A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 149 



After completing his education, he was articled to 

 my brother-in-law, Mr. Bateson Wood, and has now 

 become the head of the firm Wood & Williamson. 

 I may say of him, and of myself, that from his birth 

 until now he has given me no anxiety beyond what 

 any little failure of health has caused, and some of 

 the keenest pleasures possible to the heart of a 

 father. 



In 1854 my Wesleyan friends resolved to publish 

 a quarterly journal of a higher literary and scientific 

 character than any that had been previously at- 

 tempted by them. They solicited my co-operation, 

 which I promised to give, and wrote an article for 

 their first number on " The Lower Forms of Vege- 

 " table Life," the first of a long series which con- 

 tinued until 1869, when the pressure of other work 

 compelled me to retire from their staff. The maga- 

 zine was called the London Quarterly. 



During this period I made two excursions with 

 my friend, Mr. John Fernley, up the Rhine, and 

 through Switzerland to the Italian Lakes. These 

 visits familiarised me with Alpine flora, which I had 

 previously known only from illustrated books ; whilst 

 they also gave me opportunities of indulging what 

 had long been a favourite amusement viz., land- 

 scape sketching in water colours. 



Whilst events just recorded were passing, I was 

 suddenly prostrated by illness. Operating upon a 

 case of fistula, the point of my knife had slightly 

 grazed the skin of my finger, and mortific matter 



