98 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
XII. 
OBITUAKY NOTICES. 
B. J. H. Gurney. 
The annual revision of our list of members reminds us that 
“ The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.” 
And in the past year we have lost one who had not nearly 
reached the period allotted by the Psalmist, as the span of 
human life. 
Mr. R J. H. Gurney, who died on the 6th of May, 1899, at the age 
of 44, had never enjoyed robust health, and was thus debarred from 
the active out-door pursuit of natural science, but had always 
been much interested in natural history. Mr. Gurney was 
a Fellow of the Zoological Society, and the success of the Norwich 
Castle-Museum, to which he had made several presents, was watched 
by him with great satisfaction ; he was also a member of the 
Archaeological Society, the archaeology of his native county 
particularly claiming his attention. Mr. Itichard Joseph Hanbury 
Gurney was the younger son of the late Mr. John Henry Gurney, 
and had married Sarah Evelyn, the fourth daughter of the late 
Sir E. N. Buxton, Bart. During his married life he resided 
principally at Northrepps Hall. He served the office of High 
Sheriff of Norfolk in 1896. 
The love of animated nature may be traced through four 
generations of Mr. Gurney’s family ; his father was a distinguished 
ornithologist; his grandfather, Mr. Joseph John Gurney, if he 
did not make botany a study, yet knew much about plants, and 
appreciated their beauty; he has told in his diary that on one 
occasion especially, when fatigued and depressed with a long 
journey, he felt himself revived by the sight of wild-flowers 
growing by the road-side. He was one who had learned that 
“ The small flower 
That twinkles through the meadow-grass, can serve 
For subject of a lesson : aye, as well 
As the most gorgeous growth of Indian climes ; 
For love of nature dwells not in the heart 
Which seoks for things beyond our daily ken, 
To bid it glow.” 
