IN MEMOKIAM. 71 



notes, or its mode of flight, where these are distinctive, and I 

 remember his complaining to me comparatively recently that 

 he thought his memory was failing, as he could not always tell 

 what birds he heard. 



On his leaving school it was decided that he should enter 

 the medical profession, and with this object in view he was 

 articled to a surgeon at Maidstone, where he remained some 

 years. It was here that he commenced the study of botany, to 

 which he devoted most of his leisure time. He thought no 

 trouble too great to be taken in this his favourite pursuit, and 

 soon became acquainted with all the plants in the neighbour- 

 hood, often walking 20 miles or more before breakfast that 

 he might find some fresh specimen or obtain material for 

 examination at home. He speedily acquired a very good collec- 

 tion, with the assistance of some of the well known botanists of 

 that day, and on his leaving Maidstone his herbarium contained 

 specimens of almost every British plant, ferns as then classified 

 being particularly well represented. When his period of pupilage 

 expired he was not ambitious to advance himself in his profes- 

 sion by coming to London and entering on hospital work ; in 

 fact, the very idea of hospital practice or operative surgery 

 was repugnant" to him. To abandon natural history pursuits 

 was a sacrifice too great, and he went in preference to Farnham 

 as assistant to a surgeon, and afterwards to Tunbridge Wells in 

 the same capacity. I think it was about this time that he had 

 an attack of rheumatic iritis, which permanently injured the 

 sight of one eye, and after laying him by for a considerable 

 time led him to renounce the idea of qualifying for practice. 



Almost as soon as photography became a practical art he 

 entered upon it with a good deal of zest, and was even in busi- 

 ness for a short time as a photographer. From some cause or 

 other it did not turn out to be very profitable, a.nd there is 

 little doubt that so far as the trade element was concerned he 

 was unfitted for it. By the wax paper process he secured 

 negatives of most of our native ferns, and at one time contem- 

 plated issuing a complete series of prints from them. He also, 

 by the same process, commenced a series of views of the parish 

 churches in the neighbourhood. Those who are acquainted 

 with the difficulties of this branch of photography would be 

 astonished at the merit which some of these negatives display. 



