lx PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1903, 



among geologists in Prance and on the Continent generally ; and 

 British scientific men, who knew and valued his work, were wont 

 to reproach him for not writing in English — a language with which 

 he was so familiar — and publishing his results in London, 



In Macpherson the man equalled the scientific worker. Generous 

 to a fault, all that he possessed was at his friends' disposal. His 

 conversation was always of an elevated tone, and never included 

 personal blame of anyone. Modest, and a foe to all ostentation, he 

 presented a remarkable union of gentleness with masculine vigour. 

 It was impossible to approach him without feeling the magnetic 

 attraction of an irresistible sympathy, and the ardent wish to enter 

 into relations of cordial and affectionate friendship with him. 1 



[L. L. B.] 



John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell was born in 1817, and educated 

 at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1863, on the death of his 

 father, he succeeded to the family estate of Whatcombe near 

 Blandford (Dorset), and to landed property in the Isle of Purbeck.* 

 Being an enthusiastic naturalist, he devoted much of his time to the 

 botany, zoology, and geology of Dorset, and was the chief founder, 

 and supporter of the county Natural History & Antiquarian Pield- 

 Club. He became a Pellow of this Society in 1857. He contributed 

 to the Geological Magazine in 1873 a ' Brief Memoir on the Geology 

 of Dorset,' and to the Dorset Field-Club he communicated several 

 papers on local geology, notably one on the occurrence of remains 

 of ElejjJias meridionalis at Dewlish. He was also instrumental in 

 obtaining many fine saurian remains from the Kimmeridge Clay, 

 some of which were described by Owen and Hulke. He published 

 separate volumes on the plants, the birds, and the mollusca of 

 Dorset, and maintained his interest and enthusiasm in science until 

 the last. He died on May 3rd, 1902. [H. B. W.] 



William Henry Penning was born on March 9th, 1838, and was 

 trained as a civil engineer under the late C. H. Gregory. He joined 

 the staff of the Geological Survey in 1867, and was engaged in 

 mapping the districts around Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, and 

 Lincoln until 1882, when he retired from the service on account of 

 ill-health. The results of his official work were published in con- 

 junction with the work of his colleagues, in the Memoirs on ' The 

 Geology of North- Western Essex' (1878), 'The Geology of the 



1 For these particulars the writer is indebted to the biographical memoir 

 published by Senor Calderon in ' Nuestro Tiempo ' for November 1902. 



