82 REMINISCENCES OF 



But one more member of our Society must not be 

 passed over without notice, because though not in 

 any sense a practical man of science, he was a great 

 social power among those who were. 



Dr. Edward Holmes was a bachelor physician, 

 who long resided at the upper end of King Street, in 

 a house adjoining Brook's Bank. He was for many 

 years the President of the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, and an excellent portrait of him hangs in 

 the rooms where our meetings were held. Dr. 

 Holmes was a walking encyclopaedia of the literature 

 of Natural History. His habit was to sit reading far 

 into the night with a jug of beer by his side, and, 

 endowed as he was with a marvellous memory, he 

 deservedly obtained a reputation for being the most 

 learned man in the town so far as scientific literature 

 was concerned. Being alike wealthy and hospitable, 

 some of the pleasantest assemblies of the more 

 intelligent inhabitants as well as visitors were to 

 be met with round his social table. I have vivid 

 remembrance of Mrs. Lee, the widow of Major 

 Bowditch, the well-known South African explorer, 

 who on one of these occasions recounted to me an 

 adventure which it was her fate to endure in her 

 first married life. She was in Africa with her 

 husband, the Major, when her health failed, and it 

 was found desirable to send her to England ; her 

 husband meanwhile continuing his explorations on 

 the Dark Continent. She sailed and reached her 

 destination, but after a while, becoming weary, she 



