330 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



to retire from the political arena ; and though he took several 

 weeks' holiday on the South Coast this spring in search of 

 health, those of us who saw him when he returned were pro- 

 foundly impressed with his changed appearance. But nothing 

 could affect his genial temperament, or his interest in business 

 and social engagements. 



As entomologists it is not our province to dwell upon the 

 professional and political aspects of Mr. Verrall's career. When 

 only eighteen years of age he joined the Entomological Society 

 of London, by whom his services as sometime Secretary were 

 widely appreciated ; and we who are also members recall that 

 to his election in 1887 w^as largely due the reorganization — I 

 may say, perhaps, the resuscitation — of the Entomological Club, 

 of which, with the exception of Dr. B. T. Lowne, no longer an 

 active member, he was at the time of his death the doyen. 



Mr. Verrall was elected a member of the Entomological 

 Society in 1866 ; it then consisted of only two hundred and 

 seven members, and, when thirty-two years later he succeeded 

 Mr. Roland Trimen in the Presidential Chair, he could say that 

 but thirty-four had survived him. My own term of service as 

 one of the Honorary Secretaries commenced in 1900, his second 

 year of office ; but unless I had happened to attend the famous 

 "Annual" of the Entomological Club under his chairmanship 

 in January, 1900, I am quite certain I should never have 

 oft'ered myself as a candidate for this post. So cordial and so 

 encouraging was Mr. Verrall, however, when the suggestion was 

 made by one or two of his guests that I did not hesitate for a 

 moment : and I may add I owe to him, in great measure, the 

 eleven most agreeable years of my entomological life. 



But I introduce this personal experience merely as an in- 

 stance of the unvarying kindness which inspired his smallest 

 actions. His great idea in these Entomological Club suppers of 

 his was to bring together entomologists of all ages — the students 

 of all Orders, scientific as well as unscientific. Every year I 

 used to receive a letter from him asking for the names of new 

 Fellows who had joined our ranks and others likely to do so, 

 and in what proved to be his farewell speech to the Club last 

 January, when the disappointment of a political reverse was 

 heavy upon him, he was consoled obviously by the reflection 

 that the number of his guests exceeded that of any similar 

 occasion. Indeed, there could not have been far short of a 

 hundred present. His custom of making the supper-table the 

 occasion for a review of current social events in the entomo- 

 logical world added a pleasant zest to the proceedings. 



More than once in the recent history of the Entomological 

 Society there might have been something worse than a teacup 

 storm had not Verrall, speaking openly and frankly, poured oil 

 on the troubled waters ! He always spoke his mind, and 



