xvi] LONDON AND LEICESTER 237 



How I was introduced to Henry Walter Bates I do not 

 exactly remember, but I rather think I heard him mentioned 

 as an enthusiastic entomologist, and met him at the library. 

 I found that his specialty was beetle collecting, though he also 

 had a good set of British butterflies. Of the former I had 

 scarcely heard, but as I already knew the fascinations of plant 

 life I was quite prepared to take an interest in any other de- 

 partment of nature. He asked me to see his collection, and 

 I was amazed to find the great number and variety of beetles, 

 their many strange forms and often beautiful markings or 

 colouring, and was even more surprised when I found that 

 almost all I saw had been collected around Leicester, and that 

 there were still many more to be discovered. If I had been 

 asked before how many different kinds of beetles were to be 

 found in any small district near a town, I should probably 

 have guessed fifty or at the outside a hundred, and thought 

 that a very liberal allowance. But I now learnt that many 

 hundreds could easily be collected, and that there were prob- 

 ably a thousand different kind within ten miles of the town. 

 He also showed me a thick volume containing descriptions of 

 more than three thousand species inhabiting the British Isles. 

 I also learnt from him in what an infinite variety of places 

 beetles may be found, while some may be collected all the 

 year round, so I at once determined to begin collecting, as I 

 did not find a great many new plants about Leicester. I 

 therefore obtained a collecting bottle, pins, and a store-box ; 

 and in order to learn their names and classification I obtained, 

 at wholesale price through Mr. Hill's bookseller, Stephen's 

 " Manual of British Coleoptera," which henceforth for some 

 years gave me almost as much pleasure as Lindley's Botany, 

 with my MSS. descriptions, had already done. 



This new pursuit gave a fresh interest to my Wednesday 

 and Saturday afternoon walks into the country, when two or 

 three of the boys often accompanied me. The most delight- 

 ful of all our walks was to Bradgate Park, about five miles 

 from the town, a wild, neglected park with the ruins of a 

 mansion, and many fine trees and woods and ferny or bushy 

 slopes. Sometimes the whole school went for a picnic, the 



