INTRODUCTION. xix 



(himself a Norfolk man), by whom Browne's 

 collected writings were first published in a 

 connected form, as already mentioned, under 

 the title of " Sir Thomas Browne's Works, 

 including his Life and Correspondence, edited 

 by Simon Wilkin, F.L.S. London, William 

 Pickering. Josiah Fletcher, Norwich, 1836." 

 4 volumes, 8vo ; the first volume only is 

 dated 1836, Vols. 2, 3, and 4 being dated 

 1835.* It was here that the Notes and 

 Letters were first given to the public. A 

 second edition of the "Works," also edited by 

 Wilkin, in three closely printed volumes, was 

 issued in Bohn's Antiquarian Library in 1852. 



He came to Norwich after his father's death in 1799, taking up his tempo- 

 rary abode with his guardian, Joseph Kinghorn, a Baptist minister of note 

 and 1 prominent member of a literary circle then existing in Norwich, by 

 whom his education was superintended. On arriving at man's estate and 

 being at that time possessed of ample means, he devoted himself to the 

 study of Natural History, especially to Entomology, and was the possessor 

 of a large collection of insects which, in the year 1827, was purchased for 

 the Norwich Museum at a cost of one hundred guineas, a large sura in 

 those days. He was one of the founders and the first librarian of the 

 Norfolk and Norwich Literary Institution in 1822, also of the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Museum in 1825, both of which institutions (the former re- 

 united to its parent Library, founded in 1784) are still flourishing. Wilkin 

 was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, also a Member of the Wernerian 

 Society of Edinburgh. In later years the loss of the bulk of his property 

 by a commercial failure necessitated his turning his attention to some 

 means of earning a livelihood, and he established himself in Norwich as a 

 printer and publisher ; later in life he removed to Hampstead, where he 

 died on 28th July, 1862, and was buried in his native village of Costessey. 



* Some copies of this Edition have a title-page, bearing the name of 

 H. G. Bohn as publisher, and the date of 1846, but differing only in that 

 reipect. 



