228 MEMOIR OF MK. W. C. HEWITSON, F.L.S., 



part of the kingdom. The house designed by Mr. Dobson occu- 

 pied one of the most commanding sites in the park, having a view 

 over all the well wooded country, as far as "Windsor Castle, about 

 fifteen miles distant. The grounds sloping to Broadwater, and 

 laid out by Mr. Hewitson and his friend Mr. John Hancock, with 

 much taste, left nothing to be desired. 



The following notice of Mr. Hewitson is from the pen of his 

 friend, Prof. Alfi-ed Xewton: — "His ^-illa at Oatlands, with its 

 beautiful view and charming garden, was a sight not to be for- 

 gotten, to say nothing of the glorious contents of his cabinets. 

 Here he passed the last thirty years of his life, seldom leaving 

 home ; always glad to welcome a visitor whose tastes agreed with 

 his own, and occasionally returning to his old flame, birds' eggs, 

 when he could assist a friend, as witness some of the plates in 

 the earlier volumes of the Ibis." . 



He had not been long in the neighboui'hood of London before 

 his attention was seriously directed again to Entomology, and es- 

 pecially to foreign Diurnal Lepidoptera, which he had hitherto 

 shewn indifference to. On one occasion he happened to be at an 

 auction, where he saw a "lot," consisting of different species of 

 Heterochroa, closely allied and yet distinct. This was a novelty 

 to him at the time, and much engaged his attention, and he 

 bought the whole. Turning round he saw Professor "Wcstwood, 

 who said, "What, arc you bupng foreign butterflies ?" "Yes," 

 he replied, "I am." His interest in the subject of foreign Lepi- 

 doptera commenced at that time, and one of his earliest publica- 

 tions on Exotic Butterflies was on the genus IFeterochroa. He 

 pursued tlic study of the characters of the Diurnal Lepidoptera 

 witli all the quiet earnestness and perseverance so characteristic 

 of his disposition, and made, as Professor Newton says, "that 

 wonderful collection of Diurnal Lepidoptera, and tliosc works in 

 illustration of that group, with which his name will be always 

 associated, and by which it will probably bo be most widely 

 known." 



Mr. Hewitson married about the year 1853, but his wife died 

 within a year, leaving no issue. 



