1864] Farewell to Bembridge. 167 



West of England without being able to hear of anyone who knows the 

 birds of Wales. If you should happen to hear of any trustworthy 

 ornithologist (likely to be able to help) while you are at Cambridge, you 

 will really be doing me a great kindness if you would say a word for me. 



In November he felt a bit stronger. He spent a few 

 days with Mr. Babington at Cambridge, " and enjoyed a 

 look at the old place very much/' as he also did a visit to 

 another botanical friend, the Rev. H. Harpur-Crewe, at 

 Drayton Beauchamp, in Hertfordshire ; after which he 

 went up to London, and by a course of overwork in the 

 British Museum brought on a fresh illness, nearly as severe 

 as that of the previous Christmas. 



He had been looking forward with interest to the 

 appearance of the new botanical magazine, which seemed 

 likely to enjoy the support of all the best botanists in 

 England. Since 1860 he had given up contributing ori- 

 ginal matter to the " Phytologist," though his " Compa- 

 rative List of British Plants," then begun, continued to 

 be published in that magazine at intervals down to its 

 conclusion in December, 1862. It was now re-issued in 

 pamphlet form, with the addition of a preface. But his 

 renewed illness now debarred him from active support of 

 " Seemann's Journal," and it was partly to avoid the 

 semblance of holding aloof from the new paper that he 

 contributed to the February number a note on " The Un- 

 usually Mild Winter," and a signed review (the only review 

 in the volume which bears a signature) of Gibson's " Flora 

 of Essex." 



The above were the last articles he wrote at Bembridge. 

 He soon after removed to Ryde, where he passed the 

 remainder of the year. Another illness early in the 

 spring was a further discouragement. It was now three 

 years since he had taken the Bird-Distribution subject in 

 hand, and, on April 24th, we find him writing to Mr. 

 Newton: " I will do my best to be ready by October: 

 indeed, I had always hoped to have finished before this, 

 but I have been so unlucky in health that I must not pro- 

 mise. I am only now just getting better of a severe attack 

 of illness, which has left me very weak, and not fit for 

 much scientific work." 



