MR. EDWARD HOBSON. 299 
in the year 1782, and lost his father when he 
was only three years old. His mother, soon after 
this melancholy event, having contracted habits 
of intemperance, he was placed by his grand- 
father, under the care of his uncle, William 
Hobson, who resided at Ashton-under-Lyne. 
Here he was sent to a day school, kept by Mr. 
Wrigley. It is uncertain how long he remained 
with his uncle, but, having changed places with a 
younger brother, he returned to his grandfather, 
and was sent to school in Manchester, till he was 
about ten or eleven years old. In the opinion 
of Mr. Serjeant this was the extent of his educa- 
tion. It would be interesting to know what 
induced his first attachment to Botany. 
His friend John Horsefield, of Whitefield, near 
Bury, one of the most intelligent of Hobson’s 
companions, in a letter to the late John Hamp- 
son, of this town, also a very highly esteemed 
associate of Hobson, in answer to some inquiries 
on this subject, states, that “it was at the meet- 
ings of the Society of Botanists that Hobson 
received his earliest instruction in the science.” 
Horsefield also informs us that ‘he first met 
