vi 



NOTICE OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 



To the foregoing brief sketch which was read before the Linnsean 

 Society at the Anniversary Meeting 24th May 1845, it is scarcely 

 necessary to make any addition. It is worthy of remark however, 

 as showing how talents sometimes run in families, that Mr. Griffith 

 was great grandson of Jeremiah Meyer, Historical Painter to George 

 the Second, and one of the founders of the Royal Academy. It is 

 also but fair to state on the present occasion, that he was not him- 

 self the only member of the family who would appear to have 

 inherited something of his grandfather's peculiar art, as we owe the 

 transfer of the landscapes to stone, which add so much to the 

 appearance of the following volume, to the talent and kindness of his 

 sister. 



It may perhaps be acceptable in this place to afford a few ex- 

 tracts from the private letters of Mr. Griffith, especially those in 

 which he adverts with a liberality of feeling to his contemporaries, no 

 less honourable to himself than to the persons mentioned. 



The following notes addressed to his uncle, at various periods, 

 exhibit the sentiments with which he regarded the late Mr. Bauer 

 not merely as an artist, but original observer. 



From letters of Mr. Griffith, to Mr. Meyer. 



Mergui: January 11 th, 1835. 



" My last accounts of Mr. Bauer state him to have been in excel- 

 lent health : he had just completed some more of his unrivalled 

 drawings." 



Suddya : December ZOth, 1836. 



" Pray give the compliments of the season to Mr. Bauer, to whom 

 I look up with the greatest admiration : what a pity it is for science 

 that such a life as his is not renewable ad libitum. Tell him that I 

 have a beautiful new genus allied to Rafnesia, the flowers of which 

 are about a span across, it is dioecious and icosandrous, and has an 

 abominable smell. How I look back occasionally on my frequent 

 and delightful visits to Kew." 



