122 LIFE OF ALBANY HANCOCK, BY DR. EMBLETON. 



a tender and excellent mother, who succeeded in fostering their 

 tastes and keeping alive the memory of their father. 



Of the six children Albany, John, and Mary afterwards em- 

 braced the study of different branches of Natural History and 

 the Fine Arts, and the exigencies of business compelled Thomas 

 to relinquish his inclination for Geology. Thus four of the fa- 

 mily appear to have inherited more or less a bias towards their 

 father's studies. 



Albany was sent early to the school of the Misses Prowitt, 

 and afterwards to that of Mr. Henry Atkinson, both noted semi- 

 naries in Newcastle in those days. In the latter he remained 

 about seven years. 



At the age of nineteen he was indentured, and served as an 

 articled clerk, to the late Thomas Chater, Esq., solicitor, of this 

 town. At the end of his clerkship he studied at the office of Thos. 

 Brown, Esq., solicitor, in London, and was afterwards duly ad- 

 mitted as an attorney. 



He returned to Newcastle in 1830, and the next year took an 

 office over the shop of his Mend, Joshua Alder, in the Side. 

 There he awaited practice for two years ; but attracted by the 

 superior charms of Natural History, he quitted the office and 

 the legal profession together. 



He was one of the founders of the Natural History Society of 

 Northumberland and Durham (the first part of whose Transactions 

 appeared in 1830), and an Honorary Curator of its Museum, to 

 which, by his application and industry, he rendered essential 

 assistance. 



Letters left by him, dated 1832, -33, and -34, from Dr. W. S. 

 Hooker, of Glasgow, and Dr. Johnston, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 

 show that he and his brother John had formed a project for a 

 work on British Birds, with plates, to be published in quarto ; 

 this, having on the whole been disapproved or not sufficiently 

 encouraged, was dropped, though John had already executed 

 some of the drawings for the work. It is much to be regretted 

 that so laudable a project was not carried out. 



Erom about 1835 to 1840 Albany had been turning his atten- 

 tion to modelling in clay and in plaster, and had accomplished a 



