MEMOIR OF DRURY. 47 



of the specimens. A particular specification of its 

 contents will be given hereafter. When he found 

 objects of great interest begin to accumulate, and 

 many of them to prove altogether new, he thought 

 it incumbent on him to adopt some means of mak- 

 ing them known to the public for the advancement 

 of natural history. He seems to have conceived the 

 plan of publishing his " Illustrations" at an early 

 period, but it was his original intention that they 

 should be confined to English insects, foreign ones 

 being referred to only for the sake of comparison 

 and illustration. This design, however, was soon 

 abandoned, and a work undertaken to embody the 

 most valuable objects of his cabinet from foreign 

 parts. The first volume appeared in 1 770, forming 

 a handsome quarto, containing fifty plates, on which 

 were exhibited upwards of two hundred and forty 

 figures. Tne drawings were made, the plates en- 

 graved, and in the best copies coloured likewise, by 

 Moses Harris, who is admitted by all to have been 

 one of the best, if not the very best, entomological 

 artists of his day. His employer also exercised a 

 vigilant superintendence over his proceedings, so 

 that the utmost confidence may be placed in the 

 general accuracy of the delineations, both in regard 

 to engraving and colouring. Indeed, the care with 

 which they were got up, seems occasionally to have 

 led to such delay as nearly to exhaust the patience 

 of the placable author and disturb his habitual 

 equanimity. Hence the following scolding note to 

 the artist : 



