50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



'Twenty years' observations on Botany, Entomology, Ornithology, 

 and Meteorology, taken at Marlborough College, 1864-84' to be 

 issued by the College Natural History Society, whose reports began 

 in 1865, under Mr. Preston's guidance. 



He died at Thurcaston, 6th February, 1905. The last work 

 undertaken by him was a Plora of Leicestershire, which, it is 

 announced, will be completed by a friend and competent 

 successor. 



A former pupil writes : — " I remember that he w as exceedingly 

 kind to us boys, who learned from him so much about the zoology, 

 botany, and geology of the Marlborough neighbourhood. He was 

 a most careful observer and taught his pupils to record in a proper 

 way everything that was noteworthy. He started a botanic 

 garden after I left Marlborough. He was constantly arranging 

 excursions, also lectures and discussions in his room in the evenings.'' 

 A former colleague states : — " Not a master of the ordinary type, 

 which compels immediate attention and commands popularity, not 

 a great Form- or Housemaster, or athlete, yet in his own subjects 

 and in his own way, his powers of originating and organizing, of 

 stimulating and permanently influencing, mark him out as one of 

 the leading spirits, and one of the truest benefactors of Marl- 

 borough College . , . His own enthusiasm was catching. Little 

 bands of followers attended him armed with hammers, butterfly 

 nets, moth boxes, and botany tins. His room a little before bed- 

 time was a notable sight. Hither were brought the miscellaneous 

 spoils of a half-holiday raid : flowers with the prospect of a ' first 

 notice,' butterflies, flints, coins, all to be identified and discussed 

 by the Master. Later in the sixties . . . Mr. Preston gave some 

 excellent courses of lectures on botany, zoology, comparative 

 anatomy, and physiology. This was a step in advance of the time, 

 for Science Masters and Laboratories had not then been introduced. 

 They were capital lectures, very stimulating, questions being asked 

 and answered. The lecturer's munificence was shown here as in 

 all his other work, fine specimens and beautiful instruments being 



freely provided The Natural History Society did not, as was 



dreaded, injure games. The Society has long been an essential 

 ])art of the school life, but it was a novel thing in the sixties, the 

 first of its kind in the Public Schools of England, and those who 

 appreciate the interest and the refrcsliment which it affords to 

 minds somewhat jaded with cricket, and iambics, and essays, and 

 turned lessons, the pure delight of a field-day's outing with its 

 al fresco meals on grass or in barn, will surely bless the memory of 

 the founder. Not a few famous scientific men have drawn 

 inspiration from the Natural History Society." 



On leaving Marlborough a crowded meeting presented him with 

 a farewell address, which embodies much that has been set out 

 above. 



" Mr. Preston held the living of Thurcaston for over 19 years. 

 He found it heavily encumbered, he left it free . . • His scientific 



