BYGONE HULL NATURALISTS. 289 



"In June, 1806, I accepted Mr. Kirby"s pressing invitation to visit him 

 on my way from London to Hull, and spent ten delightful days with him at 

 Barham. Five or six of these were devoted to a minute examination together 

 of his Coleoptera, species 03' species, and I need not say what a fund of know- 

 ledge I derived from this inspection, accompanied by his comments, nor what 

 a large accession my collection received from his very liberal contribution of his 

 duplicates. Three or four days were given to an entomological excursion in 

 his gig, to visit the shores of the Orwell, where I found many insects new to 

 me." . . . 



"Agreeably to Mr. Kirby's invitation I transferred myself to Barham in the 

 summer of 1809, and for several weeks we were hard at work laying the foun- 

 dations of our book, which conceiving to be the Letters on External Anatomy 

 and Orismology, it was to these we first directed our attention, and before I 

 left Barham we had drawn out a general sketch of the whole, founded on the 

 examination of Mr. Kirby's insects, and discussions, often very long, as to the 

 propriety of various terms." . . . 



" We had found the various investigations required, so much more numerous 

 and difficult than we had calculated on, that at the time of our separation in 

 consequence of other engagements, we had not done anything towards the 

 preliminary and popular portion, not having even definitely fixed what par- 

 ticular letters each should take ; and though we had drawn up a provisional 

 table of all the anatomical and orismological terms which the science seemed 

 to demand, there were many of these still requiring further discussion before 

 they could be finally adopted. To these discussions the thirty-seven letters we 

 exchanged during the years i8o9and 1810 were mainly devoted. . . . We spared 

 no labour either of mind or pen to attain accurate notions on the subject." 



"At length, in the spring of 1815, the first edition of 750 copies of Vol. I. of 

 our book appeared — just in time to allow me to take one with me to show to 

 our entomological friends on the Continent, where I made a four months' tour 

 after the battle of Waterloo. A second edition was called for the next year, 

 and a third in 1817, when also was published Volume II., of which a second 

 edition was required in 1818, and a third in 1822. 



" A sad interruption of our joint labours took place in 1819, in consequence 

 of my ill health, caused by severe headaches, gradually increasing, until at 

 last they were excited by the slightest effort of attention in reading or writing. 

 After struggling against them a year or more, and trying various remedies 

 recommended by medical advisers, I was obliged to give in, and, adopting Dr. 

 Baillie's prescription of being " for several years an idle man," to lock up my 

 books and cabinets ; to put in order and send to my co-adjutor, whose grief 

 and disappointment were equal to my own, my large pile of unfinished MSS. 

 for my share of the work ; and to transfer myself and family from Yorkshire to 

 the more genial climate of Exmouth, where we resided several years. 



" During this period, though I took no active share in the completion of our 

 book, I gave suggestions on various points in the letters which we regularly 

 exchanged ; and one summer Mr. Kirby, accompanied by Mrs. Kirby, made 

 the journey from Barham to Exmouth, expressly to spend a few days with us — 

 I need not say how greatly to my delight. 



"In 1S26, our concluding volumes (Vols. III. and IV.) appeared; and in 

 this same year, as I found travelling always suit my health, which was still far 

 from being re-established, I removed with my family to the Continent." 



In 1833 he had settled in London after visits to Italy and 

 Switzerland, and he assisted in the formation of the Entomological 

 Society of London, of which Kirby and himself were the only 



