THE FIRST SKETCH-LECTURES. 129 



left Oxford for a short sojourn in town, during which 

 he called upon the members of the Board of Grovernors. 

 After this, his time seems to have been much taken up 

 with the necessary preparations for removal; and no 

 doubt the second part of the lecture was, in conse- 

 quence, abandoned. 



Other lectures were given at Nottingham and at 

 Rotherhithe (on British Ghiiana) in 1864, at the Stein- 

 way Hall, London, and at Bath, in 1869, and afterwards 

 at Erith, and at Belvedere upon several occasions, of 

 the dates of which I can find no record. But it was 

 not until 1879 that any idea crossed my father's mind 

 of taking up lecturing as a kind of secondary profession. 

 In that year, however, he received a letter from Dr. 

 Chaning-Pearce, who was then residing at Brixton, and 

 who was anxious for a series of afternoon lectures, for 

 the benefit of his friends, in the large geological museum 

 attached to his house. Six lectures were accordingly 

 arranged, admission to be by invitation only ; and the 

 first was delivered on the afternoon of April 1 2th, the 

 subject being " Hibernation." A large audience assem- 

 bled, and the lecture was enthusiastically received ; and 

 on the five following Saturdays the course was con- 

 tinued, with steadily increasing success, the subjects of 

 " Migration," " Aerial Life," " Sub-aquatic Life," and 

 " Subterranean Life " being successively treated, while 

 the last lecture was devoted to such " Unappreciated 

 Insects," as the cockroach, the earwig, the blue-bottle 

 fly, and the gnat. And before it was completed my 

 father had made up his mind to undertake lecturing as 



