ii 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



At the time of his death, Lord Avebury, although he retained a house in 

 London, had given up his house in St. James's Square, and he died at 

 Kingsgate Castle, Kent. Another of his country residences was High Elms, 

 Down, and it may have been the association of Darwin and Avebury at 

 this small Kentish village that first attracted Lord Avebury's attention to 

 natural history. 



One of his first books, and perhaps one of the most stimulating, was ' The 

 Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man,' now in the sixth 

 edition, a book which aroused interest and research in the past in many 

 quarters. It was characteristic of him when he had to select a title for his 

 peerage to choose that of Avebury, the preservation of whose prehistoric 

 remains he had taken so large a part in securing. At the time of his last 

 illness he was engaged in revising and partly rewriting a seventh edition of 

 his well-known ' Prehistoric Times.' 



Without being a great researcher, Lord Avebury took a very prominent 

 part in encouraging the research of others. Of his more scientific works, 

 perhaps his monograph (published by the Pay Society) ' On the Collembola 

 and Thysanura ' has proved most useful ; for a long time it was the authori- 

 tative work on these lowly insects, and still is so, especially with regard 

 to the Collembola, whose distinction from the Thysanura was first recognised 

 by the author. But many of his other works passed into numerous 

 editions : ' British Wild Flowers, considered in Relation to Insects,' reached 

 the sale of 11,000 copies ; ' Ants, Bees, and Wasps ' passed into the seventeenth 

 edition ; and his works on ' Seedlings ' and on ' Buds and Stipules ' contained 

 much tbat is valuable and well worthy of record. 



He wrote two geological works which are still used with profit by students 

 of the Universities ; one on ' The Scenery of Switzerland,' and the other, 

 published ten years ago, on ' The Scenery of England,' and several treatises 

 on more strictly economic lines. His works on Coins and Currency, on 

 Free Trade, and on Municipal, and on National Trade, occur to one's 

 mind. But apart from these more or less technical publications, Lord 

 Avebury had a genuine "flair" for writing books which the public want. 

 Both parts of 'The Pleasures of Life' sold over 200,000 copies, and 

 Part I over a quarter of a million, besides being issued in no less than 

 forty foreign editions. ' The Use of Life ' and ' The Beauties of Nature ' 

 were hardly less successful, and everyone will remember his "Hundred Best 

 Books." 



As the foregoing will show, Lord Avebury was a man of singularly 

 diversified activities and extreme width of interest. That he should find 

 occasion in the middle of a busy business career to do the work he did 

 is indeed amazing, but he was precise and very business-like, and knew 

 how to make the most of his time. 



He had after his name an alphabet of Honorary Degrees and memberships 

 of Learned Societies. ' It need hardly be said that he was covered with 

 honours too numerous to enumerate. He was Lord Eector of the University 



