302 
PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. 
Aquarium. He also took much interest in our local Natural 
History Society, and frequently sent us copies of liis papers. 
No member who ever asked him for information could com¬ 
plain that his questions were not promptly and exhaustively 
answered beyond his anticipation. The pages of this journal 
are enriched by two or three papers by him, notably one in 
volume 2, 1879, on “ A Marine Aquarium.” In his latter years 
he was a famous grower of orchids, long before they 
became popular, and his collection at Maryclmrcli was at one 
time quite unique. He once told the writer that he had 
specimens, some of which flowered for a day only, and some 
which continued to flower for a whole year. Mr. Gosse 
wrote an exquisitely neat and beautiful hand, altogether of the 
old style, when letter writing was an accomplishment. 
There is a letter to the writer, dated 14th January, 1879, 
wherein he expresses kindly sympathy with our town 
in the great loss it had sustained from the destruction of the 
Free Library by fire. He says : “I have seen in yesterday’s 
Times the terrible calamity which has befallen your valuable 
library, but I shall be thankful to get the fuller details, which 
you kindly promise to send me.” 
A new race of Naturalists and Thinkers has appeared 
since Mr. Gosse did most of his work— 
“ The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
And God fulfils himself in many ways, 
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world”— 
a race which marches under the banner of Evolution, with 
which Mr. Gosse had no sympathy, and who are represented 
by Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Ernst Haeckel, and 
others. To the older race, the practical Naturalists, “who 
hewed the wood and drew the water,” and thus furnished 
many of the data which enabled these eminent philosophers 
of the new race, in addition to their own good work, 
to generalise on the results;—to the older race, which 
includes Bell, Bowerbank, Alder and Hancock, Forbes 
and Hanley, Gwyn Jeffreys, Yarrell, and others, belongs 
Mr. Gosse, marching in a no less honourable company. 
Wherever Marine Zoology is studied, for many a long year 
to come, the name of Gosse will be a household word. 
A thoroughly good man, a courteous gentleman, a sincere 
friend, and a profound Naturalist—what an example to 
follow! 
Mr. Gosse leaves a widow and an only son to deplore his 
loss. His son (Mr. Edmund Gosse), who inherits his 
father’s gift of language, has already won lasting laurels in 
other walks of literature. W. B. H. 
