XXX 



Mr, Simms was a man of quiet unobtrusive manners, and of a 

 fair and candid disposition, which won the esteem and, in not a few 

 instances, the friendship of those with whom he transacted business. 

 He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831, and 

 served several times on the Council. He was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society in 1852. He died at his residence, Carshalton, June 

 21, 1860. 



WILLIAM SPENCE was born of a respectable Yorkshire family at 

 Hull in 1 783 : he commenced business in that town, and afterwards 

 represented it in Parliament. At about ten years of age he was led, 

 as he mentions in one of his addresses to the Entomological Society, 

 " from mere boyish imitation to collect and dry plants, and to copy 

 out the names of the Linnean classes and orders." This pursuit was 

 interrupted by removal to a school, but he resumed it later, and when 

 he had exhausted the plants of his neighbourhood, began the study 

 of entomology with Coleoptera. In 1 805, the present of a few insects, 

 sent by the hand of a friend who was journeying to Suffolk, brought 

 him into acquaintance, and eventually a lasting friendship, with the 

 Rev. W. Kirby of Barham. To this friendship English literature 

 owes a work which, with White's ' Selborne,' may be said to have 

 done more to promote a taste for the study of natural history than 

 any other of its class, and the first notion of this work was sug- 

 gested by Mr. Spence in a letter to Mr. Kirby in 1808; but the 

 authorities to be consulted were numerous, and the labour was great, 

 so that the first volume did not appear until 1815. The second 

 volume was published in 1817, the first having in the meantime 

 passed through three editions. Mr. Spence now became subject to 

 severe headaches and other signs of illness, which compelled him to 

 abandon his studies for a while ; he therefore, persuaded by his 

 medical advisers, shut up his books, and quitted Yorkshire for Devon- 

 shire. During his residence at Exmouth he occupied himself with 

 outdoor observations of insects ; and his health having improved, the 

 third and fourth volumes of the 'Introduction to Entomology, or 

 Elements of the Natural History of Insects,' were brought out in 

 1 826. Of this remarkable work it may be said without exaggeration, 

 that it has charmed thousands of readers, and induced many to in- 

 terest themselves in the study of insect life, who without it might 



