HERBERT GOSS. 75 



secretaryship in the following year (1885) he stepped into one of 

 the vacant places. Here he continued in office until the long 

 partnership was dissolved at the close of 1896, when ill-health 

 for a time compelled him to withdraw. But in 1901 he resumed 

 his post until his final resignation at the end of 1904 of those 

 duties which he had performed with such conspicuous ability and 

 zeal. To his punctuality and precise habit of mind, charac- 

 teristic alike of his entomological and official life, we owe much 

 of the improved methods introduced into our * Transactions ' 

 and ' Proceedings.' In the Council his advice was constantly 

 sought, and willingly given, while he was equally ready to 

 assist his brothers of the net with technical information, and 

 as an incisive speaker and writer to champion their rights when 

 the Government of the day was minded to enclose vast tracts of 

 the wild and beautiful country in the New Forest, his particular 

 and happy hunting-ground.* The results of some at least of 

 his observations have been preserved in the laborious local cata- 

 logues of insects published in the * Victoria County Histories.' 

 The lists of Lepidoptera enumerated in the volumes for Hamp- 

 shire, Sussex, Surre3% Devon, and Northamptonshire are largely 

 his work ; in the four first-mentioned counties they display a 

 close intimacy with the insect fauna under review. Indeed, he 

 had by his own personal field-work got together one of the most 

 complete collections of British Butterflies in the country. 



Gross's interests, however, were by no means confined to 

 entomological and geological science. He was a first-rate 

 musician — a brilliant pianist in his earlier days — and quite 

 recently delivered a lecture at the Surbiton Institute on the 

 " Band of Nebuchadnezzar," which was as full of archaeological 

 lore as of genuine humour. He also did good work on the 

 Council of the National Trust for the Preservation of Places of 

 Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, and possessed a consider- 

 able knowledge of botany, in pursuit of which he formed a 

 herbarium containing many rare and valuable specimens. 



In 1906 he was nominated one of the Vice-Presidents of the 

 Entomological Society, and in this capacity he attended the last 

 meeting at which he was present. His genial presence will be 

 missed by many friends, and by none more than the writer of 

 this notice, who was also his colleague for the whole of his 

 second term of office as Secretary. 



H. Eowland-Brown. 



''■• New Forest: "Trespassers will be Prosecuted," by Herbert Goss, 

 F.L.S. (Entom. vol. xviii. p. 313). 



G "-: 



