IxiV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. r May 1907, 



the commercial community of Manchester, had purchased, as far 

 back as 1835, the famous collection of minerals which had been 

 formed by Thomas Allan, a wealthy banker in Edinburgh, and 

 which had been studied and named by Haidinger, afterwards the 

 illustrious Director of the Geologische Eeichsanstalt of Tienna. 

 This collection must have arrived at the Manchester merchant's 

 home when young Greg was only some nine years of age, and we 

 can believe that he helped to unpack and arrange the specimens. 

 After his education, partly by private tuition and partly at a school 

 in Brighton, he went in 1843 to Edinburgh University. Two 

 years later, he began his training in business, and, on coming of 

 age in 1847, was taken into partnership by his father. But he 

 does not seem to have inherited his father's devotion to mercantile 

 pursuits. He married in 1857 Louisa, daughter of Mr. S. S. 

 Clair of Liverpool, and in 1871 moved to Coles Park, near Bunting- 

 ford, Hertfordshire, a charming rural property which has been in 

 the family for upwards of 120 years. There he lived the peaceful 

 and beneficent life of an active and useful country squire. 



But the attractions of the Allan Collection were not allowed by 

 him to remain uncared for. On reaching manhood he began to 

 collect minerals for the further enrichment of the cabinet, until he 

 made it the most complete and valuable private assemblage of 

 minerals in the country. In the course of these acquisitions he 

 became acquainted with another enthusiastic collector, Mr. W. G. 

 Lettsom, and their acquaintance led to their conjoint preparation of 

 the ' Manual,' which was published in 1858. Every student of 

 minerals in this country knows the excellence of this work, which, 

 after half a century, has not yet been superseded. In 1S60 the 

 collection, which he had so greatly enriched, was sold to the 

 Trustees of the British Museum. He wrote but little on mine- 

 ralogical subjects, which, during the last eighteen years of his life, 

 were replaced in his attention by meteorites. His chief contri- 

 butions to science are numerous papers on meteors. He wrote also 

 a book on the Comparative Philology of the Old and Xew 'Worlds, 

 which was published in 1893. He became a Fellow of our Society 

 m 1853, and took an active interest in the formation of the 

 Mineralogical Society, of which he was for ten years the treasurer. 

 He died on the 20th of last August, in the 81st year of his age. 1 



1 For this notice I am mainly indebted to that prepared for the ' Mine- 

 ralogical Magazine ' by Mr. Gr. F. Herbert Smith, who was so good as to supply 

 me with an advance-proof. 



