xlviii A^tnual Report of the Council. 



but decisive method of speaking, will not readily be forgotten by 

 those who came in contact with him. He appears to have early 

 acquired a taste for scientific pursuits, especially in geology and 

 horticulture, his first paper in the Proceedings^ dating back to 

 1859, and that of 1861 deal with metallurgical subjects. From 

 1864 a succession of geological papers appeared, but these only 

 represent a very small part of the varied information he collected, 

 more especially the extensive series of water-colour sketches with 

 which he illustrated his notes, which combined much artistic 

 merit, with the careful draughtsmanship of a surveyor. His 

 artistic instincts enabled him to form a very interesting collection 

 of modern English art, many examples of which were exhibited 

 at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition. When the writer was 

 associated with Mr. Brockbank in 1890, in working out the 

 details of the Levenshulme railway cuttings, the results of which 

 is published in the Society's Memoirs^ he was struck with the 

 fertility of resource he exhibited on various occasions, as for 

 instance, when a strange granite boulder occurred in the railway 

 cutting, he wrote to all the postmasters in Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland in the neighbourhood of granite bosses, to kindly 

 ask a local quarryman to send samples of the granites of the 

 district, enclosing a suitable recompense ; in several cases this 

 plan was most successful in producing specimens. He was much 

 interested in glacial geology, and rescued several important 

 erratics from destruction ; one was placed in the area around the 

 Friends Meeting House at St. Helens, many others he had placed 

 in his beautiful garden at Didsbury. In this garden also were 

 preserved samples of all the different limestones met with in the 

 Levenshulme railway cutting, and several specimens of the old 

 wooden water pipes, that originally distributed water to Manchester. 

 To the botanist and the horticulturist the garden was of the 

 greatest interest. In it he raised the beautiful double daffodil 

 from seeds saved from double daffodils of previous growth. Here 

 also he carried on a most interesting series of experiments with 

 the crossing of various species of saxifrages with very remarkable 

 results. His garden was an object of interest and pleasure. 



