Biographical Notice of the late Richard Taylor, F.L.S. 55 



press, and of his persevering devotion even to the minutest 

 duties of his profession. 



In the year 1807 he became a Fellow of the Linnsean Society, 

 and at the anniversary of 1810 he was elected Under-Secretary, 

 an office which he retained for nearly half a centuiy, and in 

 which he earned for himself the cordial esteem and good-will of 

 every member of the Society. In his Diary, under date of 

 the anniversary of 1849, he notes that he had "served with 

 M'Leay, Bicheno, Dr. Boott, and Mr. Bennett, under the suc- 

 cessive presidencies of the founder Sir J. E. Smith (the intimate 

 and dear friend of my parents and my warm friend), of the 

 Earl of Derby, the Duke of Somerset, and my excellent friend 

 Dr. Stanley, Bishop of Norwich." To the names of the Presi- 

 dents he might subsequently have added those of Mr. Brown 

 and Mr. Bell; and he must have felt, though he was too modest 

 himself to note it down, how highly he was esteemed by them 

 all for his strict sense of honoiu', the amiability of his disposi- 

 tion, and his entire devotion to the interests of the Society. 



Among the numerous other learned bodies of which he was a 

 member, the Society of Antiquai'ies, the Astronomical Society, 

 and the Philological were those in which he took the deepest 

 interest. He also attached himself from its commencement to 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, nearly 

 all the meetings of which, while his health permitted, he regu- 

 larly attended. At these pleasant gatherings of the scientific 

 world, in the society of his numerous friends and of those whose 

 names were most distinguished in science, many of the happiest 

 days of his life were passed. 



In 1822, as already stated, he joined Dr. Tilloch as editor of 

 the ' Philosophical Magazine,^ with which Dr. Thomson's 

 'Annals of Philosophy' were subsequently incorporated. In 

 1838 he established the ' Annals of Natural History,' and 

 united with it, in 1841, Loudon and Charlesworth's 'Maga- 

 zine of Natural History.' He subsequently (at the sugges- 

 tion and with the assistance of some of the most eminent 

 members of the British Association) issued several volumes of 

 a work intended especially to contain papers of a high order 

 of merit, chiefly translated, under the title of 'Taylor's Scientific 

 Memoirs.' But his own principal literary labours were in the 

 field of biblical and philological research. In 1829 he prepared 

 a new edition of Home Tooke's ' Diversions of Purley,' wliich he 

 enriched with many valuable notes, and which he rc-cditcd in 

 1840. In the same year (1840), Warton's ' History of English 

 Poetry' having been placed in his hands by Mr. Tegg, the pub- 

 lisher, he contributed largely, in conjunction with his friends 

 Sir F. Madden, Benjamin Thorpe, J. M. Kemble, and others, 



