PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. 
297 
PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. 
This eminent Zoologist, who was indubitably one of the 
most popular—if not one of the greatest—Naturalists that 
Britain has produced in this nineteenth century, “ peacefully 
passed away in his sleep,” on the morning of Monday, 23rd of 
August last, in the 79th year of his age, after an illness of five 
months. “Peacefully passed away in his sleep!” The words, 
viewed by the light of after events, seem to have been almost 
prophetic. The writer of these lines, who was honoured by 
liis friendship during many years, and who, in common with 
many others, deplores the loss of a true friend, and the still 
greater loss which science has sustained by his “ passing 
away,” recalls a memorable conversation that took place, in 
the garden of his quiet and beautiful home, at “ Maryclmrch,” 
now nearly a quarter of a century ago. The topics on which 
we had been discoursing were of the most momentous 
nature—life, death, and immortality; and the question was 
put by the writer, “ Would it at all distress your mind if you 
knew you were to die to-night?” The answer was immediate, 
clear, ringing, and decisive, “ No, it would not.” Often and 
often since have those words been brought back to memory. 
How beautifully they illustrate the gentle, loving, eminently 
religious character of the man, and the simple and trustful 
faith—not unlike that of the old Puritans—in which he lived 
and died. 
The life of Mr. Gosse, which exceeded the three-score 
years and ten of man, was numbered both by its years and 
by its activities. Born at Worcester on 10th April, 1810, 
being the second son of a miniature painter named Thomas 
Gosse; educated at Blandford; serving first as a clerk in a 
whaler’s office in Newfoundland; then engaged as a farmer in 
Canada; then teaching as a schoolmaster in Alabama ; and 
afterwards working as a professional Naturalist in Jamaica. 
What a rich experience. Added to it, was the inherited gift 
of the father’s artistic pencil, and the early enthusiasm of a 
kind aunt—a Mrs. Bell—who fostered and developed the boy’s 
taste for Natural History. And what was the result? During 
nearly half a century, from 1840 till 1886, a rich and varied 
series of works on Natural History, Microscopy, and other 
subjects, issued from his pen, most of which were exquisitely 
illustrated by his pencil. The following is a list of the more 
important of those which pertain to Zoology:—“The 
Canadian Naturalist,” 1840, “ The Birds of Jamaica,” 1847, 
