70 
NATURE NOTES. 
any interest in flowers, a somewhat remarkable feature in so 
ardent a Nature lover. 
Young Wood was fortunate in being much encouraged by 
his father in his tastes and pursuits. Boys are not always so 
lucky. I know of one who remembers to this day the reproof 
with which his admiration of the fronds of duckweed spreading 
over the dark water in a waterbutt was received by his father. 
“ If you talk like that, people will think you are silly,” said the 
parent. He went with his family to Oxford in 1830, and soon 
became a constant visitor at the Ashmolean Museum, where he 
was on the best of terms with the kindhearted old curator. At 
school, at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, he collected all sorts of 
“spoil, both living and dead;” and made extremely intimate 
acquaintance with the domestic flea during a period of confine- 
ment to bed, arising from a broken leg. At seventeen he 
returned to Oxford, and matriculated at Merton College. During 
his university career he became an accomplished gymnast, and 
in that capacity was the original of “ Little Mr. Bouncer,” in the 
chapters which relate to that gentleman’s experiences in the 
gymnasium in Air. Bradley’s “ Verdant Green.” 
During his Oxford career he in no way relaxed his natural 
history’ studies ; he bred and dissected insects, and observed 
their habits. His final scientific training, however, was received 
under Sir Henryk Acland in the Anatomical Museum at Christ 
Church in 1850-51. “ During these two y^ears he went through 
a complete course of research in comparative anatomy, himself 
dissecting representatives of all the important families of the 
animal kingdom, and making numberless careful and valuable 
preparations, of which rnany^ remain in the museum to this day.” 
To these two years we may fairly attribute the accuracy of the 
scientific portions of his books : for Mr. Wood — more, perhaps, 
than any writer before or since — possessed the uncommon art of 
combining a popular styde with scientific accuracy, and it is to 
this combination that his books owe their value. 
His first book — the smaller Natural History — was published 
in 1851 ; in 1852 he was ordained deacon, and undertook clerical 
duty in Oxford. From this he retired in 1854, but, after two 
years’ literary- work, he came to London as chaplain to St. Bar- 
tholomew’s Hospital. In 1859 he married, and in 1862 settled 
down at Belvedere, near Woolwich, where he remained for more 
than fifteen years. During this period of his life he was extremely 
active in clerical work ; he was a good musician, and devoted 
himself with much success to choir work, and was at one time 
Precentor of the Canterbury Diocesan Choral Union. His 
regular clerical work — the larger portion of which was unpaid — 
came to an end in 1874. 
Various books on Natural History were issued by Mr. Wood 
before 1857, when the well-known “ Common Objects of the 
Seashore” made its appearance, to be followed in 1858 by’ the 
