PREFACE. IX 



revealing Mr. Newman as the author of the whole. Much of 

 the information on the birds and mammals of Godalming was, 

 however, gleaned from his kind friend and frequent companion 

 Waring Kidd, who, now in his eighty -eighth year, still lives at 

 Godalming ; and modesty prevented Mr. Newman from assuming 

 the authorship when the facts were not all his own. The 

 ' Letters ' having been once begun under a nam de lAume 

 (' Magazine of Natural History,' 1832, vol. v. p. 601) it was 

 convenient to continue the pleasant fiction. It has probably 

 escaped the notice of many that the last of these ' Letters ' were 

 published in 'Chambers' Journal' in 1850, and were on the 

 house sparrow ; mice, rats, weasels and stoats ; feathered mousers ; 

 and squirrels. In one branch of liis "Observations," viz., the 

 life-histories of insects injurious to agriculture, Eusticus was 

 a pioneer : no such work had previously been attempted ; and, 

 great as is its value, few besides Mr. Newman and the late 

 John Curtis have ever ventured upon it. These chapters on 

 Economic Entomology were continued at irregular intervals 

 in the ' Entomologist,' the ' Zoologist,' and the ' Field,' until 

 towards the close of his life. 



In the year 1826 the wool business at Godalming was 

 abandoned. It had never been a very profitable concern ; and 

 the parent, now past middle life, was desirous of freedom from 

 commercial occupation. The son had never taken to it kindly. 



In the same year Mr. Newman came up to London, and 

 entered into a rope business at Deptford. To a nature such as 

 his — delighting in all the charms of a life in the country — the 

 change to Deptford would have been most distasteful, had it not 

 opened out further opportunities for the cultivation of friend- 

 ships and society among men of his own tastes. The rope 

 business was to a great extent managed by the foreman, who had 

 held the same post in the wool business at Godalming. It was 

 not allowed to become a di-udgery, although to him commerce 

 was never congenial. Only one day in each week was entu-ely 

 devoted to its affairs ; a small part of each of the remaining 

 days sufficed. At the rope-walk he had a large garden, which 

 he subsequently described as a place where everything grew as 

 it liked. A large plot of ground was sown with the common red 

 valerian, because of its attractiveness to insects ; and here he 



b 



