357 

 3n ^{lemoriam. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 



All lovers of natural history would learn with regret of the death 

 of this distinguished gentleman, which took place at his residence, 

 St. Mary's Terrace, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on October 1 1 th last. 



He had passed man's allotted three-score years and ten. For 

 over 'twice forty years' he had seen 'yon weary winter's sun return,' 

 and at the good old age of 82 he sank peacefully to his rest, being 

 attended to the last by his kind friends Dr. Embleton and Dr. Page. 

 Up to within about a year of his death he scarcely knew what illness 

 was ; his vigorous constitution, strictly temperate habits, and love of 

 outdoor exercise, no doubt greatly conducing to his being so strong 

 and active almost to the end. 



Born of a family of naturalists — his scarcely less-celebrated 

 brother, Mr. Albany Hancock, being one of them — and associated 

 in his younger days with Atthey, Wingate, Hutton, Hewitson, 

 C. M. Adamson, and others, all ardent lovers of nature, it was 

 scarcely to be wondered that Mr. Hancock should soon drift into 

 what afterwards became the absorbing passion of Iiis life. In those 

 early days Prestwick Carr — a wild, boggy swamp, situated about 

 seven miles North of Newcastle — was the happy hunting-ground for 

 wild fowl and birds of all descriptions, and many were the rare 

 specimens which Mr. Hancock obtained here. 



To Mr. Hancock's personal exertions it was mainly owing that 

 the building of the present Museum of Natural History in Newcastle 

 — at a cost of nearly p/^5 0,000 — was brought to a successful issue. 

 With the munificent assistance rendered by his friends Lord and 

 Lady Armstrong, the late Col. Joicey, the late Edward Joicey, 

 Sir Lowthian Bell, and others, he secured a most eligible site for 

 this purpose, and lived to see a building comjDleted which will for 

 all time be a monument to his untiring energy. In addition to this, 

 he most generously presented the whole of his extensive and valuable 

 collection of birds and skins to the Society^ — a collection of a life- 

 time, including every British species in almost every change of 

 plumage, w'ith thousands of others besides. 



It was a rare treat to sit by him in his work-room while he was 

 stuffing a bird, and hear him talk of bygone days at Prestwick Carr, 

 the Fame Islands — in Scotland — and the Tundras in Russia (whither 

 he went with his friend Mr. Hewitson on an ornithological excursion) ; 

 or to listen to him while he lucidly explained the varying changes in 



Dec. 1890. 



