MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. IX 



an importance hardly reached in the present day by narratives of 

 much more extended wanderings ; but his chief work, which, 

 though nearly completed in manuscript, was at the time of his 

 death only about half through the press, is a " Dictionary of 

 Roman Coins," since completed. 



The descendant of these two men, who inherited all the literary 

 tastes, " integrity, and goodness of heart," as well as " the retiring 

 modesty of disposition," attributed to his predecessors, was Henry 

 Stevenson, who was born in Surrey Street, Norwich, on the 30th 

 March, 1833. He was educated at King's College School, 

 London, and early displayed that love for natural science which in 

 after years became to him almost a passion. In 1855, at the 

 age of twenty-two, he was elected honorary secretary to the 

 Norfolk and Norwich Museum, a post which he held to the time 

 of his death. In 1864 Mr. Stevenson was elected a member of 

 the British Ornithologists' Union, being one of the first additions 

 made to the original number of the members of that society. 



On the 3rd November of the same year he was elected a Fellow 

 of the Linnean Society, his certificate bearing the signatures of 

 Professor Newton, Mr. P. L Sclater, and the late Professor 

 George Busk. At the first meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society, of which he was one of the founders, on 

 March 30th, 1869, he was chosen a ^^ce-president of that society, 

 and filled the office of president in 1871-72, evincing a keen 

 interest in its proceedings till the last. 



Mr. Stevenson was not only an observant naturalist but was a 

 keen sportsman also, and his remarks on covert shooting and 

 partridge driving Avill be found quoted Avith approval in Lord 

 Walsingham's volume in the Badminton Library on " Field and 

 Covert Shooting." His chief delight was snipe shooting in tlie 

 marshes bordering the broads, where the variety of the bag and 

 the constant hope of meeting with or observing the habits of rare 

 and interesting birds had an irresistible attraction for him. But 

 it was in summer that the broads presented to him their greatest 

 attraction, and the charming sketches entitled " A Summer's Night 

 on the Broads " (vol. i., p. 120) and " A Summer's Day on the 

 Broads" (i., p. 188), are but faint reflections of the many delightful 

 hours spent in the contemplation of nature in these once wild and 

 still fascinating scenes ; while his description of " A Sunset on the 

 Broads," vol. ii., p. 163, shows how capable he was of appreciating 

 the poetic beauty of the scenes so frequently presented by nature in 

 her varying moods. The present writer first made Mr. Stevenson's 

 personal acquaintance on coming to reside in Norwich in 1867, 

 but a community of tastes soon established a friendship which led 

 to many such pleasant excursions as have just been referred to, 

 b 



