6cS [Proc. B.N'.F.C. 



" So memory's magic wand restores 

 Gladness too bright to last ; 

 And in a flood of music pours 

 Sweet echoes of the past." 



As almost all the members of our Club are practical hobby- 

 riders, or they would hardly belong to it, I feel I may count 

 upon some sort of fellow feeling if I may relate how I came to 

 be a fern hobbyist, so to speak, and that my experiences may 

 be of use to others. 



Every hobby must have a beginning, and I think in my case 

 the initial movement began when in the early forties I learned 

 botany from Pinnoctc's Catechim, when at the school of Mr. 

 A. F. Foster, who, on half-holidays, used to invite the day boys 

 to join him in a country walk, when a very good number took 

 advantage of the offer. To this day I remember the knowledge 

 of old roads then acquired, and the pleasant conversations we 

 had with the master on things of interest, either botanical or 

 geological. After leaving school and going to business I had 

 not the same opportunities, and the future hobby lay dormant. 

 When in 1849 I went to London I had the good fortune to be 

 for some years in one of the largest wholesale booksellers in the 

 city. I took full advantage of this in acquiring a good know- 

 ledge of the churches and other antiquarian buildings in 

 London, and had many adventures to Kew Gardens and the 

 parks. 



My duties took me daily through the East End and City of 

 London, my district extending from the east end of Paternoster 

 Row to everywhere east, and ncrth to Islington, and through 

 all the south of London. 



On one occasion I remember seeing a large glass case taking 

 up the side of a room, or hall, filled with ferns. I admired 

 them greatly, but had completely forgotten where this was. 

 In 'various after visits to London I went over my old district, 

 bnt could not find the place ; but forty years after, when 

 preparing a paper for the British Pteridological Society, it came 

 to me like a flash that it was in Bishopgate Square, in the 



