OBITUAK*. 119 



(g) B I T U A R Y. 



HENRY ROWLAND-BKOWN, M.A., F.E.S. 



It is with a feeling- of pain, coupled with a sense of real loss, that 

 we have to record the " Home Call " of one of tlje best loved entomo- 

 logists of our day, one who is mourned l)y a very wide and varied circle 

 of friends. Henry Rowland- Brown passed from among us on May the 

 28rd. The telegram to the writer " At Peace," fitly describes our dear 

 friend's end. 



Since the sudden commencement of his illness, just over a year ago, 

 his suffering had often been intense, and more than once hope was given 

 up. His robust constitution however pulled him through for a time, 

 and it should be recorded that never a murmur passed his lips, as he 

 lay helpless for long, and his patience was beyond words. 



Whilst building his house at Harrow-Weald his father came to 

 Pinner temporarily, and here it was that our friend was born, on May 

 19th, 1865, "when all the world was up and stirring in the radiant 

 spring time," as his sister writes of his coming, for whom he has ever 

 " been the central figure of life," and " The daisy chains of old link us 

 together with gyves that can never be broken." So must we indeed 

 tender to that sister our deep and heart-felt sympathy. A passion for 

 flowers was inherited by both of them from their father, who loved his 

 garden and his flowers greatly. 



In his baby days, when he could little more than toddle, Rowland- 

 Brown evinced a lively interest in, and had no fear of the " hairy and 

 many-hued caterpillars " which his sister then rather shuddered to 

 touch. 



We pass on to the brother and sister's first visit to the Isle of Wight, 

 where " iridescent lUues and small Coppers danced in open spaces over 

 rest-harrow, hawkweed, the pretty lemon -seen ted, lemon-coloured 

 agrimony, and the Painted Lady, haunted the roadside thistles," to 

 quote from Rowland Grey's Mtjwli when Yoitii;). But before this at 

 <iuite an early age he had developed much decision of character, for 

 once being in trouble with his governess over the Church Catechism 

 he was taken down stairs to his mother, when he defended himself with 

 vigour, and with some logic, as Rowland Grey writes : — " She asks me 

 my name. I tell her every mornmg. She knows it quite well. She 

 asks ine what my godfathers and godmothers did then for me. I tell 

 her ' nothing whatever,' and that's true enough." 



Rugby was at that time at the height of its fame, and it was here 

 that he went in 1879, doing well in his studies as well as in sports, his 

 reports being always good. " Leaves with an excellent character, 

 <;heerful and trustworthy," means much more from a man like Dr. Jex 

 Blake than would a more detailed account from other less stringent 

 headmasters. This took place in 1883. In 1887 he took his B.A. 

 degree at Oxford, and his M.A. in 1891. He was at University College, 

 and no doubt the Hope Museum strengthened his love for Natural 

 History, though by this time he was an energetic Lepidopterist. He 

 then took up the law and was called to the Bar in 1889. 



He early developed a love of music and became an accomplished 

 musician, and in sympathetic company would often improvise very 

 beautifully. It is generally known that he, like his sister, had strong 

 literary powers, and belonged to the Savage Club and the Garrick ; he 



