JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. Ut 
SOME PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE 
LATE HUGH CUMING. 
By E. L. LAYARD, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c., &c. 
I hope Imay be permitted to add to Mr. Melvill’s Epitome 
of the Life of the Late Hugh Cuming some personal reminis- 
cences of my old friend with whom I was on such intimate 
terms, as aman so much my senior, would admit a younger 
man. I was one of the very few, and I suspect I am about the 
only man living, who was ever admitted to his sanctum 
sanctorum—the third floor of his residence in Gower Street 
(No. 80 I think it was) where he worked, and kept many of 
his rarest duplicates, the vast majority of which were stored in 
the cellar. 
He permitted me to see him at his work, ze, making up 
collections for his customers and correspondents, a privilege 
accorded but to few. Tome he had taken a great fancy. I 
had corresponded with him when I resided at Point Pedro, 
the northern point of Ceylon, as a Magistrate, and there com- 
menced my first dredging experiences, with a dredge, the 
design of which he had sent me, cut in cardboard. 
I first knew him, Zersonal/y, in 1852 or 1853, just before the 
Crimean War. I had taken lodgings in Great Russell Street, 
facing the British Museum (where I was then working at my 
“Catalogue of the Birds of Ceylon,”) and was thus pretty 
contiguous to Gower Street. He often spent the evening with 
us, and always called for me on the meeting nights of the 
Zoological Society, when we walked to and from the Society’s 
rooms together. While thus walking he used to delight to 
recur to his collecting days, and recount his experiences to one 
whom he felt was as ardent a collector as himself, and could 
participate in the intense enjoyment of the pursuit. I well 
remember his description of his finding ¢#ree examples of 
