CHAP. XIL] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 97 



the University of Edinburgh, sensible of her conspicuous 

 services, and not unmindful of her generous benefactions, 

 now adds its Doctorate in Laws." 



The honour referred to, conferred by our cultured 

 neighbours across the channel, was publicly announced in 

 the press in the following words : 



"At the Annual Meeting on the 25th of June, 1891, of the 

 Societe Xationale d'Acclimatation de France, M. Le Myre de 

 Vilers, president, in the chair, the large silver medal of the 

 Society, bearing the portrait of Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, was 

 decreed to Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, of St. Albans, 

 England, for her work in Economic or Applied Ento- 

 mology." 



To a confidential correspondent she wrote, " You will 

 believe that this pleases me very much." 



Plate xxii. shows this medal with three other silver and 

 two gold medals that were presented to Miss Ormerod 

 between the years 1870 and 1900 by home and foreign 

 institutions. 



Miss Ormerod preserved very few letters except those 

 necessary for scientific or business purposes, and these she 

 classified and fastened into books for convenience of re- 

 ference. Nothing else, and especially nothing which if 

 returned to the writer, would hereafter lead to unpleasant- 

 ness, escaped ordeal of fire. After keeping letters on general 

 subjects for a few days, she would tear them up. The 

 result is that, of the mass of interesting contributions on 

 many subjects, which poured in to the oracle, first of 

 Isleworth and latterly of St. Albans, from all sorts and 

 conditions of men and women, the few sample letters 

 written by prominent public men and reproduced in these 

 pages, are almost all that remain. To some of her relatives 

 she wrote very amusing letters, but no doubt inspired by the 

 desire to avoid all possible danger of hurting the feelings 

 of people referred to she exacted the promise that they 

 should not be preserved. 



