Ill 



SIE JOHN SCOTT BUEDON-SANDEESON, Bart. 1828—1905. 



Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson was connected on both his father's 

 and his mother's side with men of great distinction. His father, Eichard 

 Burdon-Sanderson, of West Jesmond and Otterburn Dene, was the son of 

 Sir Thomas Burdon, several times Mayor of Newcastle. His grandmother 

 was a sister of John Scott, famous afterwards as Lord Eldon, and of William 

 Scott, who became Lord Stowell. 



Eichard Burdon went to Oxford for his University education, where he 

 took first-class honours, obtained the Newdigate, and became a Fellow of 

 Oriel College. He married the only daughter of Sir James Sanderson, 

 Bart., M.P., who had been Lord Mayor of London; on his marriage he 

 took the name of Sanderson. There were five children, two sons and three 

 daughters ; the oldest son, Eichard Burdon-Sanderson, died from the effect 

 of injuries received in the Abbott's Eipton railway accident of 1876 ; one of 

 the daughters married Eobert Haldane, of Cloanden, and two of her sons, 

 the Eight Hon. Eichard Burdon Haldane, M.P., and Dr. John Scott Haldane. 

 F.E.S., are well known, the former for his great public services, the latter 

 for his contributions to science. John Scott Burdon-Sanderson, the fourth 

 child, was born at North Jesmond, Northumberland, on December 21, 1828 ; 

 the old Manor House had become unsafe owing to the undermining of the 

 adjacent collieries, and the new house at West Jesmond was being erected 

 for the future residence of the family. 



In common with many other distinguished men of that period he was 

 not sent to school, but was educated at home by tutors under the immediate 

 supervision of his father. This home at West Jesmond, in the North 

 Country, with its surrounding of swelling moors and rocky streams, fostered 

 in the boy that love of nature and appreciation of natural objects which 

 was to lead him into the biological side of natural science. He retained 

 to the end of his life the impression of these early years, and always showed 

 a special delight in wide space, the swell of hills stretching out to meet 

 the sky, and all that airy freedom which is so indelibly bound up with 

 moorland scenery. Shooting, fishing, and riding were the natural recreations 

 of such a boyhood, but probably the greatest joy was experienced in scouring 

 the stretches of wild country on horseback or on foot, often in the company 

 of his father's huntsman, a most intelligent man, who knew every bird that 

 flew. In later years there were few things which he found so exhilarating 

 as a tramp over the heather, the enjoyment of which became much enhanced 

 when he had developed his scientific knowledge. As a boy he delighted 

 in the observation of wild animals and in the discovery of wild flowers ; 

 later he became a keen field botanist, experiencing all the satisfaction of 

 the systematist, who, by naming a wild flower, places it into its proper 



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