46 PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



Mrs. Percy Sladen, 1848-190G. — Constance Anderson, daughter 

 of the Lite William Charles Anderson, M.E.C.S., J. P., sometime 

 ►Sherifi: of York, was born in that city on the 11th of August^ 

 1848. The noble minster of her native place may be credited 

 with Laving kindled in her an enthusiasm for architecture and 

 antiquarian lore. One of her brothers, Dr. Tempest Anderson, 

 M.D., D.Sc, P.L.S., has informed us that in the outset of life her 

 taste was cultivated at the York School of Art and in Eome. 

 Among the results of the proficiency thus attained are spirited 

 accounts of some important English churches, which she published 

 at the prompting and under the editorship of Professor Bonney, 

 P. U.S., in 1884 and 1890. One of these essays describes the 

 grand cathedral with which from childhood she had been familiar. 

 The others are concerned vrith the less I'enowned but archaeologically 

 and otherwise very interesting parish churches of Louth, Halifax, 

 and Bradford, and the Abbey church of Selby. In j-egard to the last 

 of these, the authoress remarks that "to give any idea of the beauty 

 of the interior, words utterly fail,"' and then proceeds, with perhaps 

 designed inconsistency, by her ovvTi skilfully worded sketch to- 

 evoke a very pleasing conception of its numerous charms. Upon 

 wedding Mr. Percy Sladen in 1890 she readily allowed her lively 

 intelligence to be directed to a new sphere of interest. Por five 

 years after his marriage Sladen continued to be, as he had been 

 for five years before it. Zoological Secretary of this Society. The 

 President in his address has explained how the sympatLy between 

 genial husband and genial wife led eventually to tbe foundation 

 of the Pei-cy-Sladen Trust, a boon to science great in promise and 

 already not insignificant in performance. Before this came about 

 there had to be intervening days of sunshine and days of sorrow. 

 In 1898 the husband inherited a large fortune. In 1900 the ^vife 

 became a widov/. Thus it fell to her lot to carry out his wishes, 

 and to show in only too brief opportunity that she knew how to 

 make no ignoble use of riches. In the tribute of this memorial 

 notice she herself enjoys a sorrowful primacy, won by what in 

 the language of human ignorance we call her untimely death on 

 the 17th of January, 1906. In the ranks of women who have 

 been expressly honoui-ed by the Linnean Society, the past yields 

 two conspicuous examples — Lady Smith, who survived her husband, 

 our Pounder, for nearly fifty-six years, and Queen Victoria, who 

 was for a still longer period our gracious patron. But neither of 

 these remarkable persons was eligible for the ordinary Peilowship, 

 to which Mrs. Percy Sladen was admitted, with a bevy of other 

 ladies, on the memorable 19th of January, 1905, when the tardy 

 recognition of women's aptitude for biological research received 

 its inaugural blessing so far as this great house of science was able 

 to bestow it. [T. E. R. S.] 



William Soweeby, who died on 9th March, 1906, at his residence 

 at Baker's End, Ware, Herts, aged 79, came of a family well 

 known in the records of natural history in this country. His 



