IV 



Introduction. 



a fitting place for collecting in a brief memoir such particulars as are 

 obtainable of his early life, and such as I can myself supply of his long 

 career in our Society's service. My personal acquaintance with him com- 

 menced on my return to India from furlough in 1848. He had then been 

 Curator of our Museum for seven years, and my official connexion with 

 the Society, combined with a taste for his pursuits, brought me into frequent 

 and close relations with him. Of the incidents of his pre-Indian life some 

 knowledge has been obtained from his sister, who has kindly given me 

 access to such of his letters as are in her possession. 



The carbon print which accompanies this memoir has been prepared by 

 the Autotype Company from a photograph taken of Blyth when he visited 

 Dublin some ten years ago. It has been kindly contributed to me by Miss 

 Blyth and her relative Mr. E. Loder, of High Beeches, Crawley, Sussex. 



Edward Blyth was born in London on the 23rd December, 1810. His 

 father was of a Norfolk family, and from him the son appears to have inherited 

 both his taste for nature and the retentive memory for which he was so re- 

 markable. Blyth's father died in 1820, leaving four children, whose care 

 and education now devolved on the widow, a Hampshire lady, who at once 

 sent Edward, the eldest boy, to Dr. EennelPs school at Wimbledon. Here 

 the boy seems to have made unusual progress in his books, but the school 

 reports describe him as of truant habits, and as being frequently found in 

 the woods. He left school in 1825, and his mother seems at first to have 

 intended him for an University career, and ultimately for the Church, but 

 at Dr. EennelPs suggestion she sent her son to London to study chemistry 

 under Mr. Keating, of St. Paul's Churchyard. He did not, however, long 

 persevere in this study, being dissatisfied with his instructor's mode of 

 teaching. His enthusiasm for Natural History pursuits disinclined him 

 for any ordinary employment, and on coming of age he embarked the little 

 means he had in a druggist's business at Tooting. To this he seems to have 

 given little personal attention. The management of the business was left to 

 another, while Blyth devoted all his time to the study which engrossed his 

 thoughts. " Never, 5 ' says his sister, "was any youth more industrious; 

 up at three or four in the morning, reading, making notes, sketching bones, 

 colouring maps, stuffing birds by the hundred, collecting butterflies, and 

 beetles — teaching himself German sufficiently to translate it readily, singing 

 always merrily at intervals." He took a room in Pall Mall, to have readier 

 access to books, and passed much of his time in the British Museum, in 

 which, or in some kindred institution, he tried hard to find employment. 



Naturally the Tooting business did not thrive under such fitful manage- 



Hk 



