TREFACE. Vli 



leatling to Hatch. The father, however, seems to have been 

 by no means tired of commercial life, for he again entered into 

 business — this time at Godalming — as a wool stapler. This 

 step was probably taken by the good man solely for the sake of 

 his son, in order that on leaving school he might begin a 

 commercial career under parental supervision. For ten years 

 father and son continued in the wool trade ; but the study of 

 Nature — for which the neighbourhood of Godalming offered 

 great opportunity — proved a strong counter-attraction to the 

 younger man. He was not energetic in the routine of 

 business, and it is to be feared that his absence from duty 

 was frequent ; nevertheless, he was far from idle. Indeed, 

 idleness was foreign to his nature ; not only at this period, but 

 throughout life, idleness was in his opinion a positive crime. 

 He held that no man need ever be without work. He knew 

 scarcely any rest : if when he came home there were an interval of 

 only a few minutes before a meal, out would come books, papers, 

 and insect-boxes, and he would at once be deep in scientific work. 

 He was generally in bed by ten o'clock at night, but up again in 

 the very early morning ; until his later years he was seldom in 

 bed after six o'clock, and in summer-time he would often be up 

 and at work hy five, four, and even three o'clock. After 1840 

 the greater part of his writing was done before breakfast ; he 

 would also write from about seven to nine in the evening ; but 

 the greater part of the work was done in the uninterrupted 

 quiet of the early morning. 



It was in this spirit of industry that he wandered away from 

 business at Godalming, and sought more congenial pursuits in 

 the lanes and fields, the woods and commons, of the beautiful 

 county of Surrey. Whether shooting blackcock on Hindhead, 

 climbing old hollow trees for owlets, or wandering about the 

 lanes with an insect-net, the mere present pleasure of the 

 occupation was not the principal charm. " When the lengthen- 

 ing days give the first impulse to the feathered tribes to bend 

 their course northward for the breeding season, it is here that 

 I listen for the first notes of the chiffchafl* ; here I watch for the 

 blackcap, the nightingale, the willow wrens, the garden warblers, 

 the whitethroat ; here, hour after hour, have I hunted for their 

 nests, — my object not being plunder, but information. Often 



