CHILDHOOD. II 



perfect clearness. Being alone in the Springwell Fields, 

 from amidst the tall ripening wheat he saw rise, close to 

 the footpath, and within a few yards of him, a large white 

 grallatorial bird, which he was afterwards sure was the 

 great white heron, or else the stork ; both of them, even 

 in 1 8 14, very rare English birds. In the next winter, 

 between his fourth and fifth years, the child observed, with 

 much interest, a robin, sitting day after day, pouring forth 

 his cheery song from the corner brick of the summit of the 

 parlour-chimney in Skinner Street, right above the yard, 

 in which the delighted Philip stood watching him. Of his 

 slightly later inclinations towards natural history, a note of 

 his own shall speak more fully : — 



" My love for natural history was very early 

 "awakened. In Mr. Brown's library was a complete 

 " series of Eitcyclopcedia Perthensis, of which father also 

 "possessed the first seven volumes. For some time 

 " I was accustomed to call this Encyclopcedia ParcntJiesis. 

 " Well, the plates of animals in this work, poor as they 

 " were, John and I were never tired of studying, and in 

 "later years of copying. But at Uncle Gosse's I had 

 " the opportunity of looking over the Cyclopcedia 

 " Pantologia, which, though a work of inferior value, had 

 " much more pretentious figures of animals, nicely 

 " coloured. Aunt Bell and Cousin Salter both cultivated 

 " natural history, and when I found any specimen that 

 " appeared to me curious, or beautiful, or strange, I 

 "would take it to Aunt Bell, with confidence that I 

 "should learn something of its history from her. I 

 "learned something of the metamorphosis of insects 

 " from her, though I do not recollect actually rearing any 

 "caterpillars except that of the gooseberry or magpie 

 " moth {Abraxas grossulariatd). I used not unfrequently 

 "to find the pretty ermine moths (both the buff and 



