PREFACE 
H AVING been invited by Mrs. Young to edit her father’s 
journals of his last journey, and that with the least 
possible delay, we have done our best to comply with her 
wishes, and beg to plead haste and the pressure of other 
work for any shortcomings that appear. One of us has com¬ 
piled the brief memoir, being quite unable for reasons of 
space to do justice to the wealth of material, mostly in the 
form of letters, that could be utilized for the purpose. As 
the scientific aspect of this correspondence is at least as 
interesting as the biographical—for Spencer in his modesty 
is almost unduly reticent about his private feelings and con¬ 
cerns —it is to be hoped that some substantial part of it will 
be eventually published. The other of us has seen to the 
transcription and editing of the Journals, and is chiefly 
responsible for having seen the book through the Press. 
Our joint thanks are due in the first place to Mrs. d oung, 
who throughout has been most active in collecting informa¬ 
tion, and in general helping to make the book a worthy 
memorial of her father. Further, we have also to thank 
Mr. W. Howard Goulty, Mr. Henry Balfour, Sir James 
Frazer, and Sir H. J. Mackinder for information and 
for permission to use letters which Spencer wrote to them, 
Dr. George Macmillan for the use of a letter, and the 
owners of letters to the late Prof. J. G. Adami, the late 
Dr. A. M. Howitt, and the late Rev. Lorimer Fison. For the 
use of typed or printed articles we have to thank Dr. J. A. 
Gilruth, Mr. J. A. Kershaw, Bishop Hart, Mr. W. Mann, 
Mrs. T. a’Beckett, Dr. Georgina Sweet, and Mr. Sydney 
Ure-Smith. For other assistance we thank Lady Spencer, 
Mrs. Rowan (Spencer’s daughter), Mrs. B. Goodfellow, 
Mr. G. H. Bowman, Mr. E. P. Ramsay, Mr. R. W. M. 
Waddy, Mrs. B. Malinowska, Mr. W. L. Sclater, Dr. G. . 
