LONDON AND LEICESTER 237 



department of nature. He asked me to see his collection, and 

 I was amazed to find the great number and variety of beetles, 

 their many strange forms and often beautiful markings or 

 colouring, and was even more surprised when I found that 

 almost all I saw had been collected around Leicester, and that 

 there were still many more to be discovered. If I had been 

 asked before how many different kinds of beetles were to be 

 found in any small district near a town, I should probably 

 have guessed fifty or at the outside a hundred, and thought 

 that a very liberal allowance. But I now learnt that many 

 hundreds could easily be collected, and that there were proba- 

 bly a thousand different kinds within ten miles of the town. 

 He also showed me a thick volume containing descriptions of 

 more than three thousand species inhabiting the British Isles. 

 I also learnt from him in what an infinite variety of places 

 beetles may be found, while some may be collected all the 

 year round, so I at once determined to begin collecting, as I 

 did not find a great many new plants about Leicester. I 

 therefore obtained a collecting bottle, pins, and a store-box; 

 and in order to learn their names and classification I obtained, 

 at wholesale price through Mr. Hill's bookseller, Stephen's 

 " Manual of British Coleoptera," which henceforth for some 

 years gave me almost as much pleasure as Lindley's Botany, 

 with my MS. descriptions, had already done. 



This new pursuit gave a fresh interest to my Wednesday 

 and Saturday afternoon walks into the country, when two or 

 three of the boys often accompanied me. The most delight- 

 ful of all our walks was to Bradgate Park, about five miles 

 from the town, a wild, neglected park with the ruins of a 

 mansion, and many fine trees and woods and ferny or bushy 

 slopes. Sometimes the whole school went for a picnic, the 

 park at that time being quite open, and we hardly ever met 

 anyone. After we got out of the town there was a wide 

 grassy lane that led to it, which itself was a delightful walk 

 and was a good collecting ground for both plants and insects. 

 For variety we had the meadows along the course of the little 

 river Soar, which were very pleasant in spring and summer. 

 Twice during the summer the whole of the boarders were 



