Louis Compton Miall. 



xix 



ductory chapter on Natural History down to the 16th century, and consists 

 mostly of biographical sketches of the old naturalists he loved so well, but 

 there are also digressions on " The Natural History of Other Lands and the 

 Investigation of the Puss Moth and of the Flower." Of this book Dr. Warde 

 Fowler remarks : " He fairly astonished me, after a visit here at Kingham, 

 by sending me as a gift the five splendid volumes on insects of E^aumur, 

 and later on his own book on the ' Early Naturalists,' one as great a treasure 

 as the other, for his own beautiful English was as clear and enjoyable as 

 Keaumur's French." 



Miall's great force lay in his absolute sincerity. Though he could write 

 well, and even brilliantly, he never wrote for effect. Everything that he 

 published represented all the careful research and investigation that the 

 subject demanded. His first attempts at solving a problem were usually 

 wrong, he tells us, and in regard to one of his later books he says that 

 every time he looked up a fact in the British Museum, he found two 

 fresh ones that required investigation. " Fortunately," he adds, " I am not 

 pressed for time." 



" The Early Naturalists " was the last book he published. He spent 

 some years on " A History of Garden Craft " which was ready for publica- 

 tion when the war broke out in 1914, but was then put aside, and after 

 that he wrote no more books. He wrote an occasional paper, carried on a 

 correspondence (sometimes in French) with one of his brothers, and made 

 letter-writing rather a hobby. Gardening had long been a hobby of his 

 and he had given a good deal of attention to the laying out of his new garden 

 at Letchworth. 



On the death of his wife in 1918, my father came back to his favourite 

 haunts in Ben Bhydding and remained there till his last illness. He died on 

 February 21st, 1921, at our house in Leeds. By his own wish there was no 

 religious service at his funeral, a few words of farewell being spoken by his 

 friend, Prof. Smithells, in the presence of a small gathering of relatives, old 

 friends and colleagues. Nevertheless, the religious enthusiasm which inspired 

 his early manhood had never altogether left him, his attitude to life and the 

 unknown was always reverent, and the influence he exerted on those among 

 whom he worked was spiritual as well as intellectual. 



W. W. 



