 brought a new terror into their lives. 



This is not the place to speak of him otherwise than as 

 the student and lover of nature ; but it would be hard to 



