A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 57 



existed in York a strong body of scientific men : 

 The Reverend William Venables Vernon, afterwards 

 Vernon Harcourt ; Thomas Allis, the ornithologist ; 

 the three Backhouses, botanists and horticulturists ; 

 Drs. Beckwith and Belcombe, Mr. James Cooke, 

 Dr. G. Goldie, Jonathan Gray, and Daniel Tuke, all 

 interested according to their several tastes in 

 scientific work. Fortunately, alike for themselves 

 and for John Phillips, they appointed him keeper of 

 the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 

 At or very nearly the same time, John Edward Lee 

 and William Hey Dykes of Hull, E. G. George of 

 Leeds, and Mr. Ripley of Whitby were prosecuting 

 similar scientific studies. Thus, these towns became 

 centres from which a scientific impetus diffused 

 itself throughout Eastern Yorkshire. 



I have already referred to the publication by John 

 Phillips of the first part of his " Illustrations of the 

 " Geology of Yorkshire," and its effects upon my own 

 taste and life. Under such a combination of 

 influences, no wonder that in crossing the county 

 border, we find at Newcastle another cluster of 

 eminent workers. The centre of an important coal 

 district was sure to be supplied with eminent 

 colliery engineers, and we found them in such men 

 as Buddie and Sopworth. William Hutton, one of 

 the authors of the " Fossil Flora of Great Britain," 

 was the local authority on fossil plants. William 

 Hewitson was then publishing his beautiful work on 

 " Eggs f the British Birds," as well as laying the 



