XXXV111 PROLEGOMENA 



Soc. I should not have troubled you with a copy; nor do I 

 expect you to have your time occupied with having the con- 

 tents read to you. But as I had twice introduced you into the 

 scenes, it seemed only right to apprise you of the liberty taken 

 without permission.' 



Cornelius Nicholson, the author of the Annals of Kendal, and 

 a well-known antiquarian, was another attached friend of Dr. 

 Gough. In the summer of 1835 they took counsel together re- 

 garding the desirableness of establishing a Natural History and 

 Scientific Society in Kendal. By their efforts the Kendal 

 Literary and Scientific Institution became established. It was 

 the Council of this Institution that in 1855 instructed their 

 secretary to send to Dr. Gough a complimentary letter, as 'a public 

 recognition of the services ' which Mr. Gough had ' so long and 

 indefatigably rendered to the society.' Dr. Gough was for many 

 years a hard-worked medical man, but wherever he went he was 

 sure to observe the flowering of favourite plants or the migratory 

 movements of summer birds. He used to scrutinise with care 

 wildfowl brought from Morecambe Bay to the ' Fish Stones ' 

 market at Kendal, ever anxious to acquire a fresh specimen for 

 the local museum. His health became indifferent with advancing 

 years, but he still found amusement in fishing the becks in 

 Kentmere. Like the younger Heysham, Dr. Gough took an 

 honest pride in possessing a good reference library, including 

 some expensive works bought in order that he might be com- 

 petent to arrange the geological specimens in the Kendal 

 Museum. It was a sorrow to him that so few north-countrymen 

 took a genuine interest in his own scientific pursuits, but he 

 worked on with unvarying resolution, always glad to add a rare 

 local specimen of ' fish, flesh, or fowl ' to the Kendal Museum. 



Unlike the majority of naturalists, Dr. Gough was entirely 

 unselfish in his collecting, caring nothing for private ends, and 

 finding an unceasing satisfaction in the improvements which he 

 wrought out in the Kendal Museum. Mrs. Harry Arnold of 

 Arnbarrow tells me that in early life she assisted her father in 

 pressing many species of wild-flowers, just as she skinned his 

 birds for him at a later period. Diatoms delighted him, and he 

 worked a great deal with his microscope. He was always 



