586 APPENDIX. 



when in error ; and this I wish to do. In our Introduction ' we should cer- 

 tainly recommend 'Ent. Brit.' to .all Entomological students as the first sys- 

 tematical work that ever appeared in this country. I think it will be highly 

 necessary that you and I should meet this year to settle termini. I hope you 

 will be able to come here for a month or two, and then all points could be much 

 better settled and discussed than they could by letter. If you could come be- 

 tween Easter and Midsummer I should be highly gratified." 



Agreeably to Mr. Kirby's invitation I transferred myself to Barham 

 in the summer of 1809, and for several weeks we were hard at work 

 laying the foundations of our book, which conceiving to be the Letters 

 on External Anatomy and Orismology, it was to these we first directed 

 our attention, and before I left Barham we had drawn out a general 

 sketch of the whole, founded on the examination of Mr. Kirby's insects, 

 and discussions, often very long, as to the propriety of various terms. 



We had no leisure time for excursions, but as a short one we made 

 one day led to a ludicrous adventure, which Mr. Kirby used often to 

 refer to, and relate with great zest to his entomological visitors, its his- 

 tory may be here given. Mr. (now Sir William J.) Hooker was at 

 that time staying at Barham, and being desirous to have pointed out to 

 him, and to gather with his own hands, the rare Targionia hypophylla, 

 from its habitat, first discovered by Mr. Kirby, near Nayland, some miles 

 distant, it was agreed we three should walk thither, entomologjsing by 

 the way, and after dinner proceed to the hedge-bank where it grew. 

 Entering the head inn yard on foot, with dusty shoes, and without other 

 baggage than our insect nets in our hands, we met with but a cool recep- 

 tion, which, however, visibly warmed as soon as we had desired to be 

 shown into the best dining-room, and had ordered a good dinner and 

 wine. We intended to walk back in the evening, but as the bank where 

 the Targionia grew was a mile or two out of the direct road, and it 

 came on to rain, we ordered out a post-chaise, merely saying we wanted 

 to drive a short way on a road which Mr. Kirby indicated to the posti- 

 lion. 



When we arrived at the gate of the field where the bank was, the rain 

 had become very heavy : so, calling to the postilion to stop and open the 

 door, we scampered out of the chaise, all laughing, and hastily telling 

 him to wait there, without other explanation we climbed over the gate, 

 and not to be long in the rain, set off running as fast as we could along 

 the field-side of the hedge, to the bank we were looking for. We saw 

 amazement in the face of our postilion at what possible motive could 

 have made three guests of his master clamber pell-mell over a gate into a 

 field that led nowhere, in the midst of a heavy shower of rain, and then 

 run away as if pursued : and it was the expression in his countenance 

 which caused our mirth, which was increased to peals of merriment when 

 we saw that instead of waiting for us at the gate, as we had directed, he 

 mounted his horses with all speed, and pushed on in a gallop along the 

 road on the other side of the hedge, evidently to circumvent our nefarious 

 plan (as he conceived) of bilking his master both of our dinners and the 

 chaise-hire. When the cessation of our uncontrollable mirth had allowed 

 us to gather specimens of our plant, perceiving through the hedge where- 

 abouts we stopped, he also halted to watch our motions, and when he saw 

 us run back, he obeyed our orders to return to the gate, where we got 



