CHAP. XIL] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 91 



place of safety to permit of maturation or further develop- 

 ment and to undergo subsequent examination. 



After the entomological work was finished work which 

 was a real pleasure, but proved a severe strain as the Annual 

 Report was taking form her personal correspondence was 

 attended to. She wrote with great facility and with extra- 

 ordinary rapidity and accuracy. She had many colonial 

 and continental correspondents who held standing invita- 

 tions to pay her visits, when in this country. Many came, 

 and graciously she received them, and courteously and 

 royally she entertained them with much pleasure to herself. 

 None so honoured can ever forget the cordiality of the 

 breezy welcome which, accompanied by her hearty and 

 genuinely natural and friendly laugh, were merely har- 

 bingers of the intellectual treat and the other good things 

 that were in store for them. 



Among her most intimate immediate friends were Lord 1 

 and Lady Grimthorpe, the Bishop of St. Albans (Dr. 

 Festing) and his sister, the Dean (Walter John Lawrence, 

 M.A.), General and Mrs. Bigge, Colonel and Miss Cartwright, 

 Dr. and Mrs. Norman, and Dr. Lipscomb and Miss Lips- 

 comb. She was always pleased to see friends who called, 

 and she was very witty and cheerful with them. It was not 

 at all necessary that they should be scientific. One of the 

 little group mentioned, simply and perhaps too modestly 

 explains, " I always think that when Miss Ormerod sent for 

 me, she descended to my level, and our conversation was 

 generally on the most homely subjects. She would be 

 most interested in the little events of our everyday life and 

 thoroughly enter into our pleasures and enjoyments." 



The lively sense of humour which has already been men- 

 tioned as a family characteristic remained with her through- 

 out life. The following little anecdote told by Mrs. Evans 

 of Rowancroft, Dorking, is also illustrative of the personal 

 coolness and power of action in times of difficulty which 

 were conspicuous among Miss Ormerod's attributes, and it 

 shows also " the quietly determined manner in which she 

 did some things." 



" My poor little story was told to me a good many years 

 ago. My aunt was lunching with some friends, and the 

 peace of the entertainment was suddenly disturbed by the 



1 Edmund Beckett, K.C., LL.D., J.P., ist Baron (1886), Chancellor 

 and Vicar-General of York, 1877-1900. The work of the restoration 

 of St. Albans Abbey was carried out under his direction. (See p. 296.) 



