A VETERAN SELBORNIAN. 
193 
A VETERAN SELBORNIAN. 
N Sept, ist there passed away from among us the oldest 
member, in one sense at least, of the Selborne Society, the 
Rev. Leonard Blomefield, in his ninety-fourth year. In 
another sense, too, he was a follower of Gilbert White. 
From boyhood he was fond of the study of Natural History, and 
whilst at Eton a school-fellow lent him White's N atural Hisiovy of 
Selborne. This book so impressed the boy-naturalist that he copied 
the whole of it, with the exception of two or three chapters, with 
his own hand. The friend and fellow student at Cambridge of the 
late Charles Darwin, Leonard Jenyns (by which name he is best 
known to many), was instrumental in obtaining for that eminent 
naturalist his appointment on board the Beagle. For some thirty- 
yearsthe Rev. Leonard Jenyns was the incumbent of a Cambridge- 
shire parish (Swaffham, Bulbeck), where he manifested much 
energy and devotion to his clerical duties, whilst his favourite 
scientific studies w'ere by no means neglected, as his well-known 
publications, including Ffs/i£so///;r Voyage of the Beagle, A Manual 
of British Vertebrate Animals, and Observations on Natural History, 
bear witness. 
In the year 1850, Jenyns came to Bath, and in the year 1871 
took the name of Blomefield in substitution for Jenyns on 
succeeding to certain family property. In 1855 founded the 
Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, of which he 
became the first president. He afterwards read several admir- 
able papers to the members, the last so recently as 1891. Mr. 
Blomefield presented to the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific 
Institution his Herbarium, as well as a valuable collection of 
upwards of 2,000 volumes, known as the Jenyns Library. 
Elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1822, he lived to be 
known as the “ father ” of that body. 
When a branch of the Selborne Society was about to be 
established in Bath, Mr. Blomefield at once accepted the invita- 
tion to become one of its founders, and up to within a short time 
of his death took a lively interest in its welfare. One of his last 
papers was entitled “ Records of a Rookery this he read to the 
members of the Bath Branch on May 14th, 1891, being then in 
his ninety-first year. 
The last few years of Mr. Blomefield’s life were passed in 
comparative seclusion. Elis mental vigour was remarkable even 
in his extreme old age, and up to within a very short period of 
his death he would carry on an animated conversation with 
his friends on any of his favourite subjects. He was an old 
life member of the British Association, and a F.G.S. In the 
“Chapters in my Life,” published for private circulation in i88g, 
Mr. Blomefield observes that in his early days he resolved to 
have nothing to do with four things, viz., sporting, farming, 
politics, and magisterial business ; and he kept his resolution to 
the end. A somewhat extraordinary confession for a naturalist, 
