April, 1008.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 181 



ALFRED WILLIAM HOWITT. 



The death of Dr. Hovvitt has removed from our midst one who 

 was at once the oldest and most distinguished scientist in Aus- 

 tralia. 



Alfred William Hovvitt was born at Nottingham in 1830. He 

 was the son of William and Mary Howitt, whose names, during 

 at least half of the nineteenth century, were well known in literary 

 circles in Great Britain. His father, who was a native of Heanor, 

 a delightful little village in Derbyshire, commenced his literary 

 career at the early age of thirteen, when he published in the 

 Monthly Magazit'ie an ode entitled "An Address to Spring." 

 He was by profession a chemist, and to this fact may perhaps be 

 attributed the leaning of his son towards a scientific life. The 

 father finally devoted himself to literature, the son to science. 

 Both William and Mary Howitt were ceaseless workers, in 

 evidence of which it may be stated that the name of the latter as 

 author, translator, or editor is attached to no fewer than one 

 hundred works, and all who know what their son has done will 

 realize that he inherited to the full this power of constant, tire- 

 less work. It is very interesting also to note, in view of what the 

 latter did in regard to Australian exploration, that in 1823 

 William and Mary Hovvitt, soon after they were married, made a 

 pedestrian tour through Scotland, at that date an almost unheard-of 

 achievement. In 1840, when Alfred was ten years old, they went 

 to live in Heidelberg for the benefit of their children's education. 

 Here William Howitt published a book, entitled " The Rural and 

 Domestic Life of Germany" — a work which the Al/gemeine 

 Zeitung described as the most accurate account of that country 

 written by a foreigner. Both William and Mary Howitt possessed 

 great powers of observation and considerable linguistic ability, 

 and both of these powers were strongly developed in the son. 



In June, 1852, William Hovvitt, accompanied by his sons, 

 Charleton and Alfred, set sail for Melbourne, the ostensible 

 object of this trip being to see his brother, Dr. Godfrey Hovvitt, 

 who was then settled as a medical man in Melbourne. Doubtless 

 a desire to see new countries, and especially one reports of 

 whose fabulous riches were then reaching England, acted as a 

 further stimulus to induce him to make what was in those days a 

 bold and adventurous trip. The results of this visit were that 

 the father published the well-known book " Land, Labour, and 

 Gold ; or, Two Years in Victoria," and the son settled in 

 Australia and gave to the world work which, in ethnology at 

 least, will always rank as of primary importance. 



But few of the admirers of Charles Reade's celebrated novel, 

 "It is Never Too Late to Mend," are aware that the local 

 colouring of the book was derived from William Howitt's work, 

 but this is an actual fact. To quote the words of Charles Reade 



