102 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



Before the end of the year " The Lane and Field " 

 had gone to press. It was not a hard book to write, 

 for all the necessary information had been acquired 

 years before, and little now remained to be done save 

 the actual preparation of the manuscript, and the choice 

 of fit and proper illustrations. And so my father was 

 enabled, at the same time, to work at a second book, 

 which for many years he had had in contemplation, but 

 which, for various reasons, he had never until now 

 been able to commence. 



This was a new edition of Charles Waterton's 

 famous " Wanderings in South America," which, deeply 

 interesting as it is, is deprived of half its value to the 

 general reader by its author's singular fondness for the 

 use of incomprehensible native titles in place of those 

 familiar to English ears; so that the identification 

 of the various animals, plants, and trees is rendered 

 utterly impossible to those who do not possess a key 

 to this strange phraseology. This key Waterton 

 always steadily declined to provide ; and when, after 

 his death, the book was gradually passing out of 

 circulation, it occurred to my father that a new edition, 

 in which an explanatory index should be supplied, 

 while the " Wanderings " themselves remained un- 

 touched, might save a really valuable book from falling 

 into oblivion. 



And for the preparation of this new edition he was 

 peculiarly qualified. He had regularly corresponded 

 with Waterton ; he had visited him at Walton Hall, 

 his marvellous bird-paradise in Yorkshire ; and he had 



