16 THE OSPREY. 



and returned to England, reaching Liverpool on 6 Nov. 1849. Owing to his 

 excellent arrangements for food and conveyance during Franklin's second ex- 

 pedition and this search expedition, not only was there no loss of life, but 

 there was not even any privation such as temporarily to endanger the health 

 of the men. His 'Journal,' published in 1851, was 'a model of the journal of 

 a scientific traveller . . . abounding in varied information in relation to the 

 geology of the country passed through, its natural productions, and inbabitantr'. 



Being refused the appointment of director-general of the medical depart- 

 ment of the navy, on the ground of his age, Kichardson now, after forty-eight 

 years' service, retired and passed the greater part of his remaining years at 

 Lancrigg, Grasmere, the property of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Fletcher, and, 

 after her death in 18.58, of his wife. Here he accomplished much literary 

 work, writing the articles 'Ichthyology' and 'Franklin' for the 'Encyclopsedia 

 Britannica' during the winter of 1856-7, and that on 'Polar Regions,' after- 

 wards expanded into a volume, in 1859, and editing a second edition of 

 Yarrell's 'British Fishes' in 1860 He also contributed to the 'Museum of 

 Natural History,' and read Burns' s works, Gawain Douglas's 'Virgil,' and 

 Blind Harry's 'Wallace' for the Philological Society's 'Dictionary,' published 

 by Oxford University. He gave medical aid to the poor, acted as magistrate, 

 and spent much time in gardening, while his characteristic energy was evinced 

 almost to the last in a tour of the picture galleries of Paris. Florence, Rome, 

 Naples, and Venice between November 1862 and March 1863. 



Richardson died at Lancrigg on 5 June 1865, and was buried at Grasmere 

 churchyard. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1825, and re- 

 ceived the royal medal in 1856. He was knighted in 1846, made companion 

 of the Bath in 1850, and received the degree of LL.D. from the university of 

 Dublin in 1858. 



Richardson was thrice married — first on 1 June 1818, to Mary, daughter 

 of William Stiven of Leith, who died on 25 Dec. 1831; secondly, in January 

 1833, to Mary, daughter of John Booth of Stickney, near Ingoldwells, Lin- 

 colnshire, and niece of Sir John Franklin, who died on 10 April 1845; and 

 thirdly, on 4 Aug. 1847, to Mary, youngest daughter of Archibald Fletcher of 

 Edinburgh and Eliza Fletcher. By his second wife he had four sons and two 

 daughters. 



II. HIS ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK. 



The special branch .of zoology in which Richardson excelled was Ichthy- 

 ology and for many years he ranked as the foremost descriptive ichthyologist of 

 Britain and indeed, for a short time, of the world. His early articles, how- 

 ever, covered all of the vertebrate classes as well »s the geography of the 

 northern countries with which his fame has been so identified. 



