BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 
About fifteen miles to the north-east of York there are three 
small villages, each being about two miles distant from the 
others, thus forming a nearly equilateral triangle within which 
Hes the fine park and mansion of Castle Howard. Ganthorpe, 
the most westerly, was Spruce's birthplace ; in Welburn, to the 
south, he Hved for some years before going to South America, 
and again after his return ; while in Coneysthorpe, close to the 
north-east boundary of Castle Howard park, he passed the last 
seventeen years of his life.^ 
The district in which these villages lie is somewhat elevated, 
being from 300 to 400 feet above the sea, broken into hill and 
dale, with abundance of woods and a few small streams. Being 
situated on the Middle OoKte beds, while the Upper Oolite and 
Lias are within a few miles to the north and south of it, there is 
a considerable variety of soils — clayey sand and calcareous rocks 
of various degrees of hardness — highly favourable to a varied 
and interesting vegetation ; and it still offers to the visitor 
a charming example of English rural scenery. It is an ideal 
home for a botanist and student of nature, and it was here that 
Richard Spruce acquired that deep love of flowers, and especially 
of the lowHest plants — the Mosses and Hepaticae — which was the 
joy of his early manhood and the consolation of his declining 
years. 
Spruce's father (also named Richard) was the highly-respected 
schoolmaster at Ganthorpe, and afterwards at Welburn, both 
schools being partially endowed by the Howard family. Mr. 
G. Stabler, who was for some time at his school, informs me that 
he was a very good mathematician, but less advanced in the 
classics, and that he was a wonderfully fine penman, a character- 
istic in which his son resembled him, as his remarkably clear and 
uniform handwriting, even under the most adverse conditions, 
^ Richard Spruce, born Sept. 10, 1817 ; died Dec. 28, 1893. 
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