x : PREFACE. 
would remain in one spot for an hour or more at a time, 
mute and motionless, intently studying the habits of some 
insect, until he had mastered the minutest detail. 
At Deptford he had many friends; and of the friendships then 
formed many ceased only with life itself. Francis Walker, 
Edward and Henry Doubleday, John and William Christy, 
Samuel Hanson, and Dr. Bowerbank, were perhaps the most 
intimate. Not only amongst scientific men, but in the 
Society of Friends, and indeed in the whole parish, did he find 
congenial spirits. His keen wit, acute perception, his knowledge, 
and genial manner, rendered him a general favourite ; yet he 
appeared all unconscious of the charm which he possessed. 
No one could entertain a greater contempt for shallowness and 
conceit, for a man possessing knowledge only surface-deep who 
assumed to be an authority; in fact, for ‘“ humbug” in any 
shape. He scorned to conceal his opinions for fear of giving . 
offence, and did not spare chastisement wherever deserved. 
His pen was as powerful in caustic satire as in microscopic 
description ; and it was brought to bear with effect in parish 
affairs, in which he took a keen interest. At one time a part 
of Deptford was without gas, and, curiously enough, as it 
seems to us in the present day, there was strong opposition to 
its introduction. He worked vigorously for the cause of light, 
and had the satisfaction of success. 
During the period of his residence at Deptford he made many 
excursions with one or other of his chosen associates. Birch- 
wood, in Kent—for many years the place at which the annual 
dinner of the Entomological Club was held, or, as he puts it, 
‘‘duly solemnised’’—was frequently visited. In Wales, in 
Scotland, and in Ireland, he also took long walking tours: in 
all these rambles he was humbly studying Nature, and care- 
fully adding to his already vast store of information. In 1826 
his parents had remoyed from Godalming to Leominster, in 
Herefordshire ; and thus a fresh country was opened out. It 
was here that his first fernery was formed, a graphic description 
of which is given in the Introduction to the ‘ History of British 
Ferns.’ 
Notwithstanding his incessant and unwearying work in 
Natural History, and that a great part of his life had been 
