CANON ATKINSON, M.A., D.C.L. 

 Born May 9th, 1814, Died March 31st, 1900. 



It seems desirable that some mention should be made in the 

 Proceedings of the Cleveland Naturalists' Field Club of the 

 life-work of one who wrote a " History of Cleveland," who 

 was a very able naturalist, and who was, moreover, an honorary 

 member of the Cleveland Club. 



Born in Essex, in 1814, John Christopher Atkinson 

 proceeded in due course to St. John's College, Cambridge, where 

 he took the degree of B.A. in 1838. He was ordained deacon 

 in 1841, and priest in 1842, by the Bishop of Hereford. From 

 1843 to 1846 he held a curacy at Scarborough, and became 

 vicar of Danby in 1847. Here he laboured successfully as a 

 parish priest for 53 years, and his tireless energy led him into 

 avenues of labour and investigation quite apart from the work 

 attaching to his cure, and his keen intellect ensured for what- 

 ever he undertook a large measure of success. 



He found, for example, that the people among whom he had 

 come to dwell spoke a dialect which differed materially from 

 standard English. The acuteness with which he observed, and 

 the assiduity with which he collected, the woids and expressions 

 and pronunciations of the dwellers in Cleveland, resulted, in 

 1868, in the publication of that very notable volume, "A 

 Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect," which is, perhaps, at the 

 same time, the best English local glossary that has ever been 

 written, and that one of Cauon Atkinson's works on which his 

 reputation will especially rest in the distant future. The 

 numerous tumuli or hnues scattered over the Cleveland Moors 

 also strongly arrested his attention, and ultimately, in conjunc- 

 tion with Canon Greenwell, he investigated large numbers of 

 these. In fact, nothing within the range of his eye and ear, 

 whether it belonged to the domain of the antiquary or to the 

 realm of the naturalist, escaped his intelligent appreciation. 

 Whether the thing observed were an uncommon bird, or a dis- 

 interred fragment of " Old Whitby," he forthwith discerned 

 its precise significance, and learnt from it for future use whatso- 

 ever it had to teach. 



