Friendly Society (one of the most well-ordered of existing Benefit Clubs), found 

 in him a zealous and energetic supporter. Similarly he worked heartily, in co- 

 operation with the Rev. John Venn, and others, to establish the Hereford Society 

 for Aiding the Industrious. And he was associated with the Trustees of the 

 City Charities. Thus also when the question was one of intellectual, no less 

 than of moral, advancement. No one more warmly accepted the oflfer made by 

 Mr. Rankin to erect the building in which the Free I,ibrary and News-room 

 have their present home, or exerted himself more strenuously to extend the 

 benefits of these institutions, sitting as Chairman of their Committee for many 

 years. 



And the Permanent Library likewise commanded no small share of his 

 interest and time. 



Such a remarkable record of philanthropic energy it is given to few men to 

 leave behind them. Particularly when it is borne in mind how necessarily 

 extensive were the claims which a large private practice made upon his time 

 and thoughts, and that, in the case of each and any of these works which he 

 imdertook, it was no mere perfunctory or intermittent attention that he gave to 

 it, but thorough enquiry into its needs, and the whole bending of his vigorous, 

 business-like, habit of mind to the regulation of its affairs. The sight that was 

 witnessed in the City on the day of his burial in Breinton Churchyard testified, 

 as few things could have more adequately testified, to the keen appreciation by all 

 classes of what that record meant. 



But besides all this, there was a large, and that a very important, side of 

 Dr. Bull's life and character which it is for us more particularly here to recall. 

 That was his intense devotion to natural science, and especially as this devotion 

 was expressed in his labours for the welfare of the Woolhope Club. To say that 

 he was " versatile " in his grasp of various branches of such science is possibly to 

 convey a wrong impression as of superficiality of knowledge, and a quickness of 

 apprehension seizing only here and there the most striking points of each subject 

 of study. This was by no means the characteristic of his mind. And yet what 

 word more expressive than versatility can give any idea of the breadth of thought 

 to which botany, mycology, ornithology, horticulture, to a certain extent geology, 

 and again mediaeval and antiquarian lore, were all almost equally familiar, which 

 could get down scientifically to the secrets of each, and which could furnish him 

 with readiness and clearness of exposition, when either or all came under dis- 

 cussion ? To the Members of the Club, in whose memories the sight of the cheery 

 presence, the sound of the aptly chosen and incisive words wherewith he conversed 

 on the varying topics that their excursions suggested, still lingers, and must long 

 linger, there is perhaps but less necessity to dilate on that ardent love of nature 

 which displayed itself in all his words and actions. And yet one is compelled to 

 dwell upon all that he was to us. What indeed was he not to us ? 



He was never President but once, in the year 1866. But official status was a 

 minor matter. For all the years from then till now he was in a very true sense 

 "the life and soul" of the Club ; the energizing spirit of all that it did or achieved, 

 whether in the conspicuous successes of its Field Meetings, or in the less noticeable 



