420 [June 



I 



OBITUARIES 



HENRY LEWIS 



Born at Walwoeth, 1834. Died at Wandsworth, 10th April 1898. 



On Easter Day there died one whose name is perhaps but little 

 familiar to our readers. Henry Lewis was what would be called an 

 uneducated man, in a small way of business as a bootmaker. But 

 with him business was subordinate to the pursuit of knowledge, his 

 special delight being the collection of facts concerning pre-historic 

 man. We are indebted to Mr W. J. Lewis Abbott, himself a well- 

 known worker in the same field, for an enthusiastic appreciation of 

 Lewis' work. Space forces us to be content with a few extracts. 



" For several decades he has been tramping the country from 

 Suffolk to Barton, obtaining thousands of interesting specimens, which 

 throw a flood of light upon Bronze, Neolithic, Palaeolithic, and Plateau 

 man, neglecting the more lucrative following of his trade, and denying 

 himself almost the necessities of life. Witliout a word of help or 

 encouragement he was content to plod along, working at every pit or 

 opening likely to yield the objects of his quest For many years he 

 was one of the best known collectors in any pit in the Thames Valley, 

 and men got to like him so thoroughly for his straightforward earnest- 

 ness, and his willingness to impart his little knowledge, that they 

 would let him have implements on credit; and although months 

 elapsed before they were paid for, notwithstanding his weekly visits, 

 we have heard rough-handed, square-hearted labourers remark, ' Oh, 

 he's all right, he'll pay when he gets some money.' Perhaps no man 

 set more labourers to work to find implements tlian Lewis, and thus 

 it is impossible to ;alculate the effect of his life-work. Upon hearing 

 of Skertchley's finds at Botany Bay, and the discredit with which they 

 were unjustifiably received, he set off to the scene of dispute, and 

 there secured not only far better implements than Skertchley had 

 found, but bulbed and worked flakes also. For some years we have 

 directed him to numerous so-called preglacial gravels to hunt for 

 striated bulbed flakes or implements, and the number of these he 

 obtained will surprise most people when an account of them is pub- 

 lished. Although he never wrote very much, his labours have been 

 made known by Mr Arthur Evans in connection with the interesting 

 bronze finds at Aylesford. We have seen him taking bands of work- 

 ing men round the British Museum galleries. Bloomsbury knew 

 him well, but Sir Augustus Franks, despite his unparalleled generosity 

 and deep learning, cannot be said to have been unduly prejudiced in 

 favour of older pre-historic man. Twice during his struggles Lewis 

 was visited by hre, which practically made a total wreck of him, and 

 his implements had to be sacrificed to meet claims. From the effects 

 of the last disaster he never recovered, and his business subsequently 

 became of restricted dimensions. 



