APPENDIX I. 



My step-mother has been so kind as to contribute some 

 notes of that constant companionship with the subject of 

 this memoir which she enjoyed through nearly thirty years. 

 I think her intimate recollections will be appreciated by 

 all readers of this book ; they certainly will be prized 

 by that narrower circle for whom they were primarily 

 intended. 



Reminiscences of My Husband from i860 to 1888. 



My first acquaintance with Philip Henry Gosse was made early in 

 March, i860. My sister and I had come from the eastern counties 

 to spend the winter in Torquay. We came in February as strangers, 

 never having been in this part before. We were recommended 

 to Upton Cottage, in the suburbs of Torquay, where some kind 

 friends, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Curtis, were living, who made us 

 very happy for some months. One morning in March, the late 

 Mr. Leonard Strong came into the Cottage and said, *'I am just 

 come from the Cemetery, where I have been conducting the 

 funeral service over Mr. Gosse's mother, who had lived with him 

 ever since he left London about two years ago." I at once asked, 

 " What Mr. Gosse ? Is he the noted naturalist ? " " Yes," said 

 Mr. Strong ; " and he lives in St. Marychurch, close by you. The 

 name 'Sandhurst,' in plain letters, is on his gate. He is the 

 minister of a small church at the east end of that village." I 

 knew him to be an eminent naturalist, but had formed no idea 

 where he lived. Our curiosity was awakened, and we agreed that, 

 when some opportunity occurred, we would go to this chapel, 

 which proved to be, more properly speaking, a public room for 

 meetings, in order to see and hear him. The friends with whom 

 we were living were equally interested. 



2 A 



