354 Memoir of the Rev. Leonard Blomefield. 



Sedgwick, the famous geologist, Julius Hare, said by Bunsen to 

 be the most learned man of the age, the accomplished Bishop 

 Thirlwall, and many others more or less known to fame. 

 Botany, zoology, ornithology, and meteorology were subjects to 

 which he directed his chief study, and on all these he was one 

 of the greatest living authorities, and had obtained not only 

 national but European fame. His two most important works, 

 in his own estimation, were "The Fishes of the Voyage of the 

 Beagle " (written at the earnest request of his friend Darwin), 

 and his "Manual of British Vertebrate Animals," the latter 

 published in 1836. This was followed in 1846 by his 

 " Observations in Natural History," in 1858 by his "Observa- 

 tions in Meteorology," and in 1862 by his Memoir of Professor 

 Henslow. In addition to the above books, he contributed a 

 variety of papers and short articles, at different times, to the 

 Transactions of scientific bodies, and to other periodicals. 

 Among his later contributions were a letter to the Bath Chronicle 

 on the Selborne Society, written at the request of the editor, a 

 paper read before the Field Club, November 1891, on the 

 Distribution and Movements of British Animals and Plants, and 

 one on the Habits of Eooks, which he read before the Selborne 

 Society at the beginning of last year, and which was printed in 

 the columns of this journal. 



But his name will for ever be associated with Bath as the 

 founder (1855) and first President of the Bath Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Field Club, and the donor of the Jenyns 

 Library — a munificent gift — now housed in the Eoyal Literary 

 and Scientific Institution. This contains considerably over 

 2000 volumes, mostly works on Natural History, his valuable, 

 not to say priceless. Herbarium of British Plants, consisting of 

 more than forty folio volumes, besides others in quarto — the 

 results of his life-work in this branch of science. The 

 Proceedings of the Field Club, which now fill several volumes, 

 abound with papers, addresses, and other contributions from 

 his pen. Not the least valuable are those on the Climate and 

 Meteorology of Bath. It was entirely at his instance that the 

 small observatory was erected in the Institution Gardens in 

 1865, from which year observations have been taken, and a 

 record kept, by the librarian of the Institution. 



As Mr Blomefield was one of the most eminent, so he was the 

 oldest naturalist in England. As long ago as 1822 he was 



