Xll 



(2) at St. Peter's, Croydon,on August 10, 1858, to Rosalind, daughter 

 of Alexander Campbell, Esq., of Tunbridge Wells. His second wife 

 predeceased him about a year. During the later years of his life, 

 though naturally feeling the increasing weakness of old age, his 

 health continued fairly good almost to the end, while the daily work 

 of the Observatory never ceased to occupy his thoughts. He was 

 fond of botany, and was a great lover of floriculture of the highest 

 order. At one time he was supposed to possess one of the best collec- 

 tions of ferns in England. This love of flowers and plants continued 

 as a pleasant recreation. It was only a week before he passed away 

 that he was pointing out to a friend, with conscious pride, the beauty 

 of the garden he had created around the Observatory. His death 

 took place on the morning of Sunday, May 28, 1893, in the eighty- 

 sixth year of his age ; and on the following Wednesday afternoon his 

 remains were laid to rest in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford. 



E. D. 



HENRY FRANCIS BLANFORD was born June 3, 1834, in Bouverie 

 Street, Whitefriars, London, where his father, William Blanford, 

 carried on a manufacture of gilt mouldings for decorative purposes, 

 picture frames, &c., in premises now converted into the printing 

 offices of the ' Daily News ' newspaper. 



The subject of the present memoir received his early education at 

 schools in Brighton and Brussels, and after studying for some time 

 at the School of Design, first in Somerset House, then in Marl- 

 borough House, he entered the E/oyal School of Mines, in Jermyn 

 Street, at its commencement in 1851. At the School of Mines, he 

 took the first place of the year, and at the conclusion of the first 

 year's term, received the only prize then offered, the Duke of Corn- 

 wall's Scholarship. After leaving the school, he passed a year in 

 studying mining at the Bergakademie of Freiberg, and another year, 

 part of which he employed in translating v. Kobell's book on the 

 blowpipe, his first published work, in London. 



In 1855, Mr. Blanford and his brother, also a School of Mines 

 student, received appointments on the staff of the Geological Survey 

 of India, under the late Dr. T. Oldham, and they arrived in Calcutta 

 at the end of September. Shortly after, the two brothers and Mr. W. 

 Theobald, another member of the staff, were despatched to Orissa, to 

 report upon a coal-field around Talchir, in the wild tract of the 

 Tributary Mehals. Of this coal-field nothing except the existence of 

 coal was known at the time; the whole of the geology had to be 

 made out from the examination of the ground, the greater part of 

 which was covered with forest. It was under these circumstances 

 that, mainly through the observations of Mr. H. F. Blanford, the first 

 steps were taken towards the classification of the remarkable series 



