MEMOIR OF WILLIAM YARRELL. XVli 



he so far recovered as to able to give his uninterrupted 

 attention to matters of business. On Monday, the 25th 

 of August, he attended a Council of the Linnean Society, 

 and was as cheerful, and apparently nearly as well as 

 usual. In answer to a wish expressed by his intimate 

 and attached friend the President of the Society, that 

 he would soon be able to pay him a quiet visit, he said 

 that though pretty well he felt a " wooliness " in the 

 brain, and that he was restricted in his diet. On the 

 following Saturday, however, he felt himself well 

 enough to take charge of an invalid friend in a voyage 

 by sea to Yarmouth, and thus the very last act of 

 his life was one of kindness. He enjoyed the voyage, 

 took a moderate dinner at the Royal Hotel with appetite, 

 and retired to bed anticipating a good night's rest. But 

 scarcely had he lain down before he felt a difficulty of 

 breathing, and fearing, as he said, that " he might die 

 and no one know it," he got up, unlocked the door, and 

 rang the bell. The attentive landlady was speedily at 

 his bedside, medical assistance was procured without 

 delay, but nothing availed, and he expired calmly at 

 half-past twelve on Monday morning the 1st of Septem- 

 ber, in the seventy-third year of his age. He experi- 

 enced no pain, and remained perfectly conscious until 

 within a few minutes of his entering the unseen world. 

 The immediate cause of his death was judged to be 

 disease of the heart, with which the previous symptoms 

 of apoplexy were but indirectly connected. No autopsy 

 was made. On the following Monday he was buried at 

 Bayford in Hertfordshire (where a great many of his 

 maternal kinsfolk and ancestors lie), in a spot selected 

 by himself, his body being attended to the grave by the 

 President and other office-bearers of the Linnean So- 

 ciety, as well as by his executors and surviving relatives. 



