172 Memoir uf the late John WoUey. 



XXII. — Memoir of the late John Wolley. 



The memory of the Naturalist whose death makes the first 

 gap in the small society of the promoters of ' The Ibis/ while 

 it inflicts on science in general a serious loss, deserves more than 

 a passing notice in these pages, and the writer of this Memoir, 

 who was closely intimate v/ith John Wolley during his latter 

 years, deems it a duty, at once melancholy and pleasurable in no 

 ordinary degree, to place on record the few bare facts of his 

 brief career. 



Sprung from a Derbyshire family of fair repute and antiquity, 

 the deceased naturalist was born at Matlock, May 13th, 1824, 

 being the eldest son of the Rev. John Hurt and Mary his wife, 

 eldest daughter of Adam Wolley, Esq., of Matlock, a gentleman 

 well known as a local historian and the donor of a valuable col- 

 lection of manuscripts, still called after him, to the British 

 Museum. At the decease of his father-in-law, in 1827, Mr. 

 Hurt assumed the name and arms of Wolley *. 



At an early age John Wolley was sent to Mr. Fletcher's pre- 

 paratory school at Southwell, which in 1836 he quitted for Eton, 

 where he remained for the next six years. A love for the study 

 of natvire showed itself even in the days of his childhood, though 

 at that time plants and insects shared his attention fully as 

 much as the higher classes of creation, which at a later period 

 became mainly the objects of his study. Indeed, while at 

 Eton, in his own words, he was " always about the country 

 in all directions in pursuit of Natural History," and he assidu- 

 ously collected insects and eggs, while he " knew every plant 

 that grew about." With all this, he was one of the foremost in 

 every manly sport; and his recollections of having been captain 

 of a "long-boat" and in " the eight," while also one of the 

 " oppidan " eleven, and that of " the school " at foot-ball, were 

 always among those in which he most delighted. 



In October 1842 he went to Cambridge, and entered upon 



• Mr. Hurt's father married the only daughter of the celebrated Sir 

 Richai-d Arkwright. Further particulars relating to the families of Hurt 

 and Wolley will be found in Sir J. B. Burke's ' History of the Landed 

 Gentry.' 



