LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXXIX 



trade, and inherited from liis uncle, Mr. Timothy Holies, the 

 house in Great Ormond Street, together with a handsome legacy 

 and a museum of curiosities, which descended to our late Eellow, 

 and contributed, no doubt, to awaken in him that taste for natural 

 and physical science, and that spirit of iaquiry by which he was 

 through life distinguished. His mother was one of the two 

 daughters and co-heiresses of Dr. Horsman, an eminent London 

 physician ; and his school-days were passed at Cheam in Surrey, 

 vmder the tuition of ]\Ir. Gilpin, son of the celebrated author of 

 the work on " Forest Trees." He became a student of Magdalen 

 College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. in the year 

 1800, and was subsequently called to the bar as a member of 

 Lincoln's Inn. On the death of his father in 1807, he succeeded 

 to a considerable property, and devoted himself thenceforward to 

 the iudulgence of his incliuation for the pursuits of science and 

 art, and to the cultivation of friendly relations with those who 

 were most eminent ia both. He became in the same year a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, and was early led, by his intimacy with 

 the late Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight, at whose house at Dowuton 

 he was a frequent visitor, to take a warm interest in the Horticul- 

 tural Society, of which he continued through life to be an active 

 supporter. He was also for many years an assiduous promoter of 

 the Society of Arts and of the Royal Institution ; and became a 

 Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Geological, the Zoological 

 and numerous other Societies. But the subject which more than 

 any other attracted his attention, was the improvement of the 

 microscope ; and his patronage and encouragement were liberally 

 bestowed on those able opticians who contributed so greatly, some 

 twenty or thirty years siace, to the perfection of an instrument, 

 the importance of which in scientific investigation is daily be- 

 coming more widely acknowledged. To this recognition was 

 subsequently due the formation of the Microscopical Society, of 

 which INIr. Solly, notwithstanding his sti'ong predilection for micro- 

 scopical studies, became a somewhat reluctant member, inasmuch 

 as he felt that the microscope was simply an instrument of 

 research in various branches of science, each of which was already 

 provided mth its own appropriate Society. Of the Linnean So- 

 ciety he became a FeUow in 1826, and was frequently a member 

 of our Council, in which his business habits and the acti\dty of 

 his mind rendered him peculiarly useful, especially in relation to 

 financial questions. To him we are chiefly indebted for the clear- 

 ness and simplicity of our balance-sheet and especially of that 



