CHAPTER I 
SOME EARLY REMINISCENCES 
Perhaps it was because William Spence was the husband of a great- 
aunt, or possibly because I was a strange studious child left much to 
my own devices, but whatever the reason may have been I began to 
notice insects at an early age. 
A copy of J. W. Douglas’ “World of Insects” bears the inscrip¬ 
tion—“ To a young Entomologist from an old one. William Spence, 
Oct. 7, 1858.” 
I was then under ten. A saying of my uncle remains impressed 
upon my memory:—“ George, never throw away a bad specimen 
until you get a better.” I can see the speaker now, a benevolent 
looking white-haired old gentleman, sitting in an armchair in the 
dismal house in Lower Seymour Street. I was barely eleven when 
he died. 
The entomologist to whom I was most indebted as a boy was 
Mr. Trovey Blackmore, of the Waterside, Wandsworth, a very shy 
man of delicate health, who died in early middle life. 1 Besides 
butterflies and moths he collected Roman pottery and copper tokens, 
of which last he had a large number. A family “ Nonsense Rhyme ” 
celebrated him thus:— 
“ There was an old buffer called Trovey 
To such a point madness drove he, 
He collected old mugs, 
Bad half-pence and bugs, 
This silly old fellow called Trovey.” 
Blackmore introduced me to Biston hispidaria in Richmond Park 
with the words: “ That is the best insect in your collection, I will 
take it home and set it for you ” (1862). He also told me how to 
get an order of admission into Coombe Wood, and took me to Mickle- 
liam and Darenth. It was as his guest that I attended a meeting of 
the Entomological Society of London in September, 1866, during the 
first presidency of Sir John Lubbock. This was the first meeting of 
1 In 1876, aged 41. 
