MEMOIR xxiii 



into print. The knowledge of field and wood lore 

 that won him distinction had indeed been garnered 

 during his earliest years, . . . but he had studied wild 

 life and natural history, not because he wanted to 

 make copy out of it, but for the reason that he had 

 been born with a temperament which was spontaneously 

 interested in all that appertained to the open air and 

 to outdoor sport." 



His first essay on a natural history subject was 

 not written until after he had left Oxford and settled 

 in London as an assistant Classical Master at St. Paul's 

 School ; a position which he held until the time of his 

 death twenty years later. 



His gift of sympathy for the young, his general 

 alertness, and his powers of organisation and expression 

 " made him a most successful and efficient schoolmaster 

 . . . and he inspired his pupils with something of his 

 own energy and love of work." And when the hand of 

 Death was heavy upon him, and much that he had hoped 

 to do still undone, it comforted him to think that he 

 had succeeded in this. When he felt that his own 

 day was over, his thoughts turned to the boys he 

 had taught those still at school, and others boys no 

 longer and out in the world for some of them had 

 been very dear to him. It seemed to him then that 

 he had failed in many things; "but," he said, "I 

 have taught them to work, or at least to be ashamed 

 of being lazy." 



Fond as he was of boys, both in an out of school 

 hours, he was a very strict disciplinarian, as any who 

 were inclined to be troublesome soon found to their 



