144 
MEMOIR OF DR. SEVAN. 
with ability and success, and, by his judicious care, Mrs- Be van was fitted to be 
the companion and auxiliary in all her husband’s studies and pursuits. A niece 
of hers, adopted some years afterwards, was the link of the domestic circle in 
which the Doctor has often declared that his best enjoyments are centred—enjoy¬ 
ments to which he had unceasingly looked forward, with a hope that supported 
him under all the fatigues and anxieties of his professional life. This young lady 
has long been the amanuensis and coadjutor of her uncle. 
After twelve years’ residence in Cheshire, finding his health giving way, he 
prudently resolved to retire upon the moderate income he had acquired; but his 
friends, unwilling that his experience should be lost, induced him to resume 
practice in the vicinity of London,* under limitations suited to his state of 
health, and the pursuance of more congenial avocations. After practising there 
for two years, he permanently retired to a small estate which he had purchased 
in Herefordshire, at Bridstow, near Ross, where he commenced agriculturist, 
qualifying himself with his usual ardour, from every accessible source. His 
nominal retirement, however, has freely admitted the claims of benevolence. To 
need help was an appeal he could never withstand, as hundreds of his fellow- 
creatures are prompt to testify. 
His attention to the Natural History and management of Bees commenced 
soon after he withdrew from public life; though, from a memorandum of the year 
1794, he appears even then to have had them in his mind’s eye. It was revived 
and fixed upon as a study in Herefordshire, where finding a hive of Bees on his 
newly-acquired property, he was induced by Mrs. Sevan to purchase them; and 
from her hive he gradually peopled his apiary, which induced him to enter upon 
the field of practical observation, and led to his subsequent research into apiarian 
lore. Incentives were multiplied afterwards by several eminent apiarians and 
naturalists with whom he became acquainted, namely, the Rev. Richard 
Walond, Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., Robert Golding, Esq., and the Rev. 
William Dunbar. With the latter gentlemen and several others he has main¬ 
tained a regular correspondence for years, and a comparison of experimental 
results; and to Mr. Walond he dedicated his first edition of the Honey Bee. 
This work was published in the year 1827, was well received, and established 
the author’s reputation as a scientific apiarian. His attention to the honied race 
has known no abatement since, and has led to the accumulation of a body of 
valuable information which has recently been given to the world, in a second 
edition of the Honey Bee. This work has obtained the meed of approbation 
from almost every quarter, being regarded as u the most perfect and philoso¬ 
phical” that we have upon the subject. It his dedicated to Her Majesty, in a 
* At Mortlake. 
