Eleanor Ormerod, Ll. D., economic entomologist : autobiography and correspondence

eleanor ormerod, ll.d.

economic entomologist
©obauto-biography and
correspondence sob^sob

GIFT OF
Dr. T. I. Storer

Digitized by the Internet Archive
. in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation

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ELEANOR ORMEROD, LL.D.

ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGIST. AUTO-
BIOGRAPHY AND CORRESPONDENCE

EDITED BY ROBERT WALLACE

PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

WITH PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY

31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET

1904

DEDICATED

TO ALL

MISS ORMERODS CORRESPONDENTS

IN

ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY.

PREFACE

The idea that Miss Ormerod should write her biography
originated with the present writer during one of many visits
paid to her at St. Albans. Miss Ormerod had unfolded in
charming language and with admirable lucidity and fluency
some interesting chapters of her personal experiences and
reminiscences. The first working plan of the project in-
volved the concealment of a shorthand writer behind a
screen in the dining-room while dinner was proceeding,
and while the examination of ethnological specimens or
other attractive objects gave place for a time to general
conversation on subjects grown interesting by age.
Although the shorthand writer was selected and is several
times referred to in letters written about this period
(pp. 304-7), Miss Ormerod, on due reflection, felt that
the presence, though unseen, of a stranger at these meet-
ings in camera would make the position unnatural, and
dislocate the association of ideas to the detriment of the
narrative.

She then bethought herself of the method of writing
down at leisure moments, from time to time as a suitable
subject occurred to her, rough notes (p. 122) to be elaborated
later, and when after a time a subject had been exhausted,
the rough notes were re-written and welded into a narrative
(pp. 304-21). Some four or five of the early chapters were
thus treated and then typewritten, but the remainder of
the Autobiography was left in crude form, requiring much
piecing together and editorial trimming. Had the book
been produced on the original plan, it was proposed to name
it " Recollections of Changing Times." ^ It would have
dealt with a number of subjects of general interest, such as
the history of the Post Office, early records of floods and

' See letter to the Editor dated June 14, 1900, p. 304.

r

99/9

vi PREFACE

earthquakes, as well as newspapers of early date. The intro-
duction of Miss Ormerod's letters to a few of her leading
correspondents was made necessary by the lack of other
suitable material. The present volume is still mainly the pro-
duct of Miss Ormerod's pen, but with few exceptions general
subjects have been eliminated ; and it forms much more
a record of her works and ways than it would have done
had she been spared to complete it. From the inception of
the idea the present writer was appointed editor, but had
Miss Ormerod lived to see the book in the hands of the
public his share of work would have been light indeed.
Armed with absolute authority from her (p. 318) to use his
discretion in the work, he has exercised his editorial license
in making minor alterations without brackets or other evi-
dences of the editorial pen, while at the same time the
integrity of the substance has been jealously guarded.

As in Miss Ormerod's correspondence with experts only
scientific names for insects and other scientific objects were
employed, it was found expedient to introduce the common
names within ordinary or round brackets. Much thought
and care have been given to the arrangement of the letters,
and a sort of compromise was adopted of three different
methods that came up for consideration, viz., (i) accord-
ing to chronological order, (2) according to the subjects
discussed, and (3) grouping under the names of the indi-
viduals to whom they were addressed. While the third is
the predominant feature of the scheme the chronological
order has been maintained within the personal groups,
and precedence in the book was generally given to
the letters of the oldest date. At the same time, to com-
plete a subject in one group written mainly to one corre-
spondent, letters dealing with the subject under discussion
have been borrowed from their natural places under the

heading of ^^ Letters to Dr. " or ** Letters to Mr. ."

While Miss Ormerod's practice of referring to matters of
minor importance and of purely personal interest in
correspondence dealing mainly with definite lines of scien-
tific research, has not been interfered with in a few instances,
in most of the other groups of letters on technical subjects
editorial pruning was freely practised to prevent confusion
and to concentrate the subject matter. The chief exceptions
occur in the voluminous and interesting correspondence
with Dr. Fletcher, in her specially confidential letters to Dr.
Bethune, and in the very general correspondence with the
editor. It was felt that to remove more of the friendly

PREFACE vii

references and passing general remarks to her correspon-
dents would have been to invalidate the letters and show
the writer of them in a character alien to her own.

The figures of insects which have been introduced into
the correspondence, to lighten it and increase its interest to
the reader, have been chiefly borrowed from Miss Ormerod's
published works ; and among them will be found a number
of illustrations from Curtis's '^ Farm Insects/' for the use of
which her acknowledgments were fully given to Messrs.
Blackie, the publishers.^ The contents of this volume will
afford ample evidence of Miss Ormerod's intense interest in
her subject, of the infinite pains she took to investigate the
causes of injury, and of the untiring and unceasing efforts
she employed to accomplish her object ; also that her
determinations relative to the causes and nature of parasitic
attacks upon crops, give proof of soundness of judgment,
and her advice, chiefly connected with remedial and pre-
ventive treatment, was eminently sensible and practical.
Mainly by correspondence of the most friendly kind she
formed a unique connecting link between economic
entomologists in all parts of the world ; and she quoted
their various opinions to one another very often in support
of her own preconceived ideas.

The three biographical chapters. III., XL, and XII., were
added to the autobiographical statements which she had left,
with the object merely of supplying some missing personal
incidents in an interesting life. Other deficiencies in the
Autobiography are made up by Miss Ormerod's correspon-
dence, and the history of her work is permitted to evolve
from her own letters.

A strong vein of humour runs through many parts of her
writings, notably in the chapter on " Church and Parish."
The reader will not fail to notice the splendid courtesy
and deference to scientific authority, as well as the fullest
appreciation of and unselfish sympathy with the genuine
scientific work of others, which pervades all she wrote.
Prominent among these characteristics of Miss Ormerod
should be placed her scrupulous honesty of purpose in
acknowledging to the fullest extent the work of others.

The work of collecting material, sifting, and editing has
been going on for nearly two years, and could never have
been accomplished but for the kindly help rendered by so
many of Miss Ormerod's correspondents, all of whom I

' Figs. C. and D. (pp. i6o and 162) are borrowed from Yarrell's
British Birds by permission of Messrs. Gurney & Jackson.

viii PREFACE

now cordially thank for invaluable sympathetic assistance.
Special acknowledgments are due to Sir Wm. Henry Marling,
Bart., the present owner of Sedbury Park, and to Miss
Ormerod's nephews and nieces, who have been delighted to
render such assistance as could not have been found outside
the family circle. Besides Mr. Grimshaw, Mr. Janson, Dr.
Stewart MacDougall, Professor Hudson Beare, and Mr. T. P.
Newman who read the proofs critically, last, but not least,
do I thank Mr. John Murray, whose friendly reception of
the first overtures made to him as the prospective pub-
lisher of this volume brightened some of the dark moments
near the close of Miss Ormerod's life. I have had as editor
the much appreciated privilege of drawing, in all cases of
difficulty, upon Mr. Murray's great literary experience.

In making these pleasing acknowledgments I in no way
wish to shift the responsibility as Editor from my own
shoulders for defects which may be discovered or for the
general scheme of the work, which was, with slight modifi-
cations, my own. If it be said in criticism that the Editor
is too little in evidence, I shall be all the more satisfied, as
that has been throughout one of his leading aims.

ROBERT WALLACE.

University of Edinburgh,
1904.

LIST OF ERRATA.

Page 70, line 31, for " Tenebroides" read " Tenebrioides."
„ 130, „ II, ior " Ceutorhyncus" read "CeutJwrhyncus."
„ „ in description of Fig. 14, for " Ceutorhyxcus " read

" Ceuthorhyxxus."
„ 144, line 7, for "importad" read ** imported."
„ 185, „ I, for " Lucania" rea.d '^ Leucania."

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

BIRTH, CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION I

Born at Sedbury Park, May, 1828 — Recollections of early
childhood — First insect observation — Girlish occupations —
Education of the family — Eleanor Ormerod's education at
home by her mother — Interests during hours of leisure.

CHAPTER n
PARENTAGE 7

Localities of Sedbury Park and Tyldesley, the properties of
George Ormerod — Roman remains — The family of Ormerod
since 13 11 — Three George Ormerods of Bury — Reference
to " Parentalia " by George Ormerod — The alliance of the
family with the heiress, Elizabeth Johnson of Tyldesley —
" Tyldesley's " experiences during the Stewart rebellion in
1745 — Descent from Thomas Johnson of Tyldesley — George
Ormerod, father of Miss Ormerod — John Latham, fellow
and president of the Royal College of Physicians, London,
maternal grandfather of Miss Ormerod — Connection with
the Ardernes of Alvanley and descent from Edward L — The
right of the Ormerod family to the " Port Fellowship " of
Brasenose College.

CHAPTER III

REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY BY MISS DIANA LATHAM . I4

The Ormerod family of ten — The father and mother and
their respective interests in literature and art — Sedbury Park
and the hobbies of its inmates — Paucity of congenial neigh-
bours — Annual visit to London — Drives and Excursions — -
The elder and the younger sections of the famil}^ — Eleanor
Ormerod's favourite sister, Georgiana — Interest in natural
history and medicine — Miss Ormerod at twenty -five — Routine
of life at Sedbury — Drawings by Mrs. Ormerod — The Library
— Music — Models — Separation of the family.

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

PAGE

CHURCH AND PARISH 20

Tidenham parish church — Leaden font — The Norman
Chapel of Llancaut — The history of Tidenham Church —
Curious practices in neighbouring churches — The church as
schoolroom — Pretty customs on special occasions — The
discomforts of the usual service — The choral service on high
days — No reminiscences of precocious piety — Impressions
of sermons by Scobell and Whately — Clerical eccentricities
in dress, &c. — The Oxford Movement — Dr. Armstrong —
Raising the latch of the chancel door with a ruler — The
woman's Clothing Club of the parish — Lending library
instituted and successfully managed by Miss G. E. Ormerod—
Her accomplishments and merits as a philanthropist.

CHAPTER V
SEVERN AND WYE 33

" Forest Peninsula " between Severn and Wye — Ruined
chapel of St. Tecla — Muddy experiences — Scenery on the
Severn — Rise of Tides — Colour and width of the river —
Sailing merchant flieet to and from Gloucester — A " pill " or
creek — Salmon fishing from boats — " Putcher " or basket
fishing — Disorderly conduct by fishermen — Finds of Natural
History specimens in fishing baskets — Severn clay or "mud"
— A bottle-nosed whale — Seaweeds — Fossils from Sedbury
cliffs — Saurian remains — Dangers of the cliffs.

CHAPTER VI
TRAVELLING BY COACH, FERRY, AND RAILWAY ... 43

Many coaches passing Sedbury Park gates — Dangers of
travelHng — View of the Severn valley — The Old Ferry
passage of the Severn — Swamping of a sailing boat in
1838 — A strange custom when rabies was feared — Window-
shutter-Hke ferry telegraph — The ferry piers — The first
railways — Curious early train experiences.

CHAPTER VII
CHARTIST RISING IN MONMOUTHSHIRE IN 1839 ... 47

Chartist rising in Monmouth under John Frost, ex-draper of
Newport — Home experience — Defenceless state of Sedbury
house — Trial and sentence of the leaders — Reminiscences of
troubles — Attorney-General's address to the jury — Physical
features of the disturbed area — Plan of the rising — Prompt
action of the Mayor of Newport — Thirty soldiers stationed
in the Westgate Hotel — Advance of 5,000 rioters — Their
spirited repulse and dispersal — Arrest and punishment of
Frost and other leaders.

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

BEGINNING THE STUDY OF ENTOMOLOGY, COLLECTIONS OF
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, AND FAMILY
DISPERSAL . -53

Beginning of Entomology 1852 — A rare locust — Purchase of
Stephen's " Manual of British Beetles " — Method of self-
instruction — First collection of Economic Entomology
specimens sent to Paris — Facilities at Sedbury for collection
— Aid given by labourers and their children in collecting —
Illness and death of Miss Ormerod's father — Succession and
early death of Venerable Thomas J. Ormerod — Succession
of the Rev. G. T. B. Ormerod — Miss Ormerod's brothers —
Especial copy of "History of Cheshire" presented to the
Bodleian Library — A family heirloom.

CHAPTER IX

COMMENCEMENT AND PROGRESS OF ANNUAL REPORTS OF

OBSERVATIONS OF INJURIOUS INSECTS ... 59

Preliminary pamphlet issued in 1877 — Explanation of the
objects aimed at— Approval of the public and of the press —
Changes in the original arrangement of the subject matter
— Classification of facts under headings arranged in 1881 —
Sources of information stated and fully acknowledged —
Adoption of plain and simple language — Illustrations of first
importance — Blackie & Sons supply electros of wood en-
gravings from Curtis's " Farm Insects " — The brothers Knight
assist — Accumulation of knowledge — General Index to Annual
Reports by Newstead — Manual of Injurious Insects and other
publications — Notice of the discontinuance of the Annual
Reports in the Report for 1900 — " Times " notice of " Miss
Ormerod's partial retirement from Entomological Work,"
in Appendix B.

CHAPTER X

SAMPLES OF LEGAL EXPERIENCES 68

First employment as an expert witness in 1889 — Case of
Wilkinson v. The Houghton Main Colliery Company, Limited
— Form of subpoena — Rusty-red flour beetle infestation in
a cargo of flour transported from New York to Durban —
Report on insect presence — Confirmed by Oliver Janson and
a Washington expert — A compromise effected — Case of
granary weevil infestation in a cargo of flour from San
Francisco to Westport — Letter of thanks from William
Simpson of R. & H. Hall, Limited.

CHAPTER XI

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR • • • • 73

Reasons for changes of residence — Intimacy with Sir Joseph
and Lady Hooker at Kew — Interesting people met there —

xii CONTENTS

Appointed Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agricultural
Society of England— Insect diagrams — Serious carriage acci-
dent — Methods adopted in doing entomological work— As a
meteorological observer — Professor Westwood as friendly
mentor — Appreciation of work by foreign correspondents.

CHAPTER XII

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR (continued) . . 83

Public lectures at the Royal Agricultural College — Reasons
why lecturing was ultimately discontinued — Lectures at
South Kensington and other places — The Economic
Entomology Committee — Simplicity of Miss Ormerod's home
life before and after her sister's death — Programme of daily
work — Welcome guests — Intimate friends — Sense of humour
— Story of a hornet's capture — Proofs of courage — His-
torical oaks at Sedbury — Fond of children and thoughtful of
employees — Charity — Public liberalit}^ — Subsidiary employ-
ments and amusements — Made LL.D. — Fellowships of
societies — Medals — Treatment of letters.

CHAPTER XIII

LETTERS TO COLONEL COUSSMAKER AND MR. ROBERT

SERVICE 99

{Coiissmaker) Insect diagrams Royal Agricultural Society —
Surface caterpillars — Wood leopard moth — Puss moth.
{Service) — Paper by "Mabie Moss" on hill grubs of the
Antler moth — The pest checked by parasites.

CHAPTER XIV

LETTERS TO MR. WM. BAILEY I09

Mr. Bailey's letter to H.G. the Duke of Westminster on Ox
warble fly — Letter showing the destruction of Ox warbles
by the boys — R.A.S.E. recognition — Annual letter and
cheque for five guineas for prizes in insect work — Looper
caterpillars — Mr. Bailey's method of teaching agricultural
entomology — Economic entomology exhibit at Bath and
West Society's Show, St. Albans — Examinership at Edin-
burgh University — The royal party at the show — Cheese fly
maggot — Copies of Manual for free distribution — Presentation
slips — LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh — Discontinuing
coUeagueship.

CHAPTER XV

LETTERS TO MR. D. D. GIBB 128

Great tortoiseshell butterfly infestation — Charlock weevil —
Gout fly — Forest fly — Structure of its foot — Great gadfly —
Horse breeze flies — Deer forest fly in Scotland — Sheep forest
fly — Hessian fly and elbowed wheat straw — Bean seed beetles

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

— Millepedes — American blight — Brickdust-like deposit on
apple trees — Insect cases for the show at St. Albans —
Specimens of forest fly chloroformed — Death from fly
poisoning — Looper caterpillars — Diamond back moth — Corn
sawfly.

CHAPTER XVI

LETTERS TO MR. GRIMSHAW, MR. WISE, AND MR.

TEGETMEIER . I49

(Grimshaw) The Red-bearded botfly — Deer forest fly — Ox
and deer warble flies. (Wise) Case of caddis worms injuring
cress-beds— Enemies and means of prevention — Moles —
Black currant mites — Biggs' prevention — Dr. Nalepa's views
— Attack-resisting varieties of currants from Budapest —
Dr. Ritzema Bos's views — Mite-proof currants — Woburn
report on gall mites — Narcissus fly — Lappet moth cater-
pillars. (Tegetmeier) Scheme of Miss Ormerod's leaflet on
the house sparrow plague — Earlier authorities — Enormous
success of the free distribution of the leaflet — Miss Carring-
ton's opposition pamphlet — One hundred letters in a day
received — Unfounded nature of opposition exposed, including
Scripture reference to sparrows — Fashionable support —
1,500 letters classified and 100 filed for future use — "The
House Sparrow " by W. B. Tegetmeier, with Appendix by
Eleanor A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XVII

LETTERS TO MR. MARTIN, MR. GEORGE, MR. COXNOLD,

AND MESSRS. COLEMAN AND SONS .... 169

{Martin) Elm bark beetle — Ash bark beetle — Large ash bark
beetle — Galleries — Preventive measure. {George) Mason
bee — Roman coin found near Sedbury — Samian cup — The
family grave. {Connold) — Pocket or bladder plums — Pro-
fessor Ward describes, the fungus — Dr. Nalepa's publica-
tions. {Coleman and Sons) Attack of caterpillars of the silver
Y-moth — Origin of the name.

CHAPTER XVIII

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR RILEY AND DR. HOWARD . . 179

{Riley) Flour moth caterpillars — Differences of mineral oils
— Trapping the winter moth — Orchard-growers Experi-
mental Committee. {Howard) John Curtis, Author of " Farm
Insects" — Advance of Economic Entomology — C. P. Louns-
bury, Cape Town — Sparrow Leaflet — Shot-borer beetles —
Fly weevil — Lesser earwig — Handbook of Orchard Insects
— General Index — Flour Moths — Snail slug — Flat-worm —
Tick — Degree of LL.D. of Edinburgh University.

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIX

PAGE

LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER I95

Dr. Voelcker's gas lime pamphlet — Honorary membership
of Entomological Society of Ontario — Ostrich fly — " Sil vertop "
in wheat— The "Crovvder" — Mill or flour moth— Shot-
borers — Progress of Agricultural Entomology — Paris-green
as an insecticide — End of Board of Agriculture work —
"Manual of Injurious Insects" — Fruit-growers' associations
— Lesson book for village schools — Entomology lectures
in Edinburgh — Stem eel-worms— Miss Georgiana's insect
diagrams — Mr. A. Crawford's death in Adelaide— Diamond-
back moth — Insects survive freezing — Resigned post of
Consulting Entomologist of R.x\.S.E. — Finger and toe —
Baroness Burdett Coutts — Gall and club-roots — Currant
scale — Mustard beetle — Professor Rilev.

CHAPTER XX

LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER {continued) AND TO DR.

BETHUNE 217

{Fletcher) Foreign authorities in correspondence — Dr.
Nalepa's books — Silk moths — Red spider — Formalin as a
disinfectant — Professor Riley's resignation — " Agricultural
Zoology" by Dr. Ritzema Bos — Ground Beetles on Straw-
berries — Timberman beetle — Proposal to endow Agri-
cultural lectureship in Oxford or Cambridge — Legacy
of ;^5,ooo to Edinburgh University — Woburn Experi-
mental Fruit Grounds — Insects in a mild winter — Index
of Annual Reports — "Recent additions" by Dr. Fletcher
— Proposed book on "Forest Insects" conjointly with Dr.
MacDougall. {Bcthune) Proffered help after a fire — Eye
trouble — Locusts in Alfalfa from Buenos Aires — Handbook
of Orchard Insects — Rare attacks on mangolds and straw-
berries — Pressure of work — Death of Dr. Lintner — Sympathy
to Mr. Bethune.

CHAPTER XXI

LETTERS FROM DRS. RITZEMA BOS, SCHOYEX, REUTER, AND

NALEPA, MR. LOUXSBURY AND MR. FULLER . . 232

{Ritzema Bos) Stem eelworms — Cockchafer — Root-knot eel-
worm — Black lady-bird feeding on Red spider — Eyed
lady-bird — Professor Westwood on larvae of Staphylinidce.
{Schoyen) Explanation of resignation of R.A.S.E. work —
Wheat midge — Hessian fly — Wasps — San Jose scale — Mr.
Newstead's opinion. {Renter) Hessian fly — Accept reports on
Economic Entomology — Norwegian dictionary received and
successfully used — Antler moth — Paris-green pamphlet —
Swedish grammar — Work on Cecidomyia by Renter — Forest
fly — "Silver-top" in wheat probably due to thrips. {Nalepa)
Gall mites. {Lounshitry) Boot beetle — First report from

CONTENTS XV

PAGE

Capetown — Supplies electros for future reports— Mr. Fuller
goes to Natal — Pleased to receive visits from entomological
friends. {Fuller) Experiences in publishing technical
literature.

CHAPTER XXII

LETTERS TO MR. JAXSON AND MR. MEDD .... 259

[Janson) Deer forest flies — Identification confirmed by Pro- ■
lessor Joseph Mik — Flour or mill moth — Granary Weevils
— Shot-borer beetles — Pine beetles — Contemplated removal
to Brighton — Grouse fly from a lamb — Cheese and bacon
fly — Case of rust-red flour beetle — Willow beetles — White
ants — Bean-seed beetles — Sapwood beetle — Death of Pro-
fessor Mik. (Mcdci) Agricultural Education Committee joined
reluctantly on account of pressure of Entomological work
— Sympathy expressed with desire to improve " nature
teaching" in rural districts — One hundred copies of the
Manual and many leaflets presented — Proposed simple
paper on common fly attacks on live stock — Objection
to the Water-baby leaflet of the committee — Paper on
wasps in the " Rural Reader " — Retiral from the Agricultural
Education Committee.

CHAPTER XXIII

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR ROBERT WALLACE BEFORE I9OO 275

" Indian Agriculture " — Wheat screening and washing —
Text books of injurious insects — Grease-banding trees —
Dr. Fream — Mosley's insect cases — Professor Westwood of
Oxford — " AustraHan Agriculture " — Text-book "Agricultural
Entomology" — Entomology in Cape Colony — Appointment
as University Examiner in Agricultural Entomology —
Presentation of Economic Entomology Exhibit to Edin-
burgh University — Death of Miss Georgiana Ormerod —
Pine and Elm beetles — Index of the first series of Annual
Reports.

CHAPTER XXIV

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE ON THE LL.D. OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 287

Proposal of the Senatus of Edinburgh University to confer
the LL.D. on Miss E. A. Ormerod as the first woman
honorary graduate — Great appreciation of the prospective
honour as giving a stamp of the highest distinction to her
life's work — Detailed arrangements preparing for graduation
— Miss Ormerod's books presented" to the University Library
— Successful journey to Edinburgh — Stay at Balmoral
Hotel — Letter of thanks for personal attention sent
after the event — Howard's views of the honour to Economic
Entomology, and of the value of the Edinburgh LL.D. —
Slight chill on the return journey.

xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXV

PAGE

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE AFTER THE GRADUATION 299

Congratulations by the London Farmers' Club — Agricul-
tural education and how to help it — Painting in oil of Miss
Ormerod for the Edinburgh University — Copies of ''Manual
of Injurious Insects" for free distribution — Book of sketches
for the University — Photographs by EUiott and Fry —
Proposed "Handbook of Forest Insects" in collaboration
with Dr. MacDougall— Proposed " Recollections of Changing
Times " — Pamphlet on " Flies Injurious to Stock " —
Graduation book — Proof s of " Stock Flies " — Thanks for
" Quasi Cursores " — Digest of an inaugural address on
"Famine in India" — Presentation of the oil painting — Re
Sulphate of copper for Professor Jablonowski — Gall mite
experiments on black currants — Appreciation of the com-
pany in which the oil painting of Miss Ormerod hangs in the
Court Room of the University.

^ CHAPTER XXVI

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE {concluded) . . -313

Papers of "Reminiscences" sent to the editor — Details of
letterpress material and of subjects for plates — Photo of oil
painting taken by Elliott and Fry— -Proclamation of the King
— Publisher for "Reminiscences" — Return of papers to Miss
Ormerod — One of several visits to St. Albans — "Taking
in sail " by discontinuing the Annual Report — Illness
becoming alarming — Material for "Reminiscences" con-
signed to the editor with power of discretion as to use —
Continued weakness — Proposed week-end visit shortened —
Taking work easier — First chapters of "Reminiscences"
typewritten — Dr. MacDougall as coUaborateur — Serious
relapse — Proposal "of a pension misappropriate — Improve-
ment in health followed by frequent relapses — Pleasure of
looking up " Reminiscences " in bed — Medical consultation
with Dr. J. A. Ormerod — Liver complications — Fifteenth
relapse — Touching farewell letters written in pencil —
Obituary notices in the " Times " and the " Canadian
Entomologist."

APPENDICES 327

A, Salmon fishing, from the " Log Book of a Fisherman " —

B. "Times" notice of partial retirement — C. Insect cases
and their contents presented to Edinburgh University —
D. Note on Xyleborus dispar—E. Obituary notice of Pro-
fessor Riley.

INDEX 337

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN
THE TEXT

PUTCHER FOR CATCHING SALMON

TIME-TABLE : TRAVELLING 200 YEARS AGO

FACSIMILE OF MISS ORMEROD'S HAND-WRITING

SURFACE CATERPILLARS . . . j

WOOD LEOPARD MOTH . . .

PUSS MOTH ......

ANTLER MOTH AND CATERPILLARS

OX WARBLE FLY, OR BOT FLY.

PIECE OF SKIN WITH 402 WARBLE-HOLES

PIECE OF WARBLED HIDE . . . .

BREATHING TUBES OF WARBLE MAGGOT, AND OUTSIDE PRICKLES

MAGPIE MOTH ......

HORSE BOT FLY, OR HORSE BEE

FACSIMILE NOTE RELATING TO THE KING AND QUEEN

WATER BEETLE .....

CHEESE AND BACON FLY ....

GREAT TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY .

CHARLOCK WEEVIL .....

HESSIAN FLY . . . . . - .

HESSIAN FLY MAGGOT ON YOUNG WHEAT AND ON BARLEY

HESSIAN FLY ATTACK ON BARLEY . .

GOUT FLY, OR RIBBON-FOOTED CORN FLY

FOREST FLY ......

GREAT OX GADFLY .....

BREEZE FLIES ......

SADDLE FLY ATTACK ON BARLEY

FOOT OF FOREST FLY .....

36
44
89

lOI
102
103

IIO

III

112
H2
114
117
122
124

129
130

132
132

134
135

137
139

xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

DEER FOREST FLY

SHEEP SPIDER FLY

BEET CARRION BEETLE

CENTIPEDES AND A MILLEPEDE

AMERICAN BLIGHT OR WOOLLY APHIS

OAK LEAF-ROLLER MOTH

LOOPER caterpillars: WINTER MOTH

MOTH . . .

CORN SAWFLY . . .

RED-BEARDED BOTFLY
WATER MOTH AND CADDIS WORMS
LAPPET MOTH .
HOUSE SPARROW
TREE SPARROW
ELM-BARK BEETLE
TUNNELS OF ASH-BARK BEETLE
GREATER ASH-BARK BEETLE .
PIECE OF ASH BARK WITH BEETLE GALLERIES
POCKET OR BLADDER PLUM
SILVER Y-MOTH

MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH
ANGOUMOIS MOTH, OR FLY WEEVIL
LESSER EARWIG
SNAIL-SLUG

FLATWORM, LAND PLANARIAN
SHOT-BORER BEETLES .
STEM-EELWORMS
DIAMOND-BACK MOTHS .
TOMATO ROOT-KNOB EELWORM
CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY SCALE
MUSTARD BEETLE

GOOSEBERRY AND IVY RED SPIDER
GROUND BEETLES
TIMBERMAN BEETLE

SOUTH AMERICAN MIGRATORY LOCUST
PIGMY MANGOLD BEETLE

AND MOTTLED

UMBER

LIST OF FULL-PAGE PLATES

XIX

spinach moth

cockchafer .

lady-birds

long-horned centipedp:s

eyed ladybird

wheat midge .

nest of tree wasp .

pear leaf blister mite

currant gall mite .

bread, paste, or boot beetle

boot injured by paste beetle maggot

granary weevil

grouse fly .

rust-red flour beetle

mottled willow weevil

goat moth

pea and bean weevils

bean beetles

"splint," or sap-wood beetle

sheep's nostril FLY .

PAGE
231

234
235
237
239
241

249
251
253
254
262
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
305

LIST OF FULL-PAGE PLATES

ELEANOR ANNE ORMEROD, LL.D.

I. SEDBURY PARK HOUSE AND GROUNDS .
II. GEORGE ORMEROD, ESQ., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A.

III. FAMILY GROUP GEORGE ORMEROD AS A CHILD,

AND HIS MOTHER, UNCLE, AND GRANDMOTHER

IV. JOHN LATHAM, ESQ., M.D., F.R.S., PHYSICIAN
V. RUINS OF TINTERN ABBEY, MONMOUTHSHIRE

VI. NORMAN WORK FROM CHEPSTOW PARISH CHURCH
VII. LEADEN FONT IN TIDENHAM CHURCH, GLOU-
CESTERSHIRE, AND CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE
VIRGIN, TIDENHAM ....

Frontispiece

Facing p. 6
8

10
12
16
18

XX LIST OF FULL-PAGE PLATES

PLATE

VIIL NORMAN CHAPEL, LLANCAUT, WYE CUFFS . Fodrig p. 2 2
IX. MAP OF THE BANKS OF THE WYE . r, 32

X. RUINED anchorite's CHAPEL OF ST. TECLA,

Alfn SEVERN CLIFFS, SEDBURY PARK ,. 34

XI. ROMAN POTTERY, FOUND IN SEDBURY PARK,

Ayn SAURIAN FROM UAS, SEDBURY CLIFFS ., 40

XII. ROYAL MAIL, OLD GENERAL POST OFFICE,

LONDON . . . . . „ 42

XIII. OLD CHEPSTOW BRIDGE, WITH POST-CHAISE

CROSSING IT . . . ... 44

XIV. A WEST OF ENGLAND ROYAL MAIL, en rOUtC . 46
XV. MAP OF DISTRICT OF THE CHARTIST RISING

IN MONMOUTH . . • v 5©

XVI. CHEPSTOW CASTLE, MONMOUTHSHIRE . • ,. 52
XVII. CHEPSTOW WITH THE BRIDGE OVER THE WYE

AND CHEPSTOW CASTLE ON THE RIVER BANK ,, 54

XVIII. ANTIQUE CARVED CHEST, AN HEIRLOOM . ,, 58

XIX. TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS, HERTS „ 74

XX. MISS ORMEROD'S METEOROLOGICAL STATION . ., 80

XXI. HEDGEHOG OAK, SEDBURY PARK, AND AP

ADAM OAK, SEDBURY PARK . . , 92
XXII. MISS ORMEROD'S MEDALS, RECEIVED 1870 TO

1900 . . . . • >, 9^

XXIII. FOOT OF FOREST FLY — SIDE VIEW . „ 1 38

XXIV. FOOT OF FOREST FLY — SEEN FROM ABOVE . ,. 1 38
XXV. RUINS OF CHEPSTOW CASTLE, MONMOUTH-
SHIRE . . . . . „ 174

XXVI. RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE WYE, NEAR

CHEPSTOW . . . . ' „ 208

XXVII. MISS GEORGIANA ELIZABETH ORMEROD . „ 284

XXVIII. ORMEROD HOUSE, LANCASHIRE . . r, 3^0

XXIX. ELEANOR ANNE ORMEROD, LL.D., F.R.MET.SOC. „ 3^2

XXX. MISS ORMEROD's F.\THER, AT FIVE YEARS OLD,

AND MISS ORMEROD IN CHILDHOOD . „ 324

CHAPTER I

BIRTH, CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION

I WAS born at Sedbury Park, in West Gloucestershire, on
a sunny Sunday morning (the nth of May, 1828), being the
youngest of the ten children of George and Sarah Orme-
rod, of Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire, and Tyldesley,
Lancashire. As a long time had elapsed since the birth
of the last of the other children (my two sisters and
seven brothers), my arrival could hardly have been a family
comfort. Nursery arrangements, which had been broken
up, had to be re-established. I have been told that I started
on what was to be my long life journey, with a face pale as
a sheet, a quantity of black hair, and a constitution that
refused anything tendered excepting a concoction of a kind
of rusk made only at Monmouth. The very earliest event
of which I have a clear remembrance was being knocked
down on the nursery stairs when I was three years old by a
cousin of my own age. The damage was small, but the
indignity great, and, moreover, the young man stole the
lump of sugar which was meant to console me, so the
grievance made an impression. A year later a real shock
happened to my small mind. Whilst my sister, Georgiana,
five years my senior, was warming herself in the nursery,
her frock caught fire. She flew down the room, threw
herself on the sheepskin rug at the door, and rolled till
the fire was put out. But she was so badly burnt that
the injuries required dressing, and this event also made a
great impression on me. Other reminiscences of pleasure
and of pain come back, in thinking over those long past
days, but none of such special and wonderful interest as
that of being held up to see King William IV. Little
as I was, I had been taken to one of the theatres, and my
father carried me along one of the galleries, and raised me
in his arms that I might look through the glass window

2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. i.

at the back of one of the boxes and see His Majesty. I do
not in the least beUeve that I saw the right man. However,
it is something to remember that about the year 1835, ^^ ^
had not been so frightened, I might have seen the King.

In regard to any special likings of my earliest years it
seems to me, from what I can remember or have been
told, that there were signs even then of the chief tastes
which have accompanied me through life — an intense love
of flowers ; a fondness for insect investigation ; and a
fondness also for writing. In my babyhood, even before
I could speak, the sight of a bunch of flowers was the
signal for both arms being held out to beg for the
coveted treasure, and the taste was utilised when I was
a little older, in checking a somewhat incomprehensible
failure of health during the spring visit of the family to
London. Some one suggested trying the effect of a supply
of flower roots and seeds for me to exercise my love of
gardening on, and the experiment was successful. I can
remember my delight at the sight of the boxes of common
garden plants — pansies, daisies, and the like ; and I suppose
some feeling of the restored comfort has remained through
all these years to give a charm (not peculiarly exciting in
itself) to the smell of bast mats and other appurtenances of
the outside of Covent Garden market.

My first insect observation I remember perfectly. It was
typical of many others since. I was quite right, absolutely
and demonstrably right, but I was above my audience and
fared accordingly. One day while the family were engaged
watching the letting out of a pond, or some similar matter, I
was perched on a chair, and given to watch, to keep me quiet
at home, a tumbler of water with about half-a-dozen great
water grubs in it. One of them had been much injured and
his companions proceeded quite to demolish him. I was
exceedingly interested, and when the family came home
gave them the results of my observations, which were
entirely disbelieved. Arguing was not permitted, so I said
nothing (as far as I remember) ; but I had made my first
step in Entomology.

Writing was a great pleasure. A treat was to go into the
library and to sit near, without disturbing, my father, and
" write a letter " on a bit of paper granted for epistolary
purposes. The letter was presently sealed with one of the
great armorial seals which my father wore — as gentlemen
did then — in a bunch at what was called the " fob." The
whole affair must have been of a very elementary sort, but

Chap, l] CHILDHOOD 3

it was no bad application of the schoolroom lessons, for
thus, quite at my own free will, I was practising the spelling
of easy words, and their combination into little sentences,
and also how to bring pen, ink, and paper into connection
without necessitating an inky deluge. In those days
children were not ^' amused " as is the fashion now. We
neither went to parties, nor were there children's parties at
home, but I fancy we were just as happy. As soon as
possible a certain amount of lessons, given by my mother,
formed the backbone of the day's employment. In the
higher branches requisite for preparation for Public School
work, my mother was so successful as to have the pleasure
of receiving a special message of appreciation of her work
sent to my father by Dr. Arnold, Head-master of Rugby.
All my brothers were educated under Dr. Arnold, two as his
private pupils, and the five younger as Rugby schoolboys,
and he spoke with great appreciation of the sound founda-
tion which had been laid by my mother for the school
w^ork, especially as regarded religious instruction. From
the fact of my brothers being so much older than I,
the latter point is the only one which remains in my
memory ; but I have a clear recollection of my mother's
mustering her family class on Sunday afternoons, i.e.y all
whose age afforded her any excuse to lay hands on
them. Whether in the earlier foundation or more advanced
work, my mother's own great store of solid information,
and her gift for imparting it, enabled her to keep us
steadily progressing. Everything was thoroughly learned,
and once learned never permitted to be forgotten. Nothing
was attempted that could not be well understood,
and this was expected to be mastered. In playtime we
were allowed great liberty to follow our own pursuits,
in which the elders of the family generally participated, and
as we grew older we made collections (in which my sister
Georgiana's love of shells laid the foundation of what was
afterwards a collection of 3,000 species), and carried on '* ex-
periments," everlasting re-arrangement of our small libraries,
and amateur book-binding. All imaginable ways of using
our hands kept us very happily employed indoors. Out of
doors there was great enjoyment in the pursuits which
a country property gives room for, and I think I was a very
happy child, although I fancy what is called a '' very old-
fashioned" one, from not having companions of my own
age.

On looking back over the years of my early childhood,

4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. l.

the period when instruction — commonly known as edu-
cation — is imparted, it seems to me that this followed the
distinction between education and the mere acquirement
of knowledge (well brought out by one of the Cole-
ridges), and embraced the former much more fully than
is the case at the present day. There was no undue pres-
sure on bodily or mental powers, but the work was steady
and constant. The instruction, except in music, was given
by my mother, who had, in an eminent degree, the gift
of teaching. Although at the present time home educa-
tion is frequently held up to contempt, still some recollec-
tions of my own home teaching may be of interest. The
subjects studied were those included in what is called a
"solid English education." First in order was biblical know-
ledge and moral precepts, practical as well as expository,
which seem to have glided into my head without my being
aware how, excepting in the case of the enormity of any
deviation from truth. In each of the six week-days' work
came a chapter of Scripture, read aloud, half in English,
and half in French, by my sister and me. The " lessons,"
ix.y recitation, inspection of exercises, &c., followed. The
subjects at first were few — but they were thoroughly
explained. Geography, for example, was taken at first in its
broad bearings, viz., countries, provinces, chief towns,
mountains, rivers, and so on (what comes back to my mind
as corresponding to 'Marge print"), and gradually the
"small print" was added, with as minute information as
was considered necessary. Use of the map was strictly
enforced, and repetition to impress it on the memory. I
seem to hear my mother inculcating briskness in giving
names of county towns — " Northumberland ? Now then !
quick as lightning, answer." " Newcastle, Morpeth and
Alnwick, in Northumberland " ; and to enforce attention a
tap of my mother's thimble on the table, or possibly, if
stupidity required great rousing, with more gentle applica-
tion on the top of my head. If things were bad beyond
endurance, the book was sent with a skim across the room,
which had an enlivening effect ; but this rarely happened.
My mother gave the morning hours to the work (unless
there was some higher claim upon them, such as my father
requiring her for some purpose or other) but she always
declared that she would have nothing to do with the prepa-
ration of lessons in the afternoon. If all went fairly well, as
usual, the passage for next day's lesson was carefully read
over at my mother's side, and difficulties explained, and

Chap, l] EDUCATION 5

then I was expected to learn it by myself. What we knew
as " doing lessons " — which now I believe passes under the
more advanced name of " preparation " — was left to my
own care, and if this proved next morning not to have been
duly given I had reason to amend my ways. The prepara-
tion hour was from four to five o'clock, but if the lessons
had not been learned by that time they were expected to be
done somehow, though I think my mother was very lenient
if any tolerably presentable reason were given for short
measure. If the work were completed in less than the
allotted time, I was allowed to amuse myself by reading
poetry, of which I was excessively fond, from the great
volume of " Extracts " from which my lesson had been
learned. This plan seems to me to have had many advan-
tages. For one thing, I carried the morning's explanations
in my head till called upon, and for another, I think it gave
some degree of self-reliance, as well as a habit of useful,
quiet self-employment for a definite time. This was, in all
reason, expected to be carefully adhered to, and I can well
remember when I had hurried home from a summer's walk
how the muscles in my legs would twitch whilst I , endea-
voured to learn a French verb.

One educational detail which, as far as my experience
goes, appears to have been much better conducted in my
young days than at present, was that reading aloud to
the little people had not then come into vogue. I
have no recollection of being allowed to lie about on
the carpet, heels in the air, whilst some one read a
book to me. There was also the peculiarity to which, if I
remember rightly. Sir Benjamin Brodie attributes in
his autobiography some of his success in life, viz., work
was almost continuous. There was never an interval of
some weeks' holidays. A holiday was granted on some
great occasion, such as the anniversary of my father and
mother's wedding-day and birthdays, and on the birthdays
of other members of the family, but (if occurring on con-
secutive days) somewhat under protest; and half-holidays
were not uncommon in summer. These consisted of my
being excused the afternoon preparation of lessons, and as
the pretext for asking was generally the weather's being ^^so
very fine," I conjecture it was thought that an extra run in
the fresh air was perhaps a healthy variety of occupation.
Any way, the learning lost must havre been small, for excep-
ting the written part of the work the lessons were expected
to appear next morning in perfect form, however miscel-

6 ' AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. i.

laneously acquired. One way or other there were occasional
breaks by pleasant episodes such as picnics, on fine
summer days, to one of the many old ruined castles, or
disused little Monmouthshire churches, or Roman remains
in the neighbourhood, where my father worked up the
material for some forthcoming archaeological essay and my
mother executed some of her beautiful sketches (plate vi.).
The carriage-load of young ones enjoyed themselves exceed-
ingly, and prevented the work from becoming monotonous or
burdensome. And there were joyful days before and after
going from home, and now and then, when it was impos-
sible for my mother to give her morning up to the work, if
she had not appointed one of the elder of the young fry her
deputy for the occasion. I remember, too, that I took my
book in play hours, when and where I wished ; sometimes
on a fine summer afternoon the '* where " might be sitting
on a horizontal bough of a large old Portugal laurel in the
garden. And I fancy that the perch in the fresh air, with
the green light shimmering round me, was as good for my
bodily health (by no means robust) as my entertaining little
book for my progress in reading.

It was remarkable the small quantity of food which it was
at one time thought the right thing for ladies to take in
public. I suppose from early habit, my mother, who was
active both in body and mind, used to eat very little. At
lunch she would divide a slice of meat with me. Although
now the death, in her confinement, of the Princess
Charlotte, " the people's darling," which plunged the nation
in sorrow, is a thing only of history, yet it is on record how
she almost implored for more food, the special desire being
mutton chops. Though not in any way connected with the
Royal Family, my mother held in memory the unhappy
event from its consequences. Sir Richard Croft, whose
medical attentions had been so inefficient to the Princess,
was shortly after called to attend in a similar capacity on
Mrs. Thackeray, wife of Dr. Thackeray, then or after Provost
of King's College, Cambridge. For some reason or other he
left his patient for a while, and the story went that, finding
pistols in the room where he was resting, he shot himself.
Miss Cotton — Mrs. Thackeray's sister — was a friend of my
mother. Miss Thackeray, the infant who was ushered into
the world by the death of both her mother and the doctor,
survived, and in her young-lady days was particularly fond
of dancing ; and I have the remembrance of my first London
ball being at her aunt's house.

PLATE I.

Sedbury Park House and Grounds, distant view.

Mansion House, Sedbury Park; Miss Georgiana Ormerod on
THE left, Miss Eleanor Ormerod on the right.
{pp. 14, 48.)

To face p. 6.

CHAPTER II

PARENTAGE

The situation of Sedbury (plate i.), rising to an elevation of
about 170 feet between the Severn and the Wye, opposite
Chepstow, was very beautiful, and the vegetation rich and
luxuriant. My father purchased the house and policy
grounds from Sir Henry Cosby about 1826, and it was our
home till his death in 1873. He retained Tyldesley, his
other property in Lancashire, with its coal mines, but we
did not reside there, as the climate was too cold for the
health of my mother and for the young family.

[The original purchase was called Barnesville, and earlier
still Kingston Park, and it consisted of a moderate-sized villa
with the immediately adjoining grounds. The property was
added to by purchases from the Duke of Beaufort, and it
was renamed Sedbury Park after the nearest village. To the
house the new owner added a handsome colonnade about
10 feet wide, and a spacious library. Sir Robert Smirke,
the architect of all the improvements, was the man who
designed the British Museum, the General Post Office, &c.^
Barnes Cottage on the property, at one time ^ Barons
Cottage,' was kept in habitable repair because it secured
to the estate the privilege of a seat in church.]

About sixteen miles from Sedbury Park are still to be seen
the interesting ruins of the Great Roman station of this part
of the country, Caerwent or the white tower, the Venta
Silurum of Antonine's ^' Itinerary." 2 Its trade and military

' About that period it was the practice for men who became leading
architects to undergo a thorough classical training, including a
lengthened course of practical study on the continent of Europe — the
results of which are in evidence in so many public buildings then
erected in London.

^ See George Ormerod's Strigulensia, Archceological Memoirs relating
to the district adjacent to the confluence of the Severn and Wye (1861).

7

8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ii.

importance were transferred to Strigul, now known as
Chepstow, after the Norman Conquest. Sedbury Park is
beheved to have been an outlying post of this chief mihtary
centre, and it was occupied by soldiers ^^ guarding the
beacon and the look-out over the passages " of the Severn.
Considerable finds of Roman pottery (plate xi.) were dis-
covered about i860, while drains about 4 feet deep were
being cut near to the Severn cliffs. They consisted chiefly
of fragments of rough earthenware — cooking dishes and
cinerary urns, &c. There was also a small quantity of
glazed, red Samian cups and one piece of Durobrivian ware
and great quantities of animals' teeth and bones, but no
coins (p. 174). After the death of my father it was found
that much of the best ware had been stolen.

My father (pi. 11.) is well known for the high place he takes
amongst our English County historians, as the author of
"The History of the County Palatine, and City of Chester,"
published in 1818. He came of the old Lancashire family of
Ormerod of Ormerod, a demesne in the township of
Cliviger, a wild and mountainous district, situated along the
boundaries of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The varied
watershed (transmitting the streams to the eastern and
western seas) ; the beauties of the rocks and waterfalls ; the
shaded glens, and the antique farmhouses (where fairy
superstition still lingered till the beginning of the past
century), have been wTitten about by Whitaker in his
"History of Whalley.''^ There, in the year 1810, in an
elevated position, amongst aged pine and elm trees, and
surrounded by high garden walls of dark stone, the mansion,
(pi. XXVIII.) — since greatly enlarged by the family of the pre-
sent proprietor — stood in a dingle at the side of a mountain
stream, which rushed behind it at a considerable depth.
Beyond the stream, the rise of the ground to the more
elevated moors includes a view of the summit of Pendle
Hill, of exceedingly evil repute for meetings of witches and
warlocks, and congenerous unpleasantnesses, in the olden
time.

The family of Ormerod was settled in the locality from
which they took their name, as far back as the year 1311,
the estates continuing in their possession until, in 1793 (by
the marriage of Charlotte Ann Ormerod, sole daughter and
heiress of Laurence Ormerod, the last of the generation of
the parent stem in direct male descent), they passed to
Colonel John Hargreaves ; and by the marriage of his eldest
' See pp. 345, 355, 3rd edition,

PLATE II.

s^

George Ormerod, Esq., D.C.L., LL.D., F.K.S., F.S.A.,

OF Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire, and Tyldesley, Lancashire,

Father of Miss Ormerod.

From apainlimj after Jackson, date circa 1820.
{pp. 11, 14.)

To face p. 8.

Chap, ii.] PARENTAGE 9

daughter and co-heiress, Eleanor Mary, with the Rev.
William Thursby, they became vested in the Thursby
family,! represented until recently by Sir John Hardy
Thursby, Bart., of Ormerod House, Burnley, Lancashire,
and Holmhurst, Christchurch, Hants. Sir John showed
thoughtful, philanthropic feeling to his Lancashire district,
by presenting the land for a public park to Burnley, and, in
connection with his family, he also gave the site for the
neighbouring ^' Victoria Hospital." In 1887, he served as
High Sheriff of Lancashire, and was created Baronet.
Dying on March 16, 1901, he was succeeded by his eldest
son, John Ormerod Scarlett Thursby, of Bankhall, Burnley,
who, in his surname and baptismal names, keeps alive the
connection with the old family stock and the families with
which the last two co-heiresses of Ormerod were connected
by marriage. With these matters of possessions, however,
the collateral branch of Ormerod, of Bury in Lancashire
(from the special founder of which my father was descended
in direct male line), had nothing to do. From Oliver
Ormerod, who became permanently resident at Bury shortly
after the close of the seventeenth century, descended his
only son, George Ormerod of Bury, merchant. From him
descended George Ormerod (an only child), who died on
October 7, 1785, a few days before the birth of his only
child — my father — yet another George Ormerod. In a
mere statement of the names of the representatives of
successive generations, of whom no specially distinguishing
points appear to have been recorded,' there is, perhaps, little
of general interest. But possibly some amount of interest
attaches to the proofs of representatives of one family having
lived quietly on from generation to generation in one
locality since the early part of the fourteenth century. The
connections and intermarrying of the Ormerods with many
of the Lancashire families of former days give the subject a
county interest to those who care to search out the
genealogical, historical and heraldic details given at great
length in my father's volume of " Parentalia." Here and
there some member of the family appears to have come
before the world, as in the case of Oliver Ormerod, M.A.,
noted as a profound scholar, theologian, and Puritan

' See Parentalia, Genealogical Memoirs, by Geo. Ormerod, D.C.L.,
F.R.S., pp. 3-8, for records and evidences regarding successive
generations of the family from 13 11 onwards, as existing in Inquisitions;
Pedigrees in College of Arms ; Duchy Records ; Clithero Records, and
other official sources quoted in the work. — (EA.O.)

lo AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ii.

controversialist, and author of two polemical works — one
entitled ^^ The Picture of a Puritan/' published in 1605, and
the other "The Picture of a Papist/' published in 1606.
Oliver Ormerod was presented to the Rectory of Norton
Fitzwarren, Co. Somerset, by William Bourchier, third Earl
of Bath, and afterwards to the Rectory of Huntspill in the
same county, where he died in the year 1625.

Something, however, occurred in 1784 of much interest
to our own branch of the family, leading subsequently to
great increase of property, and likewise in some degree,
connecting us with the Jacobite troubles of 1745. This was
the marriage of my grandfather with Elizabeth, second
daughter of Thomas Johnson, of Tyldesley. Thomas
Johnson (my great grandfather) having married, secondly,
Susannah, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Wareing, of
Bury and Walmersley, got with her considerable estates,
inherited from the Wareings, the Cromptons of Hacking,
and Nuthalls of Golynrode. On the occasion of the march
of Charles Stewart to Manchester in 1745, ''Tyldesley" — to
use the form of appellation often given from property in
those days — suffered many hardships. As one of the five
treasurers who had undertaken to receive Lancashire
subscriptions in aid of the reigning monarch. King George
the Second, and as an influential local friend of the cause,
he was one of those who suffered the infliction of
domiciliary military visitation, and also threat of torture by
burning his hands to induce him to give up government
papers and money in his possession. I have still in my
house (1901) the large hanging lamp of what is now called
''Old Manchester" glass, which lighted the dining-room
when my great grandfather stood so steadily to his trust that
although the straw had been brought for the purpose of
torture (or to terrify him into submission) extremities were
not proceeded to. He was ultimately left a prisoner on
parole, in his house, until released in December, 1745, in
consequence of the retreat of the rebel army. But
disagreeable as this state of things must have been at the
best, it was to some degree lightened by kindness (or at least
absence of unnecessary annoyance) on the part of the
Jacobite officers, of whom stories remained in the family to
my own time. One especial point was their kindness to my
eldest great aunt,i then a little child, whom they used to take
on their knees to show her what she described as their
" little guns." The drinking of the healths of the rival
* Anne, born 1739, by a first marriage, married Charles Ford.

PLATE III.

Family Group — George Ormerod as a child ; his Mother seated

BEHIND HIM ; HER BROTHER, ThOMAS JoHNSON, EsQ., OF

Tyldesley, Lancashire, standing ; and their Mother
seated on the right,

Composition from ininiature, circa 1780.

To face p. 10.

Chap, il] PARENTAGE ii

princes, which probably often led to a less peaceful ending,
was mentioned by my father in his History of Cheshire, as a
notable instance of consideration.

" On one occasion when the Scotch officers who caroused
in their prisoner's house, had given their usual toast King
James, and the host on request had followed with his, and
undauntedly proposed King George, some rose, and
touched their swords ; but a senior officer exclaimed, ^ He
has drunk our Prince, why should we not drink his ?
Here's to the Elector of Hanover." ^

During the disturbed time, when any one bearing the
appearance of a messenger would assuredly have been seized
with the papers which he carried, the difficulty of trans-
mitting information was met by the employment at night of
two greyhounds trained for the service. The documents
were fastened to the animals and thus carried safely to the
adherent's house, from which as opportunity offered they
could be passed on. The greyhounds, having been well fed
as a reward and encouragement to future good behaviour,
were started off on their return journey. In the present day
this plan of transmission would very soon be discovered,
but in those times the nature of the country, the nocturnal
hours chosen, and also the deeply-rooted superstitions of the
district, all helped to make the four-footed messengers very
trusty carriers.

In 1755 Thomas Johnson served as Sheriff of Lanca-
shire. He died in 1763, leaving a widow (who survived him
until 1798), one son, and three daughters — the only sur-
vivors of a family of eleven children, of whom seven died
in infancy, three on the day of their birth. Of the four
children who reached maturity, Elizabeth, the second
daughter (plate ill.) married my grandfather, George
Ormerod of Bury, at the Collegiate Church, Manchester,
on the i8th of October, 1784. He died in 1785, a fort-
night before the birth of my father, who was the sole issue
of this marriage.

My father, George Ormerod (plate 11.), heir to his grand-
father, was born October 20, 1785. He was co-heir of,
and successor to the estates of his maternal uncle in 1823,
and sole heir to his surviving maternal aunt in 1839. He
was D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., and a magistrate for the
counties of Cheshire, Gloucester, and Monmouth. On
August 2, 1808, he married my mother, Sarah, eldest
daughter of John Latham, Bradwall Hall, Cheshire, Fellow
^ Hist, dies., vol. i. p. 43.

12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ii.

and sometime President of the Royal College of Physi-
cians, Harley Street, London. ^

My grandfather in the female line, John Latham, M.D.,
F.R.S. (plate iv.), the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham,
came of an old family stock, and was born in 1761 in the
rectory house at Gawsworth, Cheshire. He was educated
first at Manchester Grammar School, and thence pro-
ceeded (with the view of studying for orders) to Brasenose
College, Oxford, but the strong bent of his own wishes
towards the medical profession induced him to alter his
plans, and he took his degree of M.D. on October 10, 1788.
*' His first professional years w^ere passed at Manchester and
Oxford, where he was physician to the respective infir-
maries. In 1788 he removed to London, was admitted
Fellow of the College of Physicians, and elected succes-
sively physician to the Middlesex, the Magdalen, and St.
Bartholomew Hospitals. In 1795 he was appointed
Physician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales, and
reappointed to the same office on the Prince's accession
to the throne as George IV. In 1813 Dr. Latham was
elected President of the College of Physicians ; in 1816,
founded the Medical Benevolent Society ; and in 1829
finally left London, retiring to his estate at Bradwall Hall,
where he died on April 20, 1843, in the eighty-second year
of his age."

He indulged in the practical pleasures of country life,
and maintained a home farm, on which he kept a dairy of
sixty cows. He was a man of great force of character and
of decisive action. On one occasion a man who had been
told that if he returned he would be summarily ejected,
came back to crave an audience. On being reminded of
the fact he pleaded, " Oh ! doctor, you do not really mean
it." " Yes, I do," was the prompt reply as an order was
given to the butler to turn the intruder out.

Dr. Latham married, in 1784, Mary, eldest daughter and
co-heiress of the Rev. Peter Mayer, Vicar of Prestbury,
Cheshire, by whom he had numerous children, of whom
three sons and two daughters lived to maturity. My

' For details and genealogical tables of descent (accompanied by
armorial bearings) regarding the above-named families, and many
others of the old families of the Counties Palatine of Lancashire and
Cheshire, now more or less passed away, see Parentalia, by George
Ormerod, cited ante in note, p. 9, with an absolutely enormous
amount of reference to documentary evidence, often in itself of much
antiquarian interest (E.A.O.).

PLATE IV.

John Latham, Esq., M.D., F.li.S., Physician Extraordinary to
George IV., maternal grandfather of Miss Ormerod, in

HIS ROBES AS PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PhYSICFANS,

1813 TO 1819.

To face p. 12.

Chap, il] PARENTAGE 13

mother, his eldest daughter, survived him, as did also her
brothers. Of these the second son, Peter Mere Latham,
M.D., of Grosvenor - street, Westminster, one of Her
Majesty's Physicians Extraordinary, was long well known
as an eminent consulting physician regarding diseases of
the chest, until his own severe sufferings from asthma
obliged him to retire to Torquay, where he died on July
20, 1875.

From our being related to John Latham and his wife,
Mary Mayer (although in point of rank the difference was
so enormous between the head from whom we could trace
and ourselves), it is permissible to allude to our connection
with the family of Arderne of Alvanley, and consequent
descent from King Edward the First and his wife, Eleanor
of Castile. This gave us our claim of ^^ founder's kin "
in the election to the ^^ Port Fellowship " of Brasenose
College, to which distinction in my time my brother —
Rev. John Arderne Ormerod — was elected. He was the
last Port Fellow on the above foundation. The record
of each generation will be found in the genealogical table of
'^Arderne" in my father's *^ Parentalia," and also on re-
ference to the pedigrees of the many families of which
members are named in the ^' History of Cheshire."

CHAPTER III

REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY BY MISS DIANA LATHAM ^

My cousin Eleanor Anne Ormerod was the youngest of a
family of ten — seven brothers and three sisters — all clever,
energetic creatures, and gifted with a strong sense of
humour. A large family always creates a peculiar atmo-
sphere for itself ; it also breaks up into detachments of elder
and younger growth, and the elder members are beginning
to take places in the world before the younger are out of the
schoolroom. Eleanor's eldest brother was a Church
dignitary while she was still a child, teased and petted by
her young medical student brothers, and the darling of her
elder sister Georgiana. The father and mother of this
numerous flock were both remarkable people. Mr.
Ormerod, historian and antiquary, always occupied with
literary or topographical research, was an autocrat in his
own family and intolerant of any shortcomings or failings
that came under his notice. He could, however, on occa-
sion, relax and tell humorous stories to children. The
family discipline was strict ; the younger members were
expected to yield obedience to the elders, and it was said
that the spaniel Guy (he came from Warwick), who ranked
as one of the children, always obeyed the eldest of the family
present. My aunt had a large share of the milk of human
kindness added to much practical common sense and a
touch of artistic genius in her composition ; it was from
her that her daughters inherited their eye for colour and
dexterity of touch. Mr. Ormerod was a neat draughtsman
of architectural subjects, but my aunt had taste and skill
and a delight in her own branch of art — flower painting —
that lasted all her life.

Sedbury Park (plate i.) was a beautiful home ; the house,
a handsome family mansion with comfortable old-fashioned

' The daughter of Mr. Henry Latham, resident in Italy.
14

Chap, iil] REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY 15

furniture, good and interesting pictures, old china, and a
splendid library, afforded also ample space for its inmates to
follow their various hobbies, and many were the arts and
crafts practised there at various times. The carpenter's
bench, the lathe, wood-carving, electro-typing, modelling
and casting for models each had their turn, and in all this
strenuous play Eleanor had her full share. Society played
a very secondary part in life at Sedbury ; calls were
exchanged with county neighbours at due intervals, and
there was some intimacy with Copleston, Bishop of Llandaff,
the Bathursts of Lydney Park, and the Horts of Hardwicke.
But though Mr. Ormerod attended to his duties as magis-
trate, and went duly to meetings of the bench at Chepstow,
he was quite without sympathy for field sports and the
pursuits of his brother magistrates. He was absorbed in
his own studies, and something of a recluse by nature.

[Miss Ormerod has herself written of the elaborateness of
the arrangements and the great formality which were asso-
ciated with the regular county dinner party, the chief
method of entertainment at Sedbury sixty years ago. She
referred to the anxieties experienced lest the coach should
not arrive in time with the indispensables including fish —
^'the distance of Sedbury from London involving twenty-
four hours or more of transmission in weather favourable
or otherwise." Miss Ormerod continues : —

'' One very important matter in the far gone past times in the
arrangement of the dinner table, was the removal of the great
cloth and of two cloths laid, one at each side, just wide
enough to occupy the uncovered space before the guests, and
long enough to reach from one end of the table to the other.
The removal required a deal of care and dexterity, and 1 do
not think it was practised at many other houses in our
neighbourhood. When the table was to be cleared for dessert
of course everything was removed, including the great table-
cloth itself — one of the handsomest of the family posses-
sions, and of considerable length when there were the usual
number of about eighteen or twenty guests. The operation
was performed as follows : — The butler placed himself at
the end of each strip successively, and a few of the house ser-
vants or of those who came with guests along each side. The
butler drew the slips in turn and the servants took care there
should be no hitch in the passage of the cloths, and so each
was nicely gathered up.

" But the removal of the great tablecloth which was the

i6 BIOGRAPHY [Chap. hi.

next operation was a more difficult matter. The great heavy
central epergne of rosewood had to be lifted a little way up
by a strong man-servant or two, whilst the tablecloth was
slipped from beneath it and the cloth was started on its
travels down the table till it came into the hands of the
butler, who gathered it up. The beautifully polished table
then appeared in full lustre. The shining surface sparkled
excellently and presently reflected the bright silver and
glass and the fruit and flowers with a brilliance which to
my thinking was much more beautiful than the arrange-
ment of later days."]

The annual visit to London was a great delight to my
aunt, who enjoyed meetings with her own family and
friends, and visits to exhibitions, &c. Her husband had
always occupation in the British Museum, and her daughters
took painting and other lessons. Mary, the eldest, was a
pupil of Copley Fielding ; Georgiana (pi. xxvii.), and Eleanor
later, had lessons from Hunt and learnt from him how to
combine birds' nests and objects of still life with fruits and
flowers into very lovely pictures. Both were excellent
artists with a slight difference in style : Georgiana's pictures
had great harmony of colour and composition ; Eleanor's
had more chic. Hunt was a very touchy little man — almost
a dwarf — and if by any chance my aunt did not see him and
bow as she drove past he cherished resentment for days
after. At Sedbury driving tours or picnic excursions to the
ruined castles an^ other objects of interest (pis. v., xvi., xxv.),
in the neighbourhood were frequent, and the sketches that
resulted were often reproduced as zincographs. Now and
then a tour abroad was achieved, but such tours were few and
far between. The beautiful copy of Correggio's '' Marriage
of St. Catherine " which ultimately became Eleanor's pro-
perty, was acquired on a visit to Paris and the Louvre.

This self-contained family life did not lead to the marriage
of the daughters, and three only of the seven sons married
— one very late in life. Mary, the Princess Royal of the
family, was the centre of the first group — herself and four
brothers ; Georgiana that of the second, consisting of two
brothers older than herself, one younger, and Eleanor.
Georgiana was a most lovable person ; she always believed
in her younger sister's capacity and in her projects, which were
not approved of nor taken seriously by some of her elders,
and could not have been carried out until after the break
up of the home on the death of Mr. Ormerod. Meantime,

Chap, iil] REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY 17

the naturalist element in Eleanor was free to lay up know-
ledge for future use, and her country life gave leisure and
opportunity for observation of bird, plant, and insect life, to
say nothing of reptiles. Any snake killed on the estate was
brought to Eleanor, and if it was remarkable for size or beauty
she took a cast of it to be afterwards electrotyped, or had it
buried in an ant-hill in order to set up its skeleton when the
ants had cleaned the bones. The casts, w^hich resembled
bronze, were sometimes attached to slabs of green Devon-
shire marble, and made handsome paper weights. Wasps
were at one time a subject of special study and interest to
her brother Dr. Edward Ormerod, and she and Georgiana
once conveyed a wasp's nest to him at Brighton. I believe
he did not allow the wasps to exceed a certain number, out
of consideration for the neighbouring fruiterers.

The premature deaths of Edward and William, physician
and surgeon, were heartfelt sorrows to the two sisters nearest
in age. If Eleanor's lot had been cast in later days she might
have become a lady doctor of renown ; she had many
qualifications for the medical profession and a liking for
domestic surgery ; she had strong nerves and inspired con-
fidence and used to say that she never went a journey
without some fellow-passenger going into a detailed account
of all her ailments. Besides strong nerves she had strong
eye-sight and a delicate but firm touch. Her brothers did
not encourage anatomical studies, but she could prepare
sections of teeth and other objects for the microscope as
beautifully as any professional microscopist. Some of my
cousins were strong sighted and very short-sighted, and
much inclined to be sceptical as to my long-sighted vision.

My last visit to Sedbury was in the autumn of 1853 in
company with my step-sister Margaret Roberts, then just
beginning to try her powers as an authoress. Eleanor must
then have been twenty-five or twenty-six, but was considered
to be quite young by her family, and in some respects was
really so. She no longer played such pranks as embarking
in a tub to navigate the horse pond, but her fine dark eyes
would shine with mischief, and she was the licensed jester
to the family circle.

The routine of life at Sedbury usually began, on the part
of the younger members of the family, with a walk after
breakfast prefaced by a visit to the poultry yard and
greenhouses. Georgiana was chief hen-wife, and kept an
account of the eggs and chickens. The park, lying on high
ground between the Severn and the Wye, had beautiful

3

i8 BIOGRAPHY [Chap. hi.

points of view and fine timber, and there were lovely views
beyond its precincts. ^' Offa's Dyke " ran through a corner
of the estate, and the discovery of some Roman pottery in
its neighbourhood had given my cousins much occupation
in sticking broken fragments together and re-building them
into vases (plate xi.). Our most beautiful walk, rather too
long for the morning strolls, was to the ^^ double view," a
projecting promontory above the Wye where the river
curves and from whence a lovely view is visible both up
and down the stream. From the morning walk we always
brought back something from hedge or field for my aunt to
draw as she lay on her sofa with her drawing table across it.
She was then in failing health, but still able to draw, and she
used to make studies of flowers in pencil on grey paper,
touching in the high light with Chinese white. Each draw-
ing when finished was shut up in a large book, and there
kept until some gathering of the family took place, when the
drawings w^ere produced and a lottery ensued, each person
choosing a drawing in turn according to the number on the
ticket they had drawn. I have a book of these beautiful
drawings (plate Vl.) which I greatly prize. In her youthful
days she had painted in oils, and there were some fine copies
of Dutch flower pictures in the drawing-room made by her.
In later life the care of her large family left scant time for
Art, but she cherished it in her daughters, and it w^as again
a resource in her advanced age. The great sculptor Flax-
man was a friend of her father and had encouraged her
youthful efforts in Art. She had amazing industry and had
copied many of his designs on w^ood as furniture decorations.
Georgiana and Eleanor usually had some painting or other
industry on hand, or copying to do for their father. In the
afternoon we often took a drive and were taken to see
Tintern or the Wynd Cliff or some other point of interest.
After dinner we sat in the library, a fine room with a splendid
collection of books shut up in wire bookcases. Each
member of the family had a key to the imprisoned books,
but a visitor felt that to get one extracted for personal use
was rather a ceremony. The beautiful illustrated books
were brought out for the evening's entertainment and then
safely housed again. On Sundays we walked or drove to
Tidenham Church, a 'Mittle grey church on a windy hill"
(plate VII.). We took a walk in the afternoon, and in the
evening Mr. Ormerod read a sermon in the library to us and
the servants. Such was the routine of life that autumn at
Sedbury. At the time of our visit, the Gloucester Musical

^ s

4

Chap, iil] REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY 19

Festival was going on, but there was no thought of going to
hear it. In later years Eleanor possessed a good piano and
studied the theory of music, but I think that was prompted
by her general cleverness and activity of intellect rather
than by any special gift for music. She was teaching herself
Latin during our visit, and as time went on she acquired other
languages. She made beautiful models of fruits by a process
of her own invention. A collection of these was sent to an
International Exhibition at St. Petersburg and she acquired
sufficient knowledge of Russian to correspond with the
department of the Exhibition receiving them.

After the break-up of the Sedbury home, consequent on
the death of Mr. Ormerod, who survived his wife ^ for many
years, Mary bought the lease of a house in Exeter and
settled there for the rest of her life ; the two younger sisters
took a house for three years in Torquay, where we were then
living as well as their, and our, old and beloved uncle. Dr.
Mere Latham. Wishing to be nearer London, they removed
to Isleworth and some years later to Torrington House, St.
Alban's, where they spent the remaining years of their lives.

DIANA LATHAM.

' Sarah Ormerod died in i860 aged 75 years.

CHAPTER IV

CHURCH AND PARISH

Our Parish Church (plate vii.), that is to say, the Church
of St. Mary the Virgin, Tidenham, Gloucestershire, in which
parish my father's Sedbury property was situated, was of
considerable antiquarian interest, as, although the hamlet
of Churchend in which it stands is not mentioned in the
Saxon survey of 956, the original church was in existence
in the year 1071. The fabric of the church when I knew it
was of later date, and, as shown by the accompanying
sketch, chiefly in the architecture of the fourteenth century,
excepting the south doorways of the nave and chancel and
the tall narrow trefoil-headed windows in the north aisle.
The chief point of archaeological interest, however, lies in
its possession of a leaden font (plate vii.) in perfect repair,
referable from its style to the transition period of Saxon and
Anglo-Norman architecture, and considered not likely to be
more recent in date than the eleventh century. The subject
derives additional interest from the circumstance of the
precise correspondence of this font in Tidenham Church
with the leaden font in the church of the adjoining small
parish of Llancaut, making it demonstrably certain that both
the fonts were cast from the same mould.^ The decorations

' Alfred C. Fryer, Ph.D., M.A., begins an admirable, fully illustrated
paper on "Leaden Fonts" in the Archccological Journal, March, 1900,
with the following statements : There are 27 leaden fonts situated in
12 counties in the south, east and west of England — 8 in Gloucester, 3
in Berks, 3 in Kent, 3 in Sussex, 2 in Oxford, 2 in Hereford, i in Derby,
I in Dorset, i in Hants, i in Lincoln, 1 in Norfolk and i in Surrey.
Several of these date from the latter part of the nth and the 12th
centuries. A few belonged to the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries,
and the latest has the date 1689 impressed upon it. They are all tub-
shaped, with the exception of two, namely, a hexagon and a cylindrical
bowl. The older fonts all possessed covers, and several retain the
markings to which the locks were attached. The deepest bowl (outside
measurement) is 16 inches. The most shallow bowl is at Parham in
Sussex, and it is only 8^ inches in depth. The diameters also vary con-
siderably from 32 inches to 18^ inches. — (Ed.).

Leaden Font in Tidenham Church.

«!'-

Iff n .--yi

tfs:!}!

I

Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Tidenham, Gloucestershire.
The vault on S,E. side of the Church, about 15 ft. square,
is the grave of Miss Ormerod's Father and Mother.

From a xketch by 3Iiss Georgiana E. Ormerod.

To face jj. 20..

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 21

on the fonts are in mezzo relievo. These consist of figures
and foliage ranged alternately, in twelve compartments,
under ornamental, semi-circular arches resting on pillars ;
the design — two arches containing figures alternating with
two arches containing foliage — being thrice repeated. The
details will be better understood from the accompanying
plate than from verbal description, but may be stated as
representing respectively under each of the two thrice-
repeated arches a venerable figure seated on a throne, the
first of the two holding a sealed book, the second raising
his hand as in the act of benediction, after removal of the
seal from a similar book which is grasped in his hand.
Each of these figures was . considered to represent the
Second Person of the Trinity. ^ On this point I am not
qualified to offer an opinion, but whatever may be the case
as to ecclesiastical adaptation in the representation in the
second of the two figures, the first of the throned figures
appears to coincide with the description of the vision of the
Deity, given in the '^ Revelation " of St. John, chap. v.
verse 1,2 rather than with any representation of ** The
Lamb " that " stood," as it had been slain, and " came and
took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the
throne " (verses 6 and 7 of the chapter quoted).

The illustration is taken from very careful '^rubbings"
of the Tidenham Font. The Llancaut font has suffered
considerable damage, and likewise the loss of two of the
original twelve compartments. These had presumably been
removed to make the font more suitable to the exceedingly
small size of the little Norman chapel (pi. viii.). This church,
which in my time was almost disused, measured only about
40 feet in length by 12 in breadth, and possessed nothing
of an architectural character, excepting one small round-
headed window at the east end, with plain cylindrical side
shafts without capitals, and a small cinquefoil piscina. The
situation, on one of the crooks of the Wye, and just above
the river, is romantic in the extreme. The ground rapidly
slopes down to it from above, clothed with woodland from
the level of the top of the precipitous cliffs which rise
almost immediately beside it to a great height above the

'' Sirigulensia Archceological Memoirs relating to the District adjacent to
the confluence of the Severn and the Wye, by Geo. Ormerod, D.C.L., F.R.S.,
of Tyldesley and Sedbury Park, MDCCCLXL, pp. 84-88. Re-arranged
from a Memoir in Archceologia (by above author), XXIX., p. 17.

= " And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, a
book written within, and on the backside sealed with seven seals."

22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

river. Access on that side is thus only possible by boat,
or by a rough way, known as the Fisherman's Path, along
the front of the cliffs. Nevertheless, because of the ex-
ceeding picturesqueness of the spot, it was a favourite resort
on the twelve Sundays in the year on which (I believe
under some legal necessity) service was there, in my time,
performed. The scene, on the only occasion I was ever
present (when our parish church was closed), might have
furnished an excellent subject for a painting, as the congre-
gation (far too many for the little church to hold), in their
bright Sunday dress, emerged from the sloping glades or
woodland, to the open space close by the church. Com-
fort was a matter of minor importance. Those who
disposed themselves on the grass, where they had full
enjoyment of the fresh summer air, and heard, through
the open door, as much of the service as they chose to
listen to, doubtless enjoyed themselves, but within it was
not so agreeable. The squire's family were of course
installed in the pew, and there we were packed as tightly
as could be managed, so that we all had to get up and sit
down together. We had a '^ strange clergyman," reported
to be of vast learning; and my juvenile terror, along with
my physical condition from squeezing, has imprinted the
morning's performance on my recollection as something
truly wretched.

There being no resident population the chapel has since
fallen into ruin, and the font and bell have been removed
to the mother parish of Woolastone, the bell now doing
duty at the day-school there. In 1890 Sir William H.
Marling, Bart, (patron of the living) carefully restored the
font and placed within it a brass plate bearing the following
inscription : —

" Perantiquum hunc fontem baptismalem e ruinis sacelli sci Jacobi
Lancaut in comu Glouce servatum refecit Guls Heiis Marling Bars
A.D. 1890."

The venerable relic stands in the hall at Sedbury Park.

The history of the *' Church " in our parish of Tidenham,
whether interpreted as the body of believers or the building
in which they worshipped, might be well taken, during
about the fifty middle years of the past century, as an
illustration of ^^ changing times." In the year 1826 — or
thereabouts — when my father purchased the property,
Tidenham Church was no exception to many other

I

PLATE VII]

Ti^W^IT"'- ~"-'-'- '•*'.'^*\^'5SB"<*.??.-*r-^ir«r.irr'^.>,>A?

Norman Chapel, Llancaut, Wye Cliffs.

To face p. 22

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 23

churches in rural districts. The interior comes back to
my remembrance as dark, dingy, and very decidedly damp,
as shown by the green mould on pillars and walls. One
of the first improvements was the placing of two good
stoves in the church, — one presented by my father, and the
other (rather, I believe, against local wishes) by the Parish.
I well remember the presence of the stoves, as it was
considered by the churchwardens, or whoever arranged
these matters, that the time which was most decorous for
stirring the fires was during the singing as ^^ it drowned the
noise." What our local choir consisted of I do not remem-
ber, but I rather think it was simply vocal, and started by a
^^ pitchpipe." But at least there was nothing ridiculous
about it. We did not, as in a church at no great distance,
have the violinist and his instrument carried in on a
man's shoulders because the unfortunate musician was
without legs !

The sittings for the congregation were (I suppose as a
matter of course in those days) all in closed pews with
doors — the pews of a size, form, and respectability of
appearance, likewise of comfort and fittings, according to
the social position of their holders. It could not, however,
be said that the chief parishioners had the best places, for
our two large, roomy, square seats were mounted up, side
by side, a few steps above the others at the end of the north
aisle, with a good wall between us and the chancel, effectu-
ally preventing our seeing what was going on in that
direction. Within our special pew, which had curtains
more or less drawn, we sat round with our feet at proper
times on good high hassocks. When we knelt we all
turned round and faced the sides of the pew, and my
juvenile sorrows were sometimes great towards the end of
the Litany. The fatigue from kneeling on the top of my
unsteady perch produced faintness, and I well remember
my anxieties increasing with the ^'odd" feeling till I
mustered courage to announce to my eldest sister, whom
I held in considerable awe, that I did not feel very well ;
and measures were taken accordingly. The pew was said
to be just over where the soldiers were buried who were
killed during the Parliamentarian war at the Battle of
Buttington, a locality in the same parish ; but on an
occasion of some repairs being made, the flooring was dis-
covered to be laid on, or close above the live rock, which
rendered this view inaccurate. The surface of the ground
was immediately below the floor, and as the family pew

H AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

had on its east side one of the great east windows of the
church, and on the north side a smaller one, both with
small panes ill-leaded, and one with a very insufficiently
fastened small window, our Sunday devotions in winter
were anything but comfortable.

1 believe the rural congregation behaved with great pro-
priety, though certainly on one occasion it struck me that
a reverence during the creed at the name of Pontius Pilate
on the part of the wife of my father's farm-bailiff, was
somewhat out of place. But we were free from such lapses
in decency of arrangement as occurred elsewhere. The
pigeons did not roost in the tower, neither did a turkey sit
on her eggs in the pulpit, which, considering that the time
of incubation for the turkey hen is four weeks, must have
interfered considerably with the due performance of service.
Neither were we, so far as I remember, scandalised by
attendance of dogs in church, whether avowedly accom-
panying their masters or making a voyage of discovery as to
where their clerical owner might have vanished. And
certainly we did not have the disgraceful circumstance
which occurred in another church with which I was
acquainted, of two ladies of good social position in the
parish walking up to the rails of the communion table to
receive the sacrament, followed by their great Newfound-
land dog !

One practice — certainly objectionable, but perhaps not
unusual in country parishes where the church was also
used as the week-day schoolroom — was putting the bags
holding the provisions which the children brought with
them for their dinners on the communion table. I do not
think that this was so very shocking, for no irreverence was
intended. A table was a table in those days, and not an
*' Altar," and looking back on the matter it does not appear
clear where else the food could have been safely placed. I
fancy there was no regular vestry and, excepting the floor,
or the seats of the pews, there does not seem to me to have
been any other place of moderately safe deposit. However,
by and by a room was hired as a schoolroom, and the
church was freed from the presence of the children and
their dinners. I well remember our going over in form to
hold some sort of an examination, which was wound up by
my father (who was certainly better fitted to examine
witnesses from the magistrate's bench than to probe for
what information our little uncivilised urchins possessed)
electrifying the audience by desiring to know whether his

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 25

examinee knew the use of a pocket-handkerchief. My
mother was a more efficient aid by paying the schooling of
all our own cottagers' children, and also in allaying strife.
On one occasion, when a woman wished to remove her
children from the parish school because they were better
taught at a recently established Unitarian school, she
dexterously overcame the difficulty by stating she meddled
with nobody's conscience, but if the children went to the
parish school she paid, and if they did not go she didn't.
We heard no more on the subject.

Some of our customs were very pretty. On Palm
Sunday, that is the Sunday before Easter Sunday, some-
times known in our part and the district as ^' Flowering
Sunday," it was the custom to dress the graves with
flowers. Friends of the family came from a long distance.
A son of our head-gardener would come down from
Scotland for the occasion, and the wealth of yellow
daffodils and white narcissus, which grew by the Wye,
close to the little church of Llancaut, helped greatly
towards the decoration. Two Crown Imperials were a
greatly admired addition which, season permitting, appeared
to ornament one special grave. The ^^ flowering " was a
touching and pleasing remembrance of the friends whose
bodies rested below, until in after years the custom
gradually arose of placing artificial flowers along with
the fresh blossoms, and then followed the much to be
deprecated practice of putting little cases of flowers of
tinsel, or anything that was approved of, which might
remain on the grave. At Christmas time we had the real
old-fashioned church decorations of good large boughs
of holly, with plenty of red berries, mistletoe, laurel, and
anything evergreen of a solid sort. The squire {i.e., my
father) contributed a cartload of evergreen branches, and as
a matter of course, they were applied largely to ornamenting
our corner pew with more regard to appearance than
comfort.

The service was performed simply, as was customary
in those days, without any music excepting the singing of
the hymns, but as nothing was omitted, and there was,
I believe, no curate, it must have been rather fatiguing
to the vicar, and it certainly was a terribly long business
especially for those not always in good health, if they
stayed for the Communion Service on the rare occasions on
which it was administered. The drive from the Park to the
bottom of the hill on which the Church stood, was upwards

26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

of two miles. Then came a wearying walk up the hill
until this became so steep that in the Churchyard there
were successive little arrangements of steps to help us up
the ascent. Within, it seems to me, that the clergyman
neither excused himself, nor us, anything that might have
lightened the strain, bodily and mental, to the younger
attendants. The creed of St. Athanasius was duly gone
through as well as the Litany, and addresses, which
nowadays are cut very short, came at full length. When,
after the return drive, we got safely home, I will not say but
that our spiritual state might have been better had our
bodily condition been less open to the unsettling influence
of a desire for a much-needed meal.

One pleasure of the high days was having the fine
old hymns for Easter or Christmas, which no bad singing
can spoil, as a variety on Sternhold and Hopkins, but I still
bear in mind the absolute depression caused by that doleful
production, the hymn called ^^ The Lamentation of a
Sinner." To this day it seems to me that it would be
better for such a composition to be omitted from our
service.

Although it appears to be the correct thing for those who
have been before the public in later life to have reminis-
cences (or for their biographer to invent them), of their
precocious piety, I cannot remember that I was ever much
given that way. I think that I was as a child kept in steady
paths of proper behaviour, and amongst the items taught was
certainly scrupulous observance of the fifth commandment in
all its branches. Any deviation from truth was another point,
the wickedness of which was most sedulously inculcated ;
and I should say that from my earliest days I was thoroughly
well grounded in as much simple and necessary religious
information as my small head could carry.

But I did not indulge in fine sentiments, felt or expressed,
and I think that my first absolute feeling on religious
matters was roused when in one of our spring visits to
London, I went regularly on Sunday morning with the
family to attend the service at the Vere Street Chapel, where
Mr. Scobell was then vicar, and some clergyman of high
standing occasionally preached. One thing that was very
charming to a girl who had not heard anything of the
kind before, was the hymn singing. The splendid hymn
^' Thou art the way," imprinted itself on my mind, as
likewise a part of a sermon by Mr. Scobell, on the basis of
our trust in God. He enumerated various of the high

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 27

characteristics of the Deity ; His boundless power, His
holiness and other characteristics of His majesty. With the
mention of each characteristic he put the question, '' Does
this give you a claim for acceptance ? " until he came to the
climax, '' His love," with the words ^^ bid His love, that you
may trust." Perhaps if the good man had known how
these words would abide to old age as a comfort to one
who was then amongst the youngest of his congregation,
it would have given him pleasure.

The Archbishop of Dublin, the celebrated Dr. Whately,
also preached at this Chapel, and I heard him deliver
his grand sermon on '^he doubts leading to the assured
belief of St. Thomas." I suppose this time was what
in some circles would have been called my '' awakening,"
but we in our family neither thought nor spoke of these
things ; and any allusion to such matters would have
brought on me (possibly very rightly) an awakening of
another kind, which would have entirely disinclined me
to favour the family with any religious views, beyond
what might be shown in behaving with propriety and above
all doing as I was bid to the best of my ability.

Reverting to early recollections of ecclesiastical matters,
or things in which the clergy might have been expected,
ex officio, to interfere, there certainly was room for im-
provement, but this was not peculiar to the olden time.
Some of the curious circumstances of which accounts
reached my young ears are better forgotten. One thing
that I remember was the very different position relating
to sporting, and also to the divergence in dress from the
great precision now in vogue. A clergyman of somewhat
high position, being, I suppose, pressed for time on one
occasion, performed the funeral service in his " pink "
visible beneath his surplice. Another, subsequently a
favourite with all his poorer parishioners for his kindness,
when a candidate for orders, was encouraged by his father
to the necessary mental labour by the promise that if
he passed his examination he should have a double-
barrelled gun ! In a locality not far from the edge of
Monmouthshire, I myself saw the incumbent of one of the
small livings with his coat off loading a manure cart ! He
comes back to my memory as doing the work quietly
and gravely, and with no more appearance of derogation
than if he had been budding the roses in his garden ;
still the work must have taken a considerable amount of
time from the purposes of his ordination.

28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

The ^^ Oxford " or "Tractarian Movement" of 1833-45 ^
made an enormous commotion, and perhaps for a retired
locahty nowhere more than in our own parish.

After the death of the old vicar, amongst a succession of
clergy the most noted was Dr. Armstrong (presented i846).2
With him came the full tide of the Oxford Movement, and
as he was a highly accomplished man, eloquent in the
pulpit, of charming society manner in the drawing-room,
and with his heart fixed on driving his own views of reform
and restoration forward, the holders of differing ecclesias-
tical views in the parish were soon very thoroughly by the
ears. My father as " squire " and chief resident landowner
had always tried (much to his own discomfort at times) to
uphold the cause of decency and order. But with the new
arrangements came all sorts of trouble from an excess of cere-
monial, and peace seemed to have vanished. The attempted
setting up of confession caused much trouble, and
difference of lay and clerical opinion in the restoration of the
Church was a fertile cause of ill-feeling. One special point
was the right claimed by the vicar to prevent any of the
general congregation entering the church by the chancel
door. We had always gone in that way, and it was not
convenient to reach the family pew by going round two
sides of the church, so my father stuck to his legal rights,
and the door was not visibly fastened. But one unlucky
day when we, the ladies of the family, arrived as usual and
tried to go in, to our consternation it appeared impossible
to turn the latch. It was a remarkably pretty handle — I
suppose an imitation of mediaeval ironwork — but it required
more than common woman's strength to make this unlucky
invention act in admitting us to the church. However, we
were not to be kept out by this ingenious device. Muscularly
I was remarkably strong from working in wood and stone,

'"The Oxford Movement" or "Catholic Revival" was initiated
as a result of statutory changes in the position of the Church of
Ireland, which it was feared might ultimately be extended to England.
The position and possible danger of the Church were fully discussed
in the Tracts for the Times, ninety in number, issued from Oxford
during the nine years, 1833-41, and chiefly written by Newman, Keble,
Pusey, Williams, and Froude. The object of the movement was to
rouse the members of the whole Anglican Community to promote
corporate reforms in the Anglican Church as a National Institution —
changes which the Evangelical Revival of the end of the eighteenth
century had failed to introduce. The line adopted in the movement
has been described as " a via media between Roman Catholicism and Re-
formation doctrines." (Ed.).

* Afterwards Bishop of Grahamstown, Cape Colony.

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 29

and I was perfectly happy to forward my father's wishes, so
thenceforward for many a week I went to church with a
round ruler in my pocket, and slipping this into the hanging
bit of ironwork, I easily raised the latch and gave my
mother and sisters entrance to church. I did not object to
my part of the ceremony in the least — rather liked it, in fact
— but looking back from graver age it seems to me that it
would have been better if the vicar had not driven the squire
to defend the rights of the congregation by such forcible
measures. After a while the latch (or the vicar's view on
the subject) was loosened, and we obtained entrance
without, like the violent, being obliged to take it by force.

The real troubles of the times were endless. It was
even possible for a sincerely religious man to absent himself
from the reception of communion on the ground that he
was not able to participate with Christian comfort and in a
charitable frame of mind. Within the church building
itself the condition of things was not satisfactory. The
openings beneath the very ^' open " seats, whereby was
secured free circulation for dogs and draughts, were un-
pleasant in various ways.

The appointment of our skilled and accomplished vicar,
Dr. Armstrong, to the Bishopric of Grahamstown in South
Africa, for which he was eminently fitted, was hailed by
many of us with heartfelt gratitude. In later years, under
the kindly care of the Rev. Percy Burd (successor in 1862
of the Rev. Alan Cowburn) who, without thinking it neces-
sary to push everything to extremities, attended with the
utmost care to proprieties of detail of worship in church, to
social friendliness, and to care of the poor, we passed along
in paths of comfort and peace, for which some of us were
deeply grateful.

Amongst various parish or local matters, of which the
bodily presence has, to a great degree, passed away, and the
remembrance that at one time such things were has
probably faded from most of the minds in which they ever
held a place, are turnpike gates, with their adjoining toll-
houses ; also the parish stocks and the parish pound.

In parochial arrangements in my day two great improve-
ments arose, one of which has now long been a regular part
of parish work, but was new at least to us. This was a
women's clothing club. The other was the commencement
of the plan of lending books to those who otherwise would
rarely have seen them. It was introduced by my sister,

30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

Georgiana E. Ormerod, when little more than a girl, quite
at her own expense. It was continued by her without any
pecuniary assistance (unless may-be sometimes some small
co-operation from myself) to the end of her long life.

The clothing club was set on foot under some diffi-
culties by the wife of one of the clergy resident in our
parish, for the goods procurable at Chepstow, the nearest
town, were by no means remarkable for their quality, and
Mrs. Morgan thought herself bound to do the best in her
power for her poor subscribers. So the matter was accom-
modated (not without a good deal of grumbling from
Chepstow shopkeepers about money being taken out of
their pockets) by part of the goods brought from Bristol
(where excellent material was to be had) for the women to
choose from, being sent previous to ^^ club day " to Mr. Mor-
gan's large and commodious house. In those days, so far as I
know, the plan of sending the women with tickets to the
shops had not been adopted, and our method, though
exceedingly laborious to the lady manager of the club, w^as
good for the women, for it ensured that their choice was
confined to the very best materials, all of a useful kind, and
at the lowest possible prices.

When a growing up girl, perhaps about sixteen, my sister
Georgiana thought it would be a pleasure to the children of
our own cottagers to have some entertaining books, and she
began by lending them from the small store which had
gradually come down from the elders of our generation.
She chose carefully what she thought would be of interest,
and very soon the elder children took to reading, or some-
times the fathers would read aloud to their families. My
sister always either read the books herself or knew the
nature of the contents before lending them, and when done
with they were brought back and exchanged. The borrow-
ing rapidly spread beyond our own cottagers till it included
our farmers and their friends at Gloucester and Bristol.
The books were almost invariably treated with all reason-
able care, and scarcely ever was one a-missing. Besides the
entertainment, they acted as an antidote to the attractions
of the public-house. It was a great delight to my sister
when she had a request for a book, because Jack or Dick
was home from his ship or on a holiday, and they wanted a
book that would keep him from the ^^ public." I attribute
much of my sister's success to the care with w^hich, even
after her book-lending had extended to far-distant localities,
she chose the books. On one occasion when she had made

Chap, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 31

a donation of books of her own choosing to the Lending
Library, Bethnal Green, London, she was greatly pleased
to hear that the boys and girls had passed the word round
amongst the factories of the entertaining books that had
arrived. Those we found suited best (for I was in some
degree her assistant) were accounts of real incidents made
into narratives. Ballantyne's earlier books with accounts of
the fire brigade, post office, lighthouse and the like were
great favourites, perhaps none the less for the conversations
being at times a trifle vulgar ; but when a writer took up
some special view, as of teetotalism, high-churchism, or any
other specialism, we dropped him. Stories of olden times,
such as the Plague in London, or the Great Fire ; risings in
Henry the Eighth's time ; wars of the time of Charles the
First and Cromwell ; forest troubles of the time of William
Rufus, and the like — told as stories, with the facts correct
although the thread on which they were strung was
imaginary — were always favourites. We seldom lent abso-
lutely religious books unless they were asked for, and
then we took care that they should be of a solid and inter-
esting sort ; but whether sacred or secular the number of
. books lent or given for lending in the course of the year
was very great.

My sister was a highly accomplished woman, a good
linguist and historian, and a careful scriptural student. As
a scientific entomologist and a Fellow of the Entomological
Society of London, she was a co-operator with me in my
work. She devoted her artistic talent for many years to the
execution of excellent diagrams, serviceable for agricultural
purposes, of insects injurious to farm and orchard produce,
some of which she made over to the Royal Agricultural
Society, but the greater number she presented to friends
interested in lessening the amount of loss through insect
injury, and to Agricultural Colleges. From girlhood to old
age she unceasingly carried on her chosen work of distri-
bution of useful healthy literature. She asked no aid, nor
made the considerable sums she expended, and the careful
cordial thought she gave to this work, matter of public
notoriety, but in her last moments it brought a smile to her
face when I told her that I purposed to continue her work.

My father when living near Chester had the first news on
a Sunday morning before church time, of the Duke of
Wellington's success, and that the battle of Waterloo had
been fought and won. After service he mounted on a

32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. iv.

tombstone and announced the glorious news to the assem-
bled congregation. In my early days in Gloucestershire, a
neighbour, Captain Fenton, was at times thought to be
tedious in his recurrence to the charge of the Scots Greys in
which he had served, but it was a grand memory all the
same.

In a much humbler sphere and at a different stage of the
same great struggle an interesting part was played by a very
decent woman — afterwards a servant in our family — at the
burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna. She was proud to
remember that she was one of those who held a lanthorn at
the ceremony alluded to in Wolfe's poem : —

" We buried him darkly at dead of night

By the struggHng moonbeams' misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning."

PLATE IX.

Sedbury Park Property, the darkly shaded area between
Severn and Wye.

CHAPTER V

SEVERN AND WYE

The locality round which most of the recollections of
nearly half my life centre is in the district of Gloucestershire,
between the Severn and the Wye (opposite Chepstow in
Monmouthshire, plate ix.), almost at the extremity of the
peninsula, sometimes not inaptly called the ^' Forest Penin-
sula," as some of the " Hundreds " comprised in the more
widely extended area stretching on to the Forest of Dean
near Newnham,are technically called the ^* Forest Hundreds,"
although what is commonly thought of (at the present day)
as the Forest of Dean, has long since ceased to be connected,
popularly speaking, with the lower extremity of the penin-
sula. This is bounded on the two sides by the Severn and
the Wye respectively ; and at intervals it presents to the
Wye considerable frontage of high cliffs of mountain lime-
stone, and to the Severn red marl, capped more or less with
lias. It terminates at the junction of the two rivers in a
small area, which is an island at high water, but accessibly
connected with the mainland at low water. Here, that is on
the rocky ground at the point of confluence of the Wye with
the Severn, were still existing in my time (that is up to 1873)
the few but massive remains of the Hermitage and Chapels,
popularly known collectively as the Chapel of St. Tecla
or Treacle Island (plate x.). The name as given by
William of Worcester in full form is ^^ Capella Sancti
Teriaci Anachoretce." He describes the locality likewise as
*' The Rok Seynt Tryacle," but not having now the oppor-
tunity of consulting his observations, I am not able to say
whether the ancient chronicler gives any reason for the
building of this little but massive knot of buildings, or for
its overthrow, which must have been a somewhat laborious
task, and from the thickness and the solidly built nature of
the walls, one that required co-operation. In the short

4 33

34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. v.

account given by my father in " Strigulensia " from which I
borrow some part of these notes, he says, ** It would be
vain to attempt identification of the Hermit whose name
is associated with the ruins, and who does not appear in the
calendar of saints, but he occurs as follows in the ^^ Valor
Ecclesiasticus " of Hen. VIII., vol. ii. p. 501, ^^Capella Sancti
Triaci valet nihil, qua stat in mare et nulla proficua inde
proveniunt." Whether modern skilled archaeologists may
have thrown light on the early history of the anchorite and
his Severn and seaweed-girt chapel I do not know, but few
places could be found less attractive for the archaeological
picnic-excursions which have become fashionable of late
years. Even to my brothers and myself, accustomed as we
were to Severn mud, and to picking our way fairly safely over
and amongst the coarse brown slippery seaweed fronds
(chiefly, if I remember rightly, the Fucus serratiis), the passage
over such parts as were not then submerged was an exceed-
ingly muddy progress, needing a deal of care lest we should
take a sudden slide into one of the little rock basins con-
cealed by the ^' kelp" or other coarse brown seaweed. But
once arrived, it was very pleasant to sit in the sunshine and
enjoy the glorious view down the Estuary of the Severn,
the fresh salt air blowing round us, or otherwise employ
ourselves to our fancy. From careful measurements we
found the length of the chapel to have been 31 feet 6
inches, the width 14 feet 6 inches, and the thickness of the
walls, wherever sufficient remained for observation, approxi-
mately 3 feet.i We had to be quick in our operations and
our return had to be kept in mind, or we should have had to
be fetched off in a boat, and under all circumstances it was
probably best for the sake of appearances that our walk
home should be as far as possible by the fields or under the
cliffs where minutiae as to condition of boots, _&c., were
unimportant.

The characteristics of the scenery of each of the rivers are
wholly different. The Severn above Beachley and Aust (in
former days the land-points of the much-used '^Old Passage ")
spreads into a wide area of water, perhaps about a mile wide
at the narrowest, and at high tide forming a noble lake-like
expanse. The Wye, on the contrary, as shown in the map
(plate IX.), takes its sinuous and narrow course between
successive promontories, projecting alternately from the
Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire banks.

^ My notes are taken from the copy of a plan (now before me) by my
brother Henry Mere Ormerod, solicitor, Manchester : see page 58.

PLATE X.

KuiNED Anchorite's Chapel of St. Tecla, on the Chapel Kock
WHERE Severn and Wye meet.

From a sketch hij Miss E. A. Ormerod.
{p. 33.)

Severn Cliffs, Sedbury Park.
{p. 40.)

To face p. 34.

Chap.-v.] SEVERN AND WYE 35

Across some considerable portion of the river a quarter of
a mile or so above Beachley, on the Gloucestershire side, a
rocky ledge of limestone called ^'The Lyde" projects at low
tide, causing a backwater of which the steady roar can be
heard at a long distance.^ Cormorants on the rock, and
conger-eels below it, were regular inhabitants or visitors —
the former presumably attracted by the latter, which served
to some degree also as food to the fishermen, although
pronounced to be "slobbery-like."

The muddy colour of the Severn was not in itself
picturesque — at least I have never heard the point men-
tioned with admiration ; but to me, born as I was by this
noblest of our rivers, it seemed to convey a comfortable idea
of homeliness and strength. Sometimes, however, in the
early morning or in certain conditions of light, the deep
rosy colouring was almost as if the whole width of water
had been changed to blood ; then the effect was very
splendid, and as wonderful still as it must have been in
days long gone by to Queen Boadicea : —

" Still rolls thy crimson flood in glory on
As when of old its deep ensanguined dye
Told to the warrior Queen her falling throne,
Her people's death, the foemen's victory."

But, independently of other considerations, a bend in the
river was of great local service. It formed a bay of about
perhaps three-quarters of a mile across, bounded to the
west by our own and the Beach ley cliffs, and further
protected, or endangered, on the southern side by a low
range of rocks running out into the river. With the rising
tide the import shipping to Gloucester, which in those days
was extensive, put in here to be searched by the Custom
House officials. At that time (excepting tugs) it was entirely
composed of sailing vessels mostly laden with corn, wine,
and timber, and the mixed fleet moving about in the bay
with colours flying was a very lively sight. In due time
they passed on — the three-masters, ships, and barques, or
the graceful chasse-mar^es, taking the lead ; brigs and

' The Sailing Directions for the West Coast of England, published
by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, says : — " Depths :
There is a depth of about 46 feet in the river to Chepstow at high water
springs, and 36 feet at high water neaps." " Tides : It is high water,
full and change, at Chepstow at 7 h. 30 m. local or 7 h. 41 m. Greenwich
time ; mean springs rise 38 feet and neaps 28^ feet. The tide has,
however, been known to rise as high as 56 feet." (E.A.O.)

3^ AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. v.

schooners following, and sloops and — if weather permitted
— Severn trows bringing up the rear. These, however, as
they differed very little in formation from canal barges,
required tolerably fair or at least quiet weather to allow
them to proceed in safety. The procession of shipping
came along almost beneath our cliffs, the deep channel
being on that side, and perhaps it was as well that they
were no nearer, or the nautical remarks might have been
more often audible to the young people than was desirable !
A special convenience to ourselves was a little creek under
the chffs, called in those parts a ^^pill" (presumably from the
Welsh pwU or pool), which allowed of coals being run in
a sloop across from Bristol and carted up to the house by a
shorter road than that from Chepstow.

Salmon fishing was carried on partly by nets from fishing
boats, partly by rows of baskets known as '' putts " or
" putchers." The boats during the boat fishing lay above

FIG. (a).— PUTCHER FOR CATCHING SALMON.

the edge of the water on the sloping and slippery frontage of
the shore. When the tide served for fishing, the men went
down from the village above the cliffs to their boats across the
flat and precipitously-edged grass, between the base of the low
cliffs and the sloping shore. Each man wriggled with might
and main at his boat till he loosened its adhesion to the ten-
acious mud and started it on its slide with its bows foremost
towards the water. Once off, of course the pace accelerated ;
its owner, running behind, held on and clambered in as best
he could, and the two arrived safely and with a great jolt on
the water. The boats then formed in line, secured by being
tied stern to stern at about a boat's length from each other,
and presumably anchored also, but this I do not remember.
The net of each boat was lowered, and nothing further
occurred till a fish was captured ; then the net was lifted,
the fish, shining in all the beauty of its silvery scales, taken
out, and the net lowered again. These were the best fish ;

Chap, v.] SEVERN AND WYE 37

those that were caught in the putts were "drowned " fish, and
unless the fishermen were fairly on the alert to secure them
before the falling tide had left the baskets long uncovered,
there was a very good chance of the eyes being pecked out
or the fish otherwise disfigured by birds.

The putcher or basket fishing was carried on by means
of very open extinguisher-shaped baskets each long enough
to hold, it can hardly be said accommodate, a good-sized
salmon. The frame or stand on which these baskets were
fixed was formed of two rows of strong poles or upright
pieces of wood, running down the shore, across the narrow
of the river, for many yards, firmly fixed between high and
low tide level, at such a distance as would allow the baskets
to reach from one side to the other. Horizontal poles or
pieces of wood connected the upright poles, and to these
horizontal supports the baskets were attached, so as to form
rows with the open ends of the extinguishers facing up
stream and all ranged one storey above the other. The
fish were drifted into the basket trap, and of course, though
they might injure themselves in their struggles, and to
some degree their market value, they were pow^erless to effect
their escape and withdraw backward against the set of the
tide.i

The much larger form of basket described by Mr. Buck-
land as "putts," and as being used for catching flat fish, was
of a slightly different make — formed only of two instead of
three pieces ; one large piece, so wide at the opening that I,
as a girl, had no difficulty in standing within it, and a very
much smaller piece, forming a kind of nose. This little
adjunct was, I believe, taken off and searched by the fisher-
men for what it contained. To my sister Georgiana and
myself it was a great pleasure to go down to where the two
great eel-putts stood on clean shore at very low tide below
the longest row of salmon-putchers, and search for anything
that was to be found. My sister was a good conchologist.
We searched for seaweed, &c., &c., and thereby got a
deal of pleasant amusement. The fishermen, who knew us
well, made no objection to our investigations, though, as
one of the men remarked on one occasion, " It was not
everybody they liked to see near the putts."

In our immediate neighbourhood the fishermen w^ere

quiet^t least I never heard of their getting into very

objectionable difficulties — but about eight miles higher up

the river, near Lydney, things in this respect were by no

' See Appendix A.

38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. v.

means all that could be wished. On one occasion they
captured the Fishery Inspector himself — whose duty it was
to ascertain that the meshes were not below a certain
measurement — and secured him in the nets. Another time
somebody (who, unluckily for him, bore some resemblance
to the obnoxious inspector) got nearly sloughed up in one
of the great marsh ditches, and would have been left to live
or die as might chance — probably the latter — but for the
arrival of timely help. My father being one of the acting
magistrates of the district, we used to hear from time to
time of these and other ^'mauvaises plaisanteries '• in the
neighbourhood of the Forest of Dean.

On reference to the portion of the Ordnance Map
(plate IX.) it will be seen that there is a broad band
marked "mud," of about a sixth of a mile in width at
the widest part and extending for about a mile and a half
by the side of the deep channel of the Severn, between
it and the cliffs of the Beachley and Sedbury Bay.

The most remarkable capture of which I have any recol-
lection as taking place in the waters, or rather in the mud of
the Severn, was said to be a " Bottle-nosed whale," or
Dolphin, Delphinus tursio, Fabr., but it was so many
decades of years ago, that I have no means now of turning
to any record for verification of the species. The capture
itself excited a deal of local interest. It was on a summer
morning that one of my brothers, enlivening his vacation
studies, as was his custom, by watching through his tele-
scope anything of interest that might be going on amongst
the shipping or elsewhere, saw something like an enormous
fish struggling and " flopping " on the Beachley pier of the
old Passage Ferry. As a matter of course, we young folks
set off after luncheon to have our share of the sight, and
found the creature had been captured when lying helpless,
or half dead, in the mud at the Aust side of the Ferry, and
had been towed across behind a boat. At this distance
of time I only remember the whale- or dolphin-like shape of
the anim.al, its great size, and that it was apparently of a
greyish colour ; but this item might very likely be from its
being coated with Severn mud. In Bell's " British Quadru-
peds " the greatest length recorded of various specimens
found in England is 12 feet. The colour of the back is
black, with a purplish tinge, becoming dusky on the sides,
and dirty white on the belly. This species is considered
rare in England and it is of some interest, in referring to the

Chap, v.] SEVERN AND WYE 39

locality of what may be called our own capture, that " The
first account which we have of its appearance on our own
shores is that of John Hunter/* and it was taken with its
young one ^^ on the sea coast near Berkeley " ; that is about
two or three miles higher up the left bank of the Severn
than the Aust Cliffs. Another specimen was found in
the river Dart in Devonshire, and, it was stated, ^^was killed
with difficulty, the poor animal having suffered for four
hours the attacks of eight men armed with spears and two
guns, and assisted by dogs. When wounded it made a
noise like the bellowing of a bull."i In the case of the
Old Passage specimen the poor creature was also most
barbarously treated, chiefly by being attacked by the
running of hay forks, pitch forks, and the like, into its body,
and I remember a good deal of chopping with hatchets
or axes, but it was quite quiet and, it was to be hoped, was
past feeling pain. Immense popular interest, of course, was
excited as to the precise nature of the unusual " take," as to
whether it was a Leviathan, or possibly the kind of fish
that swallowed Jonah — but the affair ended by the creature
being shipped off to Bristol to be turned into a little money
for the boatmen who secured it, and no other cetacean was
taken during the remainder of the years in which Sedbury
was my home.

The most observable of the seaweeds, which grew on the
rocks or large stones, more or less in the muddy salt water
between tide levels at the mouth of the Severn, were of the
genus FuctiSy which at one time was much used in the
making of kelp. The ornamental kinds always appeared to
me to be unaccountably absent. They were not to be
expected to make this place their habitat, but, still, their
almost total absence in the masses of drift matter left by the
retiring tide struck me as curious. In my most successful
searches I do not remember ever being fortunate enough to
secure even a fragment of the lovely Oak-leaf, Delesseria,
with its bright, rosy-veined leaves from as much as 4 inches
to 8 inches in length placed along their cylindrical stem, or
the Peacock seaweed, Padina pavonea, with its concentric
markings. Of Iceland Moss there might be a battered
morsel. The general composition of the driftage was
composed of little except what might be grown in the
neighbourhood, mixed with sugar cane or packing material

' See quotations in Hist, of British Quadrupeds, including the Cetacea,
by Thomas Bell, F.R.S., &c. pp. 469-472.

40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. v.

thrown from the vessels. This, however, seemed to me of
some interest in connection with the set of the currents.
Here, however, I am out of my element, but as my brother
Dr. Ormerod employed me as a collector, I am not personally
responsible.

The distinct varieties of soil, and also the geographical
and the geological surroundings of Sedbury, were un-
usually favourable to natural history investigations, whether
of fauna and flora of the present day, or of fossil remains
of saurians and shells. These were easily accessible as they
fell from the frontage of lias, or the narrow horizontal strip
in the cliffs (plate x.) facing the Severn, well known to
the geologists as the "bone bed." At the highest part
the cliffs were about 140 feet, calculating from medium
tide level. There the face had been quarried back
for a supply of lias limestone, used in enlarging the
offices of the house, and in so doing had laid bare a fine
bed of so-called '' Venus" shells. We used to find beautiful
specimens of those shells, irrespective of this extra fine
deposit, and also of "patens," oysters of some kind,
which we sought for unweariedly, hammer in hand. The
greatest matters of interest, however, were the saurian, or
the fish remains, of which we sometimes found a plentiful
supply of specimens of little value, and now and then some
of considerable interest.

The Sedbury cliffs lie nearly north of the Aust cliff, and
contain the Aust bone-bed, from which the Severn, about a
mile wide, or somewhat more, there divides them. Geo-
logically, in all important characteristics, I believe the two
cliffs correspond. Of this bone-bed it is noted by Sir
Charles Lyell^ : "In England the Lias is succeeded by
conformable strata of red and green marl or clay. There
intervenes, however, both in the neighbourhood of Ex-
mouth, in Devonshire, and in the cliffs of Westbury and
Aust, in Gloucestershire, on the banks of the Severn, a
dark-coloured stratum, well known by the name of the
^bone-bed.' It abounds in the remains of saurians and
fish, and was formerly classed as the lowest bed of Lias ;
but Sir P. Egerton has shown that it should be referred to
as the Upper New Red Sandstone." The reasons given
are not of interest to the general reader. From the fallen
debris of this we collected vertebrae, single, or sometimes a
few in connection, also bones of the paddles, and any

' Manual of Elementary Geology, by Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S.,
fifth edition, 1855, pp. 337, 3^8.

PLATE XI.

Roman Pottery, found in Sedbury Park.

From a dratcing by Bliss E. A. Ormcrod.

{p. 18.)

Saurian from the Lias, Sedbury Cliffs.
ip. 41.)

To face p. 40.

Chap, v.] SEVERN AND WYE 41

amount of teeth, also coprolites, the excrementitious matter
of the living owners of the bones. These were in great
quantity, but I never remember that they were other than
irregular lumps, and though some of us were much given
to grinding and polishing stones that afforded hope of an
ornamental result, it never occurred to us to exercise our
talents on these lumps, which might have indicated in their
undigested contents some evidence of the diet of their
consumers.

The only valuable or interesting specimen of Saurian
remains (that is of an animal in moderate degree of en-
tirety) fell from the cliffs after I had ceased to reside
there. This was a slab of Lias about 3 feet long by 2
feet broad, and about 7 to 9 inches thick (plate xi.) The
history of its fall, as given to me in a letter from Dr. John
Yeats, F.R.G.S., then residing at Chepstow, dated September,
1882, was, that ^' From one of the ledges, or from the top
of a slip or subsidence, a fir tree was blown down during
the autumn of 1882 . . . The fossil was found beneath
the roots," and " the fossil remains were laid bare by a
conchoidal fracture." A few detached vertebrae were col-
lected, but unfortunately no part of the head was secured.
Of this specimen Professor Richard Owen was good enough
to report to Dr. Yeats on the 24th of May, 1883, as
follows : ^* From the concavity of the articular surfaces
of the vertebrae, I infer it to be part of an ichthyosaurus,
and the number and character of the ribs agree with that
deduction. If any part of the jaws or teeth should be
found near the locality it would decide the matter."

This fossil is now in the possession of Sir William H.
Marling, at Sedbury.

The surface of the cliffs was of a very mixed nature, with
ledges of stone projecting slightly in places, and from the
effect of weathering, landslips, leading at times to incon-
venience, were not infrequent. As we knew the nature of
the ground we were careful about going near the edge of
the top of the cliff, where a precipice or a crack showed
danger, but it happened more than once that a bullock or
calf, attracted by food to be found amongst the trees or
bushes which in some places clothed the slanting upper
part, was tempted beyond safe footing, and toppled down
to the bottom to its own destruction. On one occasion, on
returning from a walk, my sister Georgiana and I, not
having noticed a fall from the cliffs, were cut off by one of
these slips from any comfortable advance, It was not a

42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. v.

case of danger, but a choice between much wet and dirt
from Severn mud, or very considerable discomfort of
another sort, as the slip had brought down with it
brambles, &c., &c., most unpleasant to brave for the sake
of dryness. We preferred the wet passage, feeling our way
with our feet through the muddy water from one good-
sized stone to another, and presently arrived safely above
the high-tide level, but to those who did not know that
beneath the muddy surface there was a sound footing if
sought for, the little episode might have been unpleasant.

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CHAPTER VI

RRY, AND RAILWAY

In my early days much of the passenger transit of South
Wales and the south-westerly part of England passed over
the old Passage Ferry across the Severn from Beach ley to
Aust, and consequently the coaches all passed our park gates.
It was said there were fourteen coaches a day. On this I
am unable to offer an opinion, but there were a great
number, and amongst them were two mails. The road to
the head of the old Passage Pier, from Chepstow, was about
three and a half miles in length, and very hilly (going up
one ascent, long or short as the case might be, to go down
another), with the exception of two lengths of flat " gallop-
ing ground." These well deserved their name, and I can still
remember the swing of violent speed at which the high, piled-
up vehicle tore past us, causing children and accompanying
dogs to allow it a very free passage. The journey was
not without risk of disaster, for on one occasion in turning
a sharp angle, on the incline of a steep shore-hill, with-
out due care, the coach lurched to the outward side of
the curve and made a distribution of its outside passengers
on the greensward by our park gates. It certainly would
have been a great help in those days if the wish (though
not exactly as he expressed it) of the driver of one of the
more old-fashioned of the coaches could have been carried
out, and ^^ a little akyduct " made to convey the road from
the top of one hill to the next, thus avoiding the dangerous
descent.

The view from the tops of the coaches as they galloped
along the flat road at the summit of the Severn cliffs down
to the Ferry pier was very beautiful. On one side was the
Severn, a mile wide at the narrowest, with the red Aust
cliffs opposite, the Sedbury cliffs above ; and, in the distance,
about thirty miles away up the river, the hills, near or
beyond Gloucester, could be faintly seen. On the other

43

CHAPTER VI

RRY, AND RAILWAY

In my early days much of the passenger transit of South
Wales and the south-westerly part of England passed over
the old Passage Ferry across the Severn from Beachley to
Aust, and consequently the coaches all passed our park gates.
It was said there were fourteen coaches a day. On this I
am unable to offer an opinion, but there were a great
number, and amongst them were two mails. The road to
the head of the old Passage Pier, from Chepstow, was about
three and a half miles in length, and very hilly (going up
one ascent, long or short as the case might be, to go down
another), with the exception of two lengths of flat "gallop-
ing ground." These well deserved their name, and I can still
remember the swing of violent speed at which the high, piled-
up vehicle tore past us, causing children and accompanying
dogs to allow it a very free passage. The journey was
not without risk of disaster, for on one occasion in turning
a sharp angle, on the incline of a steep shore-hill, with-
out due care, the coach lurched to the outward side of
the curve and made a distribution of its outside passengers
on the greensward by our park gates. It certainly would
have been a great help in those days if the wish (though
not exactly as he expressed it) of the driver of one of the
more old-fashioned of the coaches could have been carried
out, and " a little akyduct " made to convey the road from
the top of one hill to the next, thus avoiding the dangerous
descent.

The view from the tops of the coaches as they galloped
along the flat road at the summit of the Severn cliffs down
to the Ferry pier was very beautiful. On one side was the
Severn, a mile wide at the narrowest, with the red Aust
cliffs opposite, the Sedbury cliffs above ; and, in the distance,
about thirty miles away up the river, the hills, near or
beyond Gloucester, could be faintly seen. On the other

43

44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. vi.

side, about a field or two from the road, was the lowest part
of the Wye at its point of juncture with the Severn, and the
noble estuary itself opening out from about four miles
width till it was lost to view in the distance of the Severn
Sea.

The Old Passage, though probably as well managed as
was reasonably possible, was, in many respects, a most

TIME TABLE ILLUSTRATING THE METHOD OF TRAVELLING
200 YEARS AGO.

YORK Four Days
Stage-Coach.

B^msonfndsythe iztb. of April 1706.

ALL that arc defjroustopafsfrom Ldfjubn io Tor}{^
or from Torf[ to -London, or any other PlacC
on that Road; Let them Repair to the Bhcf^Sv^anw.
Holbourn- m Londo/i, at\d to the hlacl\Sman m Coney
putxn Torfi-

At boihwhicli Places, they may be received in a
Stage Coach every Monday, WednejdiTf and Friday,
wrbjch performs the whole J ourneym Four Days, {if
Cod jxrmttj,) And fcts forth at Five m theMormng.

And returns from Tor\ to Stamford in two days,
and from Stamford by Huntington to London in tvw)
days more And the like Stages on their remrn.

f Benjamin KingijioM.
Performed By \ Henrjr Harr'tfon,
\WaIU7 Sa^es,

Alfo thii gives Nolicethdt Ncwcaftlc Stage Coach,{ct5
out (rem YorK. every Monday, and Friday, and

inconvenient necessity. On one occasion, while fourteen
passengers were crossing in a sailing boat, every living
thing, except one dog, perished in mid-transit. It was on a
stormy Sunday in September, 1838, and the boat was heavily
laden with horses as well as the passengers. How the
accident happened was never known. One of my brothers
had been watching the boat from our cliffs, and on looking
again, after a minute or so^ she was gone. The conjectural

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Chap, vl] COACH, FERRY, AND RAILWAY 45

cause of the disaster was that one of the horses had become
unruly. The assignment of the disaster to a judgment for
travelHng on Sunday, may be looked on as a state of feeling
very desirable to be removed by changing times, which have
brought a larger charitableness and greater common sense.

A novel custom was associated with the Old Passage. A
man suspected of possible infection of hydrophobia, was
put into the salt water, and towed about in the Severn at
the stern of a boat. In the event of a man having been
bitten by a stray dog, this operation made his village ac-
quaintances much easier in their minds about him. They
had also the fun, and in any case the patient would not be
the worse for a thorough good washing !

The appliances of the ferry were a steam boat and various
sailing boats, including one known as the Mail-boat, as well
as on the Beachley side, an apparatus acting as a telegraph.
This consisted of an arrangement of board which, when at
rest, resembled a wooden window shutter about a couple of
yards square, fastened to one of the buildings ; and, by some
code of signals of an exceedingly simple sort, requisite direc-
tions were conveyed across the river as to the boat service.

On our side there was one solidly built pier, serviceable
for shipment of passengers or goods at all states of the
tide, and accessible for all kinds of carriage use from
the good road which terminated at the top in front of a
small kind of hotel ; it likewise had the desirable security,
for the greater part of its length, of strong posts with chains
between them. On the Aust side there was a high- and also
a low-water pier, not far apart, a little way below the inn,
and if the tide served for boats to reach these all went fairly
well after disembarking, but it was a different matter at half-
tide. The half-tide pier was a considerable distance from
the others — a quarter or half a mile away beneath the cliffs,
and mud and stones and the roughest imaginable affairs in
the guise of road had to be got through or over on the way
to the inn. The effect of this on the springs, paint, &c.,
of a good Long Acre-built barouche, when by some unhappy
necessity it had to be committed to such a method of transit,
may be easily imagined. The passage for a carriage was,
at the best, not well arranged. A muster of fishermen or
boatmen was made, and the carriage was turned on the pier
and dragged more or less rapidly on board, and there, I
presume, secured from movement, but, certainly, by no
means from danger, for part of the freight might consist of
half a dozen or a dozen bullocks, which shifted to one side or

46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. vi.

the other as the vessel lurched. On the whole the transit by
the Old Passage Ferry, so well known in former days, was
one link in a chain of necessities which left much room for
changing times to improve.

The great change in the method of travelling may be said
to have been publicly inaugurated in the spring of 1830 ^
by the opening of the Canterbury and Whitstable line of
railway.

In the same year the Bill for the Warrington railway was
passed by both Houses of Parliament, and permission was
also granted to construct a line from Leicester to Swan-
nington, Robert Stephenson being appointed chief engineer
to both lines. But the great railway event of that year was
the opening, with an imposing ceremonial, on September
15th, of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. This left
nothing to be desired in showing high appreciation of
the importance of advance in methods of locomotion.
Although a complete success, from the point of view of
capabilities of safe and also of rapid travelling, the day was
one of great trouble and anxiety. As the train neared
Manchester the mob crowded on the lines, and while to
have gone forward at any moderate pace would have been
death to hundreds, on the other hand, the slow movement
allowed the populace to swarm on the carriages and dis-
play their political aversion to ^' the Duke " (Wellington)
by throwing brickbats, and by other objectional irregu-
larities. The riot was not so much remembered as the
accident which resulted in the death of Huskisson. I can
recollect the unsophisticated story of something being seen
going along the line at such a speed that it was hardly dis-
cernible ; and also that a horn was used for train signalling
in place of the steam whistle. Carelessness of life through
ignorance of the danger was everywhere conspicuous ; dis-
cipline was much needed. My father while waiting at a
station took pleasure in walking along the line to while
away the time. Tying horse-carriages on open trucks was
not an unusual practice with carriage-people who could
afford to pay for the luxury. My father long travelled in
his own carriage thus attached, and stepped from the truck
on which it stood to the next, but of course at considerable
danger to his person.

* For some years previously the possibility of transmission, at a low
rate of speed, of goods or mineral products had been established
by George and Robert Stephenson, against great opposition in some
cases.

>» cc

CHAPTER VII

CHARTIST RISING IN MONMOUTHSHIRE IN 1839

The remembrance of the Chartist ^ rising in Monmouth-
shire of November, 1839, must have long faded away, except
from the minds of the few survivors who were concerned
in its suppression, and those of the younger generation
who remember it from the anxiety it caused throughout the
district. I came among the latter number. My father was
an acting magistrate, and at the time alterations were going
on in his house at Sedbury Park. I can well remember the
surly, disobedient, and generally insubordinate behaviour of
the local workmen in the week preceding Sunday, the
3rd of November. With the return of the workmen, in the
course of the following week, the face of affairs had however
changed. The rising had taken place, and had been
thoroughly crushed. Receiving a reverse, they were there and
then seized with panic, and fled. Their chief leaders — by
name John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones,
and others not so deeply implicated — were captured, and to
us the result was exceedingly satisfactory. The men when
they returned were patterns of obedience and as meek as
mice. They did not in the least desire the distinction

' Chartism was an excited, and, in some instances, violent political
movement which occurred in Great Britain consequent upon the
dire distress and poverty of the labouring classes in the thirties
of the nineteenth century, and their disappointment with the results of
the Reform Bill of 1832. In June, 1839, a monster petition was pre-
sented to the House of Commons with 1,280,000 names attached. Its
unsympathetic reception fanned the rebellious spirit abroad among the
working classes and led to an increase of unruly disturbances, and to
the outbreak at Newport, here described. The movement collapsed in
1848, and with the development of the industrial prosperity of the
country, largely due to the use of steam power in manufacturing
centres, and the vast improvement of the economic and social
condition of the people, together with greater political freedom, any
return of the perfectly natural, if not even justifiable, spirit of dis-
content became impossible. (Ed.).

47

48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. vil.

of being known, in a magistrate's house, to have taken part
in an outbreak which had totally failed. They had thought
that by Monday or Tuesday the house would be in their
hands and our relative positions reversed, and, indeed,
it would have been hard to find a house more indefensible
against a disciplined mob than ours. Along two sides
of the house (plate i.), ran a broad colonnade of Bath stone,
supported by pillars so wide and so placed that in many
cases men ascending by ladders put against them, would
have been greatly or entirely protected from the discharge
of fire-arms from the windows ; and the broad flat sur-
face of the top of the colonnade, lo feet in width, by
about 120 feet in length, would have made an admirable
mustering ground for scores of men, from which to carry
on their unpleasant attacks in conjunction with their allies
below. This however we were spared.

The trial of Frost and the other leaders followed speedily
by special Commission at Monmouth. It began in the
following December and ended in January (1840), with
a verdict of guilty of High Treason ; and sentence of
death according to the treason penalties of the time was
pronounced by Lord Chief Justice Tindal as follows : —
" That you, John Frost, and you, Zephaniah Williams, and
you, William Jones, be taken hence to the place from which
you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the
place of execution, and that each of you be there hanged by
the neck until you be dead, and that afterwards the head
of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the
body of each, divided into four quarters, shall be disposed of
as Her Majesty shall think fit, and may Almighty God
have mercy on your souls." A recommendation to mercy,
which was mercifully attended to, was added on behalf of
the five least guilty men. The possibility of the horrors
of the details of the treason penalties (though much
mitigated from those of former days on account of their
being carried out on the dead body of the offender)
created consternation through the district, and the remem-
brance has remained with me to this day. However,
the capital sentence on Frost and his two special associates
was commuted to transportation for life, an act of grace
coincident with those extended on the marriage of our late
Queen of glorious memory.

Only the above disjointed reminiscences of trouble have
remained in my mind through the sixty years which have
since elapsed, but the rising was so planned that, if it had

Chap, vil] CHARTIST RISING 49

succeeded, it would have proved a match to Hght the
smouldering Chartism of the Midlands and the North of
England, and even under the circumstances the case was
described in the Attorney-General's address to the Jury
at the commencement of the Monmouth trial as follows :

^' There has recently been in this County an armed
insurrection, the law has been set at defiance ; there has
been an attempt to take forcible possession of the town
of Newport, there has been a conflict between the insur-
gents and the Queen's troops ; there has been bloodshed,
and the loss of many lives. The intelligence of these
outrages has caused alarm and dismay throughout the
kingdom." ^

When divested of the repetitions and technicalities of
the reports of the sworn witnesses, and also of the addresses
of the Lord Chief Justice and legal authorities, the story
of the rising possesses much interest as an account in many
of its details of what could not happen in the present day.
The mountainous nature of the insurgent locality, the
extraordinarily stormy weather which threw the un-
disciplined thousands out in their calculations, and the
short, but (for the time occupied) bloody climax would
have formed under such a pen as Sir Walter Scott's, a
narrative of interest almost equal to some of those of the
Covenanting troubles.

The part of the County in which the disturbances took
place — was what is called the ^^ hill district " of Monmouth-
shire (plate XV.), which has been described as an area of
triangular form, having for its apex to the south, Risca, a
town five miles W.N.W of Newport. The base of the triangle
was at a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles in a
northerly direction, with the great Beaufort and Nant-y-glo
iron works to the west, on the edge of Brecknockshire, and
to the east Blaenavon on the Usk in its hilly, or it might be
said mountainous, neighbourhood. The area of this hill
district is varied with hill and dale, intersected in parts
by deep glens, and also by mountain streams, of no
inconsiderable force after heavy rains. Picturesquely
considered the country is of great beauty, but beneath
the surface are rich supplies of coal and iron. For some
years before 1839, the mines had been much worked,

' The Trial of John Frost for High Treason under a Special Com-
mission held at Monmouth, in December 1839, ^"^ January, 1840, (p. 58).
London, Saunders and Benning, Law Booksellers, 43, Fleet Street,
1840. (E.A.O.) ^

5

50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. vii.

and the country, instead of being merely inhabited by a
small and scattered population, was at the time of the
outbreak estimated to contain above 40,000 inhabitants,
often, as it was stated, displaying ^'an extent of ignorance
very much to be deplored " and consequently easily led
away by the agents of seditious societies and formed into
affiliated bodies ready for outbreak when called on.

The matured plan of the rising was arranged on the
ist of November at a meeting at a place called Blackwood,
where there was a Lodge or Society of Chartists. At
this meeting deputies attended, and orders were formulated,
that the men should assemble armed on the evening of
the 3rd, the following Sunday. There were to be three
principal divisions, one under the command of Frost (then
living at Blackwood), the other two to be respectively
formed of men from the up-country, and men more
from the east and north. These divisions were to meet
at Risca at a convenient distance from Newport, their
destination, which they purposed to reach about two in
the morning. They hoped to find the inhabitants asleep,
and to carry out their plans at their own convenience ;
attack the ''intended-to-be-surprised" troops at Newport,
break down the bridge over the Usk, and stop the mail.
The Newport mails in those days were forwarded over
the Old Passage of the Severn to Bristol, from which
place at a given time they were sent North. The non-
arrival of the mails at Birmingham was to have been a sign
of success of the Monmouthshire outbreak, and of a general
rising in Lancashire, and other parts of the kingdom.
Affairs, however, turned out very differently to what they
expected. The night between the Sunday and Monday
was the darkest and most tempestuous that had been
known for years, and consequently though Frost arrived
near Risca early in the night, the other divisions were long
behind time. Meanwhile Mr. Phillips, the Mayor of New-
port, afterwards Sir Thomas Phillips, a firm and intelligent
man, well informed of what was going on, had been quietly
making preparations, in view of the intelligence received
during Sunday. He had given orders to the Superintendent
of Police to have a number of Special Constables ready on
that evening. A detachment was stationed at the Westgate
Hotel, where the Mayor and another magistrate also
located themselves about 9 p.m., and remained watching
throughout the night. When day dawned on Monday,
November 4th, intelligence was received that the insurgents

PLATE XV.

'X\ ( f^^

kd

-i. ..-^

.k>^

F</ jy/ ool

?aiiteS

so J)il> <-^y

^*^/

'■r /

11 'Mil IV V .A f 3 xi .,.r><^ ^J»ve*v' nijy/ht,-^t^

Map showing the District of the Chartist Eising in Monmouth.
Newport near the low right-hand corner above the bend
OF the Kiver Usk.

To face i). 50.

Chap, vii.] CHARTIST RISING 51

were approaching, and the Mayor sent a request to the
barracks for military assistance. There was only one
company of soldiers (of Her Majesty's 45th Regiment of
foot) stationed at Newport at the time. Of these thirty men,
under command of Lieut. Basil Gray, were sent to the
assistance of the Mayor. They arrived at the Westgate
Hotel about 8 a.m. The soldiers were placed in a room on
the ground floor of the hotel with three windows (a bow
window with three divisions) coming down within a few
inches of the ground, and it should be observed that they
did not load their muskets until, after being fired upon, they
were ordered to do so. Shortly after the rioters were seen
advancing, the numbers being technically stated in the
indictment for High Treason as "a great multitude . . . .
to the number of two thousand and more," probably more
accurately computed at 5,000, armed with guns, pistols,
pikes, swords, daggers, clubs, bludgeons, and other weapons.
Amongst the miscellaneous '^ weapons of offence " were
scythes fixed on poles, and an instrument (of which a
specimen was produced in court) called a ^' mandrel," used
for working out coal in the mines, and somewhat resembling
a pick-axe in shape. A portion of the rioters formed in
front of the hotel, and at once began the attack by firing
a volley of small arms at the windows of the room where the
soldiers were placed, of which the lower shutters were
closed. They gained entrance to a passage, or corridor,
communicating with it by a door. The word was imme-
diately given to load with ball cartridge, but whilst the
lower window shutters remained closed, the men could
not reply. Therefore, with the certainty that they would be
fired on, the Mayor and Lieutenant Gray threw back the
shutters, and stood unmasked facing the insurgents, who
immediately discharged a volley of small arms, whereby the
Mayor was wounded in the groin, and seriously in one arm
near the shoulder, and Sergeant Daily was badly hit in the
head. The order to fire was at once given, and several of the
insurgents were wounded, and fell. For the short time that
the conflict lasted the rioters in the house continued to try
to force the position by rushing up to the doorway ; but
when they encountered their own dead and received the
return fire of the soldiers they faltered, and in less than
ten minutes the affray was over. The passage was cleared
of all excepting the dead and wounded, and the vast
mob of rioters was dispersing with all speed. In the words
of one witness, they "ran to all quarters." Another de-

52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. vii.

posed that he met numbers of them near Newport ^'running
back in all directions," and though here and there some
men remained, they were without arms, and from the
quantity of weapons of offence collected afterwards, it
was demonstrable that in many cases the men must have
flung them away as they fled. But though short, the
affair had been bloody. The rioters lost seven men killed
besides a number of wounded, and the casualties to their
opponents were in some cases serious, although not fatal.
Hundreds hurried from the scene of their repulse with
such speed that by ten o'clock a.m. they were passing the
Lodge Gate of Tredegar Park, about two miles from
Newport. Amongst this crowd was John Frost, ex-draper
of Newport and would-be conductor of the outbreak, a man
who had proved himself as deficient in courage as he had
been inefficient in leadership. He was endeavouring to
conceal his identity by holding a handkerchief to his face
as if he were crying. But on being spoken to and re-
cognised, he left the road and going through an archway
leading to a coppice wood, was lost sight of. A warrant
was granted in the afternoon of the same day, and in
the evening, on the door being forced open of the house of
a man named Partridge (about a quarter of a mile from the
Westgate Hotel in Newport), Frost was found and was
immediately taken into custody. On being searched, three
pistols all loaded, a powder flask, and some balls were
found in his pocket.

CHAPTER VIII

BEGINNING THE STUDY OF ENTOMOLOGY, COLLECTIONS OF
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, AND FAMILY
DISPERSAL.

So far as a date can be given to what has been the absorbing
interest of the work of my Hfe, the 12th of March, 1852,
would be about the beginning of my real study of Ento-
mology. I fancy I attended to it more than I knew myself,
for little things come back to memory connected with
specimens being brought to me to name or look at, one in
particular regarding a rare locust. The date was some time
before coaches were discontinued, and the usual gathering
of people in those days had collected at the door of the
George Hotel in Chepstow to see the coach change horses,
when, to the astonishment of all, a fine rose-underwinged
locust appeared amongst them. Chepstow is on a steep hill,
and the "George" about half a mile from the bridge (pi. xvii.).
Down the hill set off the locust, pursued by a party from
the George, until it was captured at the bridge, and our
family doctor conveyed it alive and uninjured to me. On
my father sending it up to Oxford to Professor Daubeney
as a probable curiosity, he identified it as being the first
of the kind which had been taken so far west. If he
gave us the name, I have forgotten it. In March I began
my studies by buying my first entomological book, and
I chose beetles for the subject, and Stephens's " Manual
of British Beetles " ^ for my teacher. Those who know the
book will understand my difficulties. It has no illustrations,
glossary, nor convenient abstracts to help beginners, and, if
such things existed in those days, they were not accessible
to me. But I made up my mind that I was going to learn,
and as palpiy maxillce, and names of all the smaller parts of

^ Manual of British Coleoptera, or Beetles, published by Longmans,
Green & Co., 1839. In Miss Ormerod's copy is a pencil note :
"J.F.S., died 1853."

53

54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. viii.

the insects were wholly unknown to me, I struck out a plan
of my own. From time to time I got one of the very largest
beetles that I could find, something that I was quite sure of,
and turned it into my teacher. I carefully dissected it and
matched the parts to the details of the description given by
Stephens. The process was very tedious and required great
care, but I got a sound foundation, and by making a kind
of synopsis of the chief points of classification I got a start.
To this day (1891) I have my old Stephens's Manual with
my own pencil markings, that started me on my unaided
course. Identification was very difficult for a long time,
but I ^Mooked out" my beetles laboriously till I thought I
was sure of the name, and then, to make quite certain, I
took the subject the other way forward — worked back
systematically from the species till I found that there was
no other kind that it could be. Killing my specimens was
another difficulty. I had been told that if beetles were
dropped into hot water death was instantaneous. I was
not aware that it should be boiling. So into the kitchen
I went with a water-beetle, which in after years I found
must have been Dytiscus marginalis — a large water-beetle
which has great powers of rapid swimming — got a tumbler
of hot water, and dropped my specimen in. But to my
perfect horror, instead of being killed instantaneously, it
skimmed round and round on the water for perhaps
a minute as if in the greatest agony. This was my
second lesson ; thenceforward I supplied myself with
chloroform.

My first experience in the use of the microscope was
gained by helping my brother William to prepare botanical
specimens for examination under his microscope. I thus
had useful practice early in life, 1849 (0^ ^^ ^^^ management
of a good instrument. I bought my own about 1864, after
my brother John's death — one of Pillischer's — a good
working instrument with excellent i-inch and ^-inch lenses
on a nose-piece. I first studied with it the hairs of different
animals. I also worked preparations of teeth, showing the
fluid contents when in a fresh state.

In the number of the ^'Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricul-
tural Gazette" for August i, 1868, the announcement was
made that " Throughout the month of August there will be
open in the Palace of Industry, in the Champs Elysees,
Paris, an Exhibition which we conceive cannot fail to be
of great service in extending a knowledge of the destructive

Chap, viil] STUDY OF ENTOMOLOGY 55

or beneficial habits of various species of insects. . . . The
Exhibition is organised by the ^Societe d'Insectologie
Agricole ' under the Presidency of Dr. Boisduval, one of
the Vice-Presidents of the Horticultural Society of Paris,
and under the auspices of the Minister of Agriculture,
Commerce, and Public Works. The object of this Society
(and consequently of the Exhibition itself) is twofold :
firstly, to investigate the economy and to extend the benefits
resulting from insects serviceable to mankind ; and secondly,
to study the habits of those species which affect our gardens,
orchards, farms or forests, in order to arrest their ravages or
destroy them individually."

Details were given at some length of the classes of subjects
to be represented, in the hope that it might attract the atten-
tion of the Council of our own Horticultural Society to the
desirability of arranging some similar exhibition, and, on
the 22nd of August following, the public were informed
(again in the ^'Gardeners' Chronicle," p. 893) that ''the
desideratum lately pointed out as falling within the province
of the Royal Horticultural Society to supply, viz., a Collec-
tion of Insects (and their products), is now in a fair way to
be made good." A short sketch was given of the plan on
which it was proposed to deal with the subject, in which
the " insect friends " of the horticulturist were the division
to be placed first. Following these were to be " gardeners'
enemies," and the plants on w^hich they feed ; next to these
again, " insects beneficial or injurious to man." Negotia-
tions on the part of the Council of the Royal Horticultural
Society with the Science and Art Department resulted in
the agreement that, if the Society would form the Collec-
tion, the Department would house, care for, and display it.
The eminently qualified Fellows of the Society, Mr. Wilson
Saunders, Mr. Andrew Murray (pp. 75 and 87), and Mr. M. ].
Berkeley, agreed to lend their best assistance in the matter,
and Mr. Murray, at the request of the Council, undertook
the most laborious part of the task — that of receiving,
arranging, and putting in order the various specimens that
might be sent from time to time. All collectors and
observers who might be willing to help were requested to
communicate with Mr. Murray, and without delay I availed
myself of the opportunity, in pleasant anticipation of the
entomological co-operation giving a use to what had been
previously somewhat desultory observation.

I was singularly well situated for the collection of ordinary
kinds of injurious insects, and for the observation of their

56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. viii.

workings, as I then resided on my father's Gloucestershire pro-
perty. The extent was not very great, only about 800 acres,
but the nature of both the land and the cultivation afforded
wonderful variety of material for commencing a collection.
The wood- and park-land included old timber trees in some
instances dating back to the time of the Edwards, and also
plenty of ordinary deciduous woodland and coppice. The
fir plantations supplied conifer-loving forest pests ; the
ordinary insects of crop and garden were of course plen-
tiful ; the woodland and field pools added their quota ; and
the diversity in exposure from the salt pasturage by the
Severn to the various growths up the face of the cHffs to
about 140 feet probably had something to do also with
the great variety of insect life. I had willing helpers
in the agricultural labourers — when they had made up
their minds whether they would assist or not. They had
always helped, for we were on very friendly terms, and
some of them or their children, like myself, had been
born on the estate. But, though I did not know it at the
time, I heard afterwards that when I asked for such special
help they held a sort of informal meeting to consult whether
it should be granted. Happily they settled that I was to be
helped because the rural counsel stated I made use of what
I got. The verdict was satisfactory in practical results, but
I had my own private opinion that what were sometimes
called ^^Miss Eleanor's shillings" helped the cause of
collection. From the commencement of work until my
father's death, when I ceased to have command of the
large area of ground, I collected and sent the results to
the charge of Mr. Murray. Communication was entirely
carried on by letter.

[N.B. — Miss Ormerod's work was gracefully acknowledged
by the Royal Horticultural Society awarding her the Floral
Medal (plate xxii.).]

Family Dispersal,

My father's last days were happy and painless, and were
passed in comfort under the attendance of my sisters and
myself, whom, in the failing condition of his powers of
exertion he preferred to all other society. We deeply
felt the happiness of ministering to his welfare, for he
would not hear of our leaving him for even twenty-four
hours, and he objected to visits from my brothers excepting
occasionally for a short time. They, not being used to the
gentle ways necessary for an aged invalid, worried him.

Chap, viil] FAMILY DISPERSAL 57

His last illness, however, was short. On the Monday pre-
ceding his decease he was able to come downstairs to his
nine o'clock breakfast as usual, and the Thursday following
— the 9th of October, 1873 — he passed gently away, at the
mature age of eighty-seven years.

He was succeeded in the property by his eldest son, the
Venerable Thos. Johnson Ormerod, Archdeacon of Suffolk,
and Rector of Redenhall-cum-Harleston, Norfolk, who had
held the post of Examining Chaplain to two bishops of
Norwich, Dr. Stanley and Dr. Hinds, and had been
requested to hold it once again by their successor, Dr.
Pelham. This however, he declined, not feeling disposed
in his own advancing age to continue in the laborious
though honourable office. On my father's death, my
brother resigned his living,^ and moved with his two
unmarried daughters to Sedbury. From his standing as a
clergyman of high position, who had long mixed in literary
society, and also as a country gentleman, it had been hoped
that he would make Sedbury a literary and county centre, as
it had been in my father's time. But his life was unex-
pectedly closed at the age of sixty-five by a sudden illness.
He died on 2nd December, 1874, and the property passed
to his eldest son, the Rev. G. T. B. Ormerod, then, or
shortly before, curate of Stroud.

[A short account of Miss Ormerod's brothers other than
the eldest above referred to — all men of ability and diligent
workers — will complete this chapter of family history.

"Two entered the Church ; the third brother, John, was
the holder of the Port Fellowship of Brasenose and bursar
of that college ; and the youngest, Arthur, spent his life in
parish work as Vicar of Halvergate, in Norfolk.

"The fifth brother, William, and the sixth, Edward, became
students at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to which institution
their uncle, Dr. Peter Mere Latham and his father. Dr. John
Latham, had been physicians. William's health failing, he
left London, and after a few years' practice at Oxford, where
he was surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary, he retired to
Canterbury, and there died at a comparatively early age.
Edward distinguished himself as a physician and as a
naturalist. He too was debarred by bad health from prac-
tising in London, but in Brighton he became physician to
the Sussex County Hospital, and was for many years the
leading consultant of the town. He wrote several excel-
* He had resigned the Archdeaconry in 1868.

58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. viii.

lent papers on medical subjects, and his monograph on
'* British Social Wasps " brought him the fellowship of the
Royal Society.

*^ The second brother, Wareing, and the fourth, Henry,
started as solicitors in Manchester. Wareing left Man-
chester for Devonshire, living first at Chagford, on the
borders of Dartmoor, and afterwards at Teignmouth.
Geology was his favourite study. He compiled the Index
for the publications of the Geological Society, of which he
was a fellow, and he made many contributions to its
journal.

^' Henry Mere Ormerod continued to practise as a solicitor
in Manchester till his death in 1898. He also managed his
father's Lancashire estates, and to him the other members
of his family turned for legal and for practical advice. He
was a churchwarden of the Collegiate Church, now the
Cathedral, trustee of various important charities, active in
all good movements, proud to be of Lancashire origin and
a Manchester man. He possessed extensive knowledge and
most varied interests. His collections of books, china, and
prints were remarkable ; and in such subjects as archaeology,
genealogy, architecture, geology, and certain branches of
natural history he was an expert. It was he who presented
to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in accordance with the
wishes of his father, the author's copy of the * History of
Cheshire.' "]

Extract from Ormerod's "History of Cheshire," vol. hi. page
450 (1ST edition), relative to the Original of Pl. xviii. Opposite.

"P. 238, Nantwich Hospital. The author has in his possession a
singularly curious oak chest which he purchased at Erdswick Hall. It
had been bought by the tenant at a sale at Hulgreve Hall (an estate of
the Astons, who participated in the division of the religious spoil at the
Reformation), and it was traditionally said to have come from this
hospital. It appears to have been one of the chests used to keep
vestments and chalices, &c., in, and is about two feet broad, by five in
length, and two feet nine inches in height ; at each end are two
compartments, and in front five, all of which except the central one are
sumptuously carved in imitation of rich Gothic windows with canopies,
crockets, finials, buttresses, and shrine work. The centre represents
the coronation of Henry VI., and the single rose occurs over the fleur-
de-lis in the ornaments. The chest is figured in Plate 44 of 'Specimens
of Gothic Architecture in England,' by Augustus Pugin, 1822 ; and
a description is given at page 27.

"A chest, of a description precisely corresponding with it, was
recently offered for sale at Liverpool, with the Brereton painted glass,
and described as having been formerly the church chest at Ashton-
under-Lyne."

CHAPTER IX

COMMENCEMENT AND PROGRESS OF ANNUAL REPORTS OF
OBSERVATIONS OF INJURIOUS INSECTS

In the spring of 1877 I issued a short pamphlet of seven
pages, entitled ^' Notes for Observations of Injurious Insects/'^
in which I suggested how much a series of observations in
relation to insect ravages on food crops was to be desired ;
this not merely for scientific purposes, but with a view' to
finding means of lessening the amount of yearly loss w^hich
tells so heavily on individual growers, and also on the
country at large. I pointed out shortly that many insect
attacks could be remedied, if attention were directed to the
subject ; and also that many would probably be found, if
reliable information could be procured, to be coincident
with multiplication or diminution of insect life. On the
way in which this increase and decrease w^ere affected by
surroundings, such as plants, &c., suitable for food or
shelter ; by agricultural conditions, such as drainage, nature
of the soil and of manures ; and also by the state of the
weather — I gave some guiding notes, and requested in-
formation from agriculturists and entomologists, who were
both practically and scientifically qualified to aid in the
matter. I also added some short remarks as to the nature
of the entomological observations desired ; as of date,
and amount of appearance of larvae (grubs) ; amount of
injury caused ; and any other points of use and interest that
might occur to the observer. And further (as some sort of
assistance in the commencement of the plan of campaign) I
gave a list of about eighteen of our commonest crop, fruit,
and forest insects, with short descriptions in the very plainest
words I could use, in most cases accompanied by illustrations.
As my name was then little before the public, although
I had worked on entomology for a good many years,

* Miss Ormerod had been a contributor to scientific literature for
some years before this date. Writing in 1900 she says : — " My first
regular paper was printed in the Journal of Linn. Soc, vol. xi., No. 56,
Zoology, July 18, 1873, on The Cutaneous Exudation of the * Triton
cristatus.' I think it is sound and unusual ! "

59

6o AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ix.

I requested permission of two of my scientihc friends, the
Rev. T. A. Preston, one of the masters of Marlborough
College, and much interested in phenology (i.e., observation
of natural phenomena) ; and Mr. E. A. Fitch, Secretary of
the Entomological Society, to allow me to add their names
as referees. To this they kindly consented, but with the
stipulation from Mr. Preston that he did not wish to
co-operate further. I believe 1 may say with regard to Mr.
Fitch such a very small amount of communication took
place that it would not have been worth while to mention
the matter, excepting pro forma, on account of the names
being recorded. These were soon removed from succeed-
ing reports as unnecessary. The pamphlet was widely cir-
culated and the request for observations was responded to far
more cordially than could have been expected. Notes
regarding insect appearances, together with observations
of their habits, and of practicable methods of prevention,
were forwarded by observers — who were qualified both as
technically scientific and practical workers — from localities
scattered over the country as far north as Aberdeenshire in
Scotland and south to Hants and Devonshire in England.
In fact the communications were quite sufficient to show that
the plan was approved of from an agricultural point of view,
and might be continued hopefully. In after years I was
told that it was very well received by the press. I have been
greatly indebted since both to the agricultural and general
press, but at the time it did not seem to me to be peculiarly
warmly welcomed, nor I think was it likely to be, until it
had more to say for itself. The pamphlet was not of many
pages ; the knowledge of the great mischief caused by insect
pests, and the need of prevention of their ravages, was
not spread abroad as at the present day, and I was not able
at first to utilise to the best advantage the information sent
as I had no working reports of my own to help me as to
examples of the best methods of arrangement. ^

^ To such of my readers as possess some portion only of the early
series, it may be of interest to point out that the observations, up to
those for 1880 inclusive, were arranged, not as afterwards, as detached
papers, placed alphabetically under the heading of the names of the
crops to which they referred, but under the numbers given in the
successive preceding guide lists issued for the use of observers — as for
instance, "6, Anthoniyia ceparum, Onion fly;" or "25, Abraxas grossu-
lariata, Magpie moth " (fig. 9).

These were arranged numerically, from " i " onwards, all the observa-
tions on one kind of insect attack being arranged successively in a
long unbroken paragraph under the selected number, together with
the name of the pest. For want of better knowledge of the requisites

Chap, ix.] ANNUAL REPORTS 6i

From the first I had excellent contributions. Various
members of our Entomological Societies were good enough
to send me notes on insects to which they devoted special
study, and so also were members of the Meteorological
Society, regarding points of natural history, bird life,
weather, &c,, connected with entomological considerations,
and regarding which they were special observers. Agricul-
turally I had good help also from other quarters, and
amongst many who assisted me, I will take leave to
especially give the name of the late Mr. Malcolm Dunn, the
Duke of Buccleuch's superintendent at the Palace Gardens,
Dalkeith, N.B. We never met, but whenever I applied to
him he was unfailing in prompt and serviceable reply. As
a commencement, the introductions with which he favoured
me to the leading foresters and horticulturists of North
Britain, were of such invaluable aid that I should be
ungrateful not to mention his name as of one to whom I
owe a deep debt of gratitude.

In the report for the year 1881 I altered the plan of
arrangement to one which so far as I can judge met all that
was needed for practical as well as scientific service so con-
veniently that I have since adhered to it. The information
was classed under headings of {a) farm crops, (6) orchard
and bush fruits, and (c) forest trees, regarding which obser-
vations of insect attack were forwarded. These headings
were arranged alphabetically, for instance : Apple, Bean,
Corn and Grass, Hop, Oak, Peas, Pine, Turnip, &c., &c.
Any information as to live-stock or animal insect pests
was similarly placed (that is, alphabetically) amongst the
other attacks, under the headings of Deer, Grouse, Horses,
&c., &c., as the case might be ; but beyond what was abso-
lutely necessary, as in the case of Ox warble, I endeavoured
to avoid entering on stock infestations as leading to investi-
gations very unpleasant to myself either to make or to
discuss, and very much better left in the hands of veterinary

for a readable as well as useful report, I condensed the informa-
tion into as few words as possible, with few, if any, breaks in the
long paragraphs, and so, until 1880, . the results (excepting to
technical readers) could not be considered "taking." If any of my
entomological readers will turn to a very useful work, the Forst
Zoologie, of Dr. Bernard Altum, they will see in the second
division of the "Insecten" at pp. 36, 37, and again at pp. 162, 163, the
difficulties that are thrown in the way of comfortably grasping the
subject, by the matter being printed continuously without breaks.
This, however, as well as many other things, I had then still to learn.
(E.A.O.) ^

62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ix.

surgeons. Following each heading, the observations were
placed which had been contributed during the season, and
which appeared to be of sufficient interest to be recorded,
regarding the special crop, or fruit, &c., referred to, these
being given with locality and date, as far as possible in
the contributor's words, and over his own name, unless
by request, or for some special reason. This plan of giving
the very fullest recognition possible of the source of the
information, I, for three very special reasons, most strongly
recommend to the consideration of all my readers not fully
accustomed to practical reporting :

T. That thus the information may very often carry
conviction with it by the name of some well-known agricul-
turist or cattle-breeder being appended.

2. That to do otherwise is a robbery of the credit of the
contributor, and a false appropriation of it by the reporter,
wholly unbecoming an honest worker.

3. That the full recognition is a great protection to the
reporter or compiler of the reports from plagiarism of
his own work. There are people who think nothing of
appropriating the credit of true workers, and who absorb
also rewards in the shape of salaries and official position
based on their own questionable conduct.

In the year 1881 it seemed desirable to change the
running heading at the top of the pages. The name of the
crop, fruit, or other subject to which the paper referred was
henceforward placed at the top of the left-hand page, and
the name of each successive attack to it at the top of the
right-hand page ; as, for instance, Cabbage at the left side,
and the different kinds of infestations recorded during the
year which might occur to Cabbage, as Cabbage butterfly
(large white), Cabbage-root fly, Cabbage moth, on the
right-hand heading. At the beginning of each paper, the
name of the crop, or fruit, was given in large capitals, and
beneath and at the heading of each successive paper, the
name of the injurious insect to be referred to, also in
English, with the scientific name, and authority for the
same following. The observations of contributors were
inserted unbroken, so that the methods of prevention and
remedy noted as successful by each observer were thus
recorded in connection with the accompanying peculiarities
of cultivation, soil, manure, weather, &c. The whole life-
history of the insect, so far as known or accessible, was given,
and sometimes, as in great attacks or in special circum-
stances, a " summary " of the preceding recorded informa-

Chap, ix.] ANNUAL REPORTS 63

tion ; this being, wherever possible, followed by some para-
graphs or pages of *' Methods of Prevention and Remedy."

In matters of phraseology, selection of the very plainest
and shortest words that I could choose was part of my
plan, and after the first few years I exchanged the short
table of contents for a plain working index.

Illustration always appeared to me a very important part
of the work, so that readers might start with the knowledge
of the appearance of the insects under consideration, gained
by a glance at the accompanying figure, without having
the trouble of trying to form a kind of ^'mind picture"
from the descriptions given, often very unlike the true
object. I At first — in the small beginning — the numbers
needed were also small, and I think the little stock of figure
blocks with which I started, and for which I was indebted
to the kind courtesy of a friend, amounted to one dozen !
This matter, however, I set right as soon as possible by the
purchase from Messrs. Blackie & Sons, of Glasgow, of
electros of most of the beautiful wood engravings given in
Curtis's *^ Farm Insects," under an agreement that the
accommodation was granted on condition of my using the
figures only in my own publications. Some of the illustra-
tions I drew myself on the blocks, and as time went on, and
infestations, little or not at all entered on before, required illus-
tration, I engaged the valuable assistance of two brothers,^
which was continued thenceforward throughout the work.
It appears to me that it is hardly possible to exceed the
beauty of their work, whether in characteristic representa-
tion or in precise and accurate details. I have had great
pleasure in the entomological approval which has been
bestowed upon it. Illustrations from other sources have of
course been used, always, so far as I am aware, most care-
fully acknowledged ; and so far as has been in my power, I
have endeavoured that the illustration of each infestation
should show the insect (where it was possible to do so)
in each of its successive stages of life, as of the caterpillar or
maggot (scientifically the larva) ; the chrysalis (ptipa) ; and
the perfect insect, butterfly, beetle, sawfly, &c., as the
case might be. This matter is of great importance agricul-
turally, for how else (it may be asked) in common circum-
stances, excepting by a good, plain illustration, is a farmer

* This consideration induced the Editor to introduce many figures of
insects into the chapters of correspondence in the present volume.

=" Messrs. Horace Knight and E. C. Knight, of the staff of Messrs
West, Newman & Co., 54, Hatton Garden, London.

64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ix.

or fruit-grower to know what the connection is between the
grubs and maggots which he finds underground or on his
trees and the moths or beetles which he may notice in his
fields or orchards. To give a single instance, how seldom
the grey, cylindrical, legless grubs of the Daddy Longlegs
are known to have anything to do with the large, gnat-like,
two-winged flies which are to be seen floating over our
grass-fields in legions where the larvae have been destroying
underground. And so the work went on, and I believe that
I may say that — from the great amount of useful information
contributed, together with my own co-operation in entomo-
logical verification, adding requisite details, publishing the
year's communications, and distributing them to my contri-
butors — it answered fairly the purpose for which it was set
on foot. And year by year we gained knowledge till we
possessed serviceable information on the main points, both
of habits and means of prevention of the greater number of
our really seriously injurious farm, orchard, and forest pests
of Britain.

Those who wish to investigate in detail the various kinds
of infestation noticed during the first twenty-two years of
my observations will find them in ^^ The General Index to
my Annual Reports on Injurious Insects, 1 877-1 898," com-
piled at my request by Mr. Robert Newstead.^ In this index
the insects are arranged alphabetically under their popular and
also under their scientific names, with references to the various
Annual Reports in which notices of their observation are
recorded, or papers given on them, and also of the pages in
each paper containing information on their habits and
history and means of prevention. Lists are also given of
crops and plants, stock, &c., affected. The index thus
affords a fair summary of the advance of our knowledge
of crop infestation during the years referred to.^

In the year 1881 I published a digest of the information

^ Curator of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.

=* On November 26, 1899, Miss Ormerod wrote to Mr. Newstead : —
, " I am delighted with our index— the more I examine it the better I
like it. Some acknowledgments have come in already, and they are
most pleasantly cordial. All are delighted to have such a good reference
work . . . One recipient suggests the index would be more serviceable
to him if he had a complete set of my reports ! He absolutely enclosed
a list of deficiencies, but I thought he had best buy, and only sent him
that for 1896."

Other letters she wrote about the index '' were on much the same
lines, and one refers to the cordial letter received from the Board of
Agriculture " (Ed.).

Chap, ix.] ANNUAL REPORTS 65

sent in up to date in an octavo volume of 323 pages, very
fully illustrated, entitled ^'Manual of Injurious Insects, with
Methods of Prevention and Remedy"; and in 1890 I
followed this by a much enlarged demy-octavo second
edition of 450 pages, bearing the same title. In 1898, under
the title of ^^ Handbook of Insects Injurious to Orchard and
Bush Fruits, \vith Means of Prevention and Remedy,"
pp. 280, I included the special observations on fruit infes-
tations which had been sent me. In 1900 I published
a pamphlet (also illustrated) entitled '' Flies Injurious to
Stock " (pp. 80), [p. 304] giving reports of observations of life
history and habits, and also of means of prevention of a few
kinds of infestation. These were given as shortly as they
could serviceably be dealt with, excepting in the case of the
Warble fly, Hypoderma hovis. Into this it appeared desir-
able to enter more fully, it having been under my
observation since the year 1884, and having been carefully
written on in every detail of habits and means of preven-
tion, as observed by my contributors and myself in this
country.

Besides the above publications, I arranged, for gratuitous
circulation, various four-page leaflets on our commonest
farm pests. Each contained an illustration and as much
information as I could manage to condense into the limited
space. Among the subjects discussed wxre the widely des-
tructive Wireworm and equally destructive grubs of the
Daddy Longlegs or Cranefly, the Mangold-leaf maggot, the
Mustard beetle, the minute Stem eel-worm (which causes the
malformed growth of cereal plants known as " tulip root "
and does much harm in clover shoots), the Warble fly and
the troublesome Forest fly. Our recent investigations have
proved this last to be present in two other districts at least,
besides the New Forest and its vicinity in Hampshire, to
which previously it had been supposed to be almost limited
(p. 138). For the leaflet on the Warble fly, its history, and
easily practicable methods of prevention and remedy, there
has been such a large demand that various issues have been
successively printed amounting to 170,000 copies, including
15,000 copies which the Messrs. Murray, of Aberdeen,
requested permission to print at their own cost.

The original plan (or rather that w^hich gradually formed
in the first few years) of arrangement of the Annual Reports
appeared to meet all requirements, so long as the require-
ments of the case remain unaltered. Year after year such
information as had been asked for was sent, gradually

6

66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. ix.

completing most of the histories of our seriously injurious
crop and orchard insects, but in the report for 1899 it was
requisite to make some arrangement for insertion of dis-
connected additional observations of appearance, habits,
&c., of insects, previously referred to. These I gave
accordingly in an appendix under the heading of *' Short
Notices," not to encumber the report with repetitions that
could be avoided.

In 1901, when about to publish my report of observa
tions of the preceding year, it appeared to me that a large
proportion of the new information contributed bore on
points of scientific entomological interest, or of occasional
appearance of little observed attacks of very little interest
or use to the majority of our agriculturists and orchard
growers, and quite foreign to the broad scale consideration
of pests, which was the object of these reports. It seemed
something more than n/^necessary to continue this work,
and I, therefore, inserted the following notice in the preface
of my Annual Report for 1900, thus closing the series with
the closing century : —

'^ But now, although with much regret, I am obliged to say
that I feel the time has come for discontinuing this series of
Annual Reports. When I commenced the work in 1877,
comparatively little was known of the habits and means of
prevention of insects seriously injurious to our crops, and
of this little a very small amount was accessible for public
service, and I undertook the series of reports in the hope
(so far as in my power lay) of doing something to meet
both these difficulties. Firstly, by endeavouring to gain
reliable information of the kind needed ; and secondly, by
publishing this, with all requisite additions, and especially
with illustrations, at a price far below the publication
expenses, so that it might be accessible to all who wished
to purchase, but especially by sending a copy of each
Annual Report to each contributor who had favoured me
with useful information. It seemed to be but right and
fair that those who kindly helped in the work should have
their courtesy acknowledged to the best of my power, and
I have continued the reciprocation throughout. But the
work was hard ; for many years for about five or six months
all the time I could give to the subject was devoted to
arranging the contributions of the season for the Annual
Report of the year, with the addition of the best informa-
tion I could procure from other sources (in every case,
whether of contributors or otherwise, fully acknowledged).

Chap, ix.] ANNUAL REPORTS 67

As the consultation enquiries were kept up during winter
as well as summer, I found the work, carried on single-
handed, at times very fatiguing. But so long as there
appeared to be a call for it, I have tried to do what I could.
Now, however, the necessities of the case have (as a matter
of course) been gradually changing. Year after year in-
formation has been sent, gradually completing the histories
of most of our worst insect pests, and now additional
information is rare (as is to be expected after twenty-four
years' observations) on points of great agricultural im-
portance.

" I claim no credit to myself in the work ; but those who
will look over the names of the contributors, given with
their information, will see how deeply indebted I am to
them, and to other good friends, who have placed their
experience and great knowledge at the public service. To
them, and to all who have assisted me, and to some who
have allowed what began as agricultural communications to
ripen into valuable friendship, 1 offer my grateful thanks
and my deep appreciation of their goodness, and I trust
they will believe that if, as I well know, much of my work
has not been so well done as it would have been in better
qualified hands, at least I have earnestly tried to do my
very best.''^

On the publication of the above-mentioned report, I
received many kind letters from friends, and I was much
gratified by the press allusions on the matter. These,
obviously, it would not be desirable for me to do more
here than just allude to generally, with my thanks.^

' Preface to "Twenty-fourth Report of Observations of Injurious
Insects." By E. A. Ormerod, LL.D., p. vii.
' See Appendix B.

CHAPTER X

SAMPLES OF LEGAL EXPERIENCES

It was a good many years after my name had been
before the pubHc as an official Consulting Entomologist
that I began occasionally to receive applications to furnish
what is called '* expert" evidence regarding insect infesta-
tion of live crops, or of cargoes of flour. To work this
properly, and without risk of being confused under
examination by the host of questions, relevant or irrele-
vant, and, of course, made purposely perplexing by the
legal representatives of the opposing side of the case,
involved a most inconvenient amount of research and
also of mental strain. It was necessary to keep all points
in any way likely to be referred to, classed in order in
the mind, and available instantaneously without hurry
or confusion ; and sometimes also necessary in helping
non-entomological cross-examiners so to formulate their
questions as to admit of any answer being given.

My first experience of anything of this kind was in
July, 1889, when I received a copy of a letter written by
myself on September 20th of the previous year relative to
a certain insect attack, of which specimens, together with
samples of the infested plants, had then been sent me.
This letter was accompanied by an enquiry whether I
could swear to the accuracy of my statements. This, of
course, I had no doubts about. It was a perfectly simple
case, and I replied accordingly. The result was that one
morning before luncheon my sister came into my room in
perplexity, and announced that there was a " young man " in
my study who wanted to speak to me, but who he was,
or where he came from, or anything except that it was
just for a minute that he wished to see me, nobody had
been able to make out. I believe I guessed pretty well
the nature of the mysterious business ; but, as for explana-
tion, the young man was perfectly impenetrable, excepting

68

Chap, x.] LEGAL EXPERIENCES 69

on two points. One that he was to give me a paper which
I accepted, and next that he was to give me some small
amount of money, which I also accepted, not knowing
whether any other course was open to me. As this was the
first (and also last) case of a subpoena being served on me, I
do not know whether the immense reticence is part of the
business, or whether the server is possibly in danger of bad
language or unpleasant treatment, but certainly the visitor
appeared very uneasy, and took himself off as soon as
possible. On examining the paper I found it called me to
give evidence on the side of the defendants, which was
a little awkward, as after due investigation of details I found
that the entomological circumstances would give the case
for the plaintiffs. It ran as follows : —

** In the High Court of Justice between Thomas Wilkin-
son, Plaintiff, and The Houghton Main Colliery Company,
Limited, Defendants. Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen,
Defender of the Faith, to Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, of
Torrington House, St. Albans, in the County of Herts.
Greeting. — We command you to attend before our Justices
assigned to take the assizes in and for the West Riding
Division of the County of York to be holden at Leeds
on Wednesday the 24th day of July, 1889, at the hour of
ten in the forenoon and so from day to day during the said
assizes until the above cause is tried to give evidence on
behalf of the Defenders, &c."

On the back of the document was inscribed (name and
address given) that the writ was issued by the London
Agents of J. Parker Rhodes, of Rotherham, Yorkshire,
defendants' solicitor. I felt myself very unpleasantly
situated, more particularly as one of my legal brothers
assured me that I should make myself (or be made) quite
ridiculous in Court, but I did not see the matter quite in
this light, for I was sure of my facts. I explained to the
solicitor for the defendants that if put in the witness box I
must support the cause of the plaintiff. The case was then
withdrawn and costs allowed to the plaintiff.

Ten years afterwards I was employed by Messrs. Ross T.
Smyth and Co., 33, Mark Lane, London, E.C. The case
was entered on March 9, 1899, and the matter in question
was alleged infestation of a cargo of flour, transmitted from
New York, U.S.A., to Durban, S. Africa. I gave evidence
on oath here, Torrington House, St. Albans, on October 20,
1899, before Mr. E. K. Blyth (of Messrs. Blyth, Dutton,

70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. x.

Hartley and Blyth), appointed a Commissioner of the High
Court of Natal, to take my evidence in the cause of Smyth
V. Findlay. On Tuesday the 24th following, Mr. E. K.
Blyth attended with depositions w^hich I read and signed
in his presence. Subjoined is a copy of my ^' Report on
Insect Presence," and also an extract from a confirmatory
report made by Mr. Oliver Janson doubly confirrrfed by the
report of a representative of the Department of Agriculture,
Division of Entomology, Washington : —

" I have examined the contents of the box and bottle this
day submitted to me from yourselves, the bottle being under
seal of Messrs. Randle Brothers and Hudson, Durban,
Natal, &c., &c. I made my examination both with hand
magnifiers and microscope and found that in the very
small amount of insect presence in the w^heat flour and
in the spirit or preservative fluid, there were two kinds
of beetles represented. One of these was the TriholUnn
fernigineuju, popularly know^n as the Rusty-red flour
beetle (fig. 70). This is a small red-brown, or yellowish-red-
brown, beetle, about a sixth of an inch long, somewhat
parallel-sided and narrow in proportion to its length; the
wing-cases striated longitudinally, and the antennae (or
horns) with a three-jointed club at the extremity. I
found this beetle present in all its stages of development ;
that is, as a comparatively long and narrow larva (grub or
maggot) ; in the chrysalis (pupa) state, in which it resembles
the beetle with its limbs folded beneath it until development
is complete ; and the perfect beetles.

*^ I also found one specimen of what is called the Cadelle
in larval (grub or maggot) state. This is a pitchy-coloured
beetle, Trogosita maiiritanica or Tenehroides maiiritanicuSy
rather larger than the kind above named, being about four
times longer. I examined the whole amount of insect
infestation sifted in my presence from the wheat flour
under consideration or taken out of the bottle of preserva-
tive fluid, and in the very small amount of insect presence
observable, I found nothing else to w^hich the slightest
degree of importance could be attached. In reply to the
inquiry submitted to me, as to the possibility of the bags
of wheat flour under consideration having been infested
when they w^ere shipped from New York, on or about
July the 5th, 1898 ; I can state that I fully believe the
flour could not then have been infested, as in such
case — consequent on the well-known exceedingly favour-
able conditions for multiplication of insect presence,

Chap, x.] LEGAL EXPERIENCES 71

through which the bags of flour would pass during the
voyage — there would certainly by the date of arrival at
Durban, on or about September 14th, have been so great
an amount of infestation in all stages, that it could not
have been overlooked. And by the further dates named,
in the following October and November, it would have been
overwhelming. The exceedingly high temperatures through
which the shipment would pass are known to be very
favourable to rapid propagation of successive genera-
tions of Tribolium. It is to be borne in mind that
the infestation does not lie in a torpid state, but after
hatching from the tgg (sometimes inaccurately called
the " germ "), which soon occurs in high temperatures,
it passes through the changes from larva (or grub) to
chrysalis, and beetle condition more or less quickly accord-
ing to warmth of locality ; and then the male and female
beetles pair, and in the ordinary course die, in the case of
the female after egg-laying. Examination of the condition
of the flour, had infestation been present, would have shown
not only the living infestation, but also the dead bodies
of the previous generations of beetles, which being of a hard
and horny nature externally, would not have decayed in the
flour.

" Further, not only is great warmth favourable to increase of
Trtboliimi, but also the conditions, when flour is placed in
bags and left unopened for any length of time, are especially
suited to their propagation. I can also state that the effect
of Tribolium infestation on flour is such that its presence
even to a small amount could not be unobserved, and these
characteristics were wholly absent in the flour submitted to
me. To the best of my knowledge and belief I consider it
to be absolutely and demonstrably impossible that the
infestation regarding which the inquiry is now before me
could have been shipped from New York, and after the
most careful examination and investigation which I am able
to make, I consider that the infestation took place after the
arrival of the flour at Durban.

" May I, in addition to the above opinion, be permitted to
suggest to you that as this investigation is one of great
importance, it might be satisfactory to yourselves if you
were also to submit the samples, which I have re-secured
under my own seal, to Mr. Oliver E. Janson, F.E.S., as
being a skilled entomologist, and so well qualified by
personal observation and scientific knowledge of the
Coleoptera (beetles), to give a correct opinion in the present

72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Chap. x.

matter, that I should consider him to be the most thoroughly
trustworthy English referee."

Mr. Janson's report was as follows : —

^* Having carefully examined the specimens of insects
submitted to me under seal of Miss E. A. Ormerod, and
stated to have been found in the accompanying sample of
flour, named ^ Radiant/ ' Strathness/ also the specimens
of insects, &c. &c., I identify them as the coleopterous
insect, known scientifically as Trlbolium ferrugiiieiiin, in its
various stages of larva (grub), pupa (chrysalis), and imago
(beetle). I also find a single specimen of Trogosita
maiirltanica. . . In considering the important question as
to origin of the infestation, I am of opinion that the
evidence afforded clearly indicates the origin of the infesta-
tion to have been subsequent to the arrival of the flour at
Durban."

[The case never came to trial, but the unanimity of the
expert opinion enabled Messrs. Ross T. Smith & Co. to
effect a compromise on terms they were willing to accept.]

The following letter addressed to us by Mr. Wm. Simpson
of Messrs. R. & H. Hall, Limited, of Cork, Dublin,
Belfast and Waterford, shows a similar satisfactory termina-
tion to a case in which granary weevils had done serious
damage to a cargo of flour from San Francisco.

^* Westport, Feb. 6, 1900. Dear Madam, — Perhaps you
have not quite forgotten my visit to you in early summer
of last year when I submitted for your inspection a sample
of flour with weevil infestation from a cargo landed here.
It will I am sure interest you to know that we have just
settled the case out of Court by the owners of the vessel
paying us ;£9oo and our costs. We are pleased that the
matter is thus ended, but I cannot forbear from again
thanking you for all the attention and help you gave us in
the case and which was to us of the greatest value. Yours
very truly, (Sgd) Wm. Simpson."

CHAPTER XI

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR

The removal of Miss Ormerod and her sister, Georgiana,
from Torquay to Spring Grove, Isleworth, was primarily
because Torquay did not suit their health and secondarily
because at Isle worth they were near Kew Gardens, where
they were on intimate terms with Sir Joseph and Lady
Hooker. They left again for Torrington House, St. Albans,
in September, 1887, partly because Sir Joseph resigned the
Directorship of Kew Gardens in 1885 and partly because of
the increase of population, and the defective and unwhole-
some drainage of the house. In a letter (p. 74) to Dr.
Bethune, one of her esteemed Canadian correspondents,
she refers to her impending change of residence.

DuNSTER Lodge, Spring Grove, Isleworth.

August 7, 1887.
" My dear Mr. Bethune,— I have very often lately been
hoping to hear of your safe arrival, and I am very glad to
hear of it ; but I am so sorry that I cannot have the great
pleasure of seeing you to-morrow, for I have to be at St.
Albans to meet a number of people on business from noon
till 4 p.m. This is a great disappointment to me, for I (we)
had much looked forward to a chat with you. I am long-
ing to hear of my kind friends in Canada and especially of
Mr. Fletcher and Professor Saunders, and I want much to
ask you how to transmit so much of a set of my entomolo-
gical publications as I can get together for acceptance by
the Entomological Society of Ontario. ^ I cannot tell you

' The Entomological Society of Ontario was originated by Dr.
Saunders and Dr. Bethune nearly forty years ago. Its headquarters
are in London, Ontario, and it has branches in Toronto, Montreal and
Quebec. Its publications are the monthly Canadian Entomologist, now
in its thirty-fifth volume, and thirty-three annual reports to the Legisla-
ture of Ontario on Noxious and Beneficial Insects. Miss Ormerod was
an Honorary Member.

73

74 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xi.

how much I respect and admire the working of that noble
Society, and I feel myself greatly honoured by being elected
one of its members. Hessian fly (fig. 15) is indeed becoming
a scourge — and the work is enormous — it is a different story
now to when I was so roundly sneered at last year for think-
ing it had come. If we had our grand Entomological
Society of Ontario here things might have been very
different. I trust you may be able to spare, if only
one hour to give us just time to confer a little on your
return. I would put aside any ordinary engagement for the
pleasure and also the benefit of an entomological conver-
sation. But now about my sister and myself. This place is
fast becoming very unsuitable for us — you will know all that
is involved in the rapid increase of the outskirts of London
— and we have a notice of most of our garden going to be
offered for sale next year for small building plots. There-
fore we are making arrangements to move about the end of
next month to St. Albans. We have many good friends and
fellow-workers there or near, and the place is very healthy,
and very accessible both for London and the country, and
I can, I trust, do my work much more fully there."

Of Miss Ormerod Lady Hooker has written : ^' When
she was our neighbour during our residence at Kew,
she w^as a frequent visitor at our house and often came in
the morning before public hours to the Gardens, to pursue
her researches and look for the insects to be found on the
trees, shrubs and plants ; on these occasions she generally
lunched with us and we delighted in her bright and in-
tellectual conversation. She was extremely fond of animals
and birds, and could imitate the* calls of the animals and the
notes of many birds so perfectly that she could collect
the creatures around her ; it was curious to see the squirrels
peep out from the trees when she called to them and
venture to her feet for the nuts she scattered for them. Her
observation was always on the alert and she saw many minute
things in nature that others would have passed by. She
was a fine artist — and so w^as her sister. Miss G. Ormerod.
At one time my husband was needing some drawings made
for the Botanical Magazine and she offered her services and
drew three or four very beautifully."

Lady Hooker made a practice of inviting Miss
Ormerod and her sister to come over and help to enter-
tain distinguished visitors at great functions and on the
occasion of visits of official scientific parties. On one

Chap, xl] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 75

occasion the whole Chinese Embassy, excepting the
Ambassador himself, came in Chinese costume. Miss
Ormerod asked permission of Lady Hooker to speak to the
Naturalist, who talked English very well. The information
elicited however was but trifling, amounting to the fact that
in China a yellow powder (probably flowers of sulphur) was
used to dress plants to ward off disease. She suggested tea
as an escape from a disappointing position and then
adjourned to the tea-room followed by the whole Embassy.
The Entomologist took tea, but another minor member
of the group, being reputed at times to indulge in
potations to which the hosts were not accustomed, gave
great cause for anxiety by taking possession of a wine
bottle. Miss Ormerod was successful in spiriting the bottle
away and in substituting a cup of tea, but great was her
relief when Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker arrived on the scene.
At Kew she also met Andrew Murray, Secretary of the
Royal Horticultural Society, who did excellent work in
Economic Entomology for the Bethnal Green and South
Kensington Museums. Miss Ormerod described him as a
^* profoundly scientific and intellectual man."

An interesting instance of the widespread benefit of Miss
Ormerod's work and the affection with which her name and
personality were revered by her distant correspondents was
supplied by Dr. Lipscomb, her trusted medical attendant.
He says : —

" My sister was talking to a small market gardener in a
flower garden she was painting near Penzance, and Miss
Ormerod's name happened to be mentioned. The old
gardener was beside himself with delight to meet some one
who knew Miss Ormerod. He said she had saved him
from utter ruin. His flowers had become infected with
some injurious insect which bade fair to devastate the whole
garden. In despair, hearing of Miss Ormerod, he wrote to
her and not only received a kind letter of advice, but also
a copy of her work on injurious Insects' with the page
turned down and the paragraphs specially applicable to the
case marked. No wonder the poor old chap with tears in
his eyes said he loved his unknown benefactress."

Miss Ormerod was appointed Consulting Entomologist to
the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1882, and
for ten years retained that honourable position to the
advantage of the Members and the British public generally.

76 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xi.

The need of a Consulting Entomologist was forcibly
brought home to the Society, then under the presidency of
Mr. J. Dent-Dent, by the disastrous attack in 1881 of the
Turnip fly, or more correctly flea beetle, which resulted in an
estimated loss of over half a million sterling to farmers in
England and Scotland. Leading agriculturists all over
the country, but more from the East than the West, supplied
information for a report, and special assistance was given
by some members of the Royal Agricultural Society, in-
cluding Mr. J. H. Arkwright of Hampton Court, Hereford-
shire. The results were embodied in the Annual Report
for 1881, published in 1882.

A short time after this event a request was made
to Miss Ormerod to indicate whether she would accept
the post of Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agri-
cultural Society. Urged by Mr. Charles Whitehead,
Chairman of the ''Seeds and Plant Diseases Committee,"
and by her intimate personal friend Professor Herbert
Little, another member of the Council, she accepted,
but with hesitation and with considerable reluctance,
engendered by the opposition of her sister Georgiana, who
believed her strength was not equal to the strain of addi-
tional work. The meeting with members of the Council
at the Society's offices, 12, Hanover Square, London, at
which details were discussed, was unusually trying, in spite
of the kindly courtesy of the Secretary (Mr. H. M. Jenkins)
for whom Miss Ormerod entertained the deepest regard.
She says, writing in 1900, '' I was nearly frightened out
of my wits in going through the requested ordeal, and
the recollections of the experiences remain as uniquely
unpleasant. On arriving, I gave my card to the attendant,
who led me upstairs, where I expected to meet but two
or three people, and I was ushered into a room full of
gentlemen standing waiting my arrival, not one of whom
except Professor Little was known to me even by sight.
I advanced about two feet, my sole thought being of the
awkward fix in which I had so suddenly been landed,
and how I should get out of it. Scarcely a word was
spoken when I was led down again to the Secretary's
room, where a discussion took place with Professor Little,
Mr. Whitehead, the Secretary, and the President of the
Society, — the others remained absent. In the discussion
the President attempted a slight examination of my qualifi-
cations, but it amounted to little more than eliciting the
length of time during which attention had been devoted to

Chap, xl] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 77

Entomology. My reply was " about thirty years," to which
he had nothing further to say. There was a slight de-
parture from the serious nature of the interview when a
parcel of Daddy longlegs grubs which had been placed
on the table, gave way, and the creatures crawled all over
the place. The final result was, that I agreed to take the
post of Consulting Entomologist, but I returned home very
uneasy in mind and wrote the same evening that I did
not wish to accept ofBce. I was, however, pressed into
acceptance at the first business meeting and the first work I
undertook was the making of drawings to form originals
for six diagrams illustrating some common injurious
insects with life histories and methods of prevention.^
This would be the first Tuesday of June, 1882, and I
inaugurated my position on the way home by meeting
with a severe accident at Waterloo Station, from the
results of which I have never recovered. While doubt-
less rather preoccupied, crossing the road, a rapid incline
from Waterloo Road to the station, I did not notice a
carriage coming down the slope till the horses' heads were
over mine. With no time to run or turn, I sprang and
landed on the pavement, but a sharp pain set in, in the
muscle above one knee. Whether it originated from a
strain or a blow I never knew, but a little flask I carried
on the injured side was beaten in as if by a horse's foot
or the point of a carriage pole. The injury was not
properly attended to and the affected part gradually
increasing and spreading gave rise to the lameness
accompanied with severe and frequently intermittent pain
which necessitated exceeding quiet and bodily inacti-
vity—a state of matters which was in marked contrast to
the extremely active life I had led in my early years
rambling in the country, and latterly by indulging in the
mechanical in addition to the usual aesthetical pleasures of
gardening."

She explains in a letter to Dr. Fletcher, dated August 22,
1892 (p. 212) that she was driven by failing health to resign
her honorary official work and to concentrate her energies
upon her private work, which steadily increased in volume,
and especially on the work of her Annual Report.

A conception of the interesting methods adopted by Miss
Ormerod in carrying out her work may be gleaned from her

' Details were given in a letter to Colonel Coussmaker of August i,
1885, p. 99.

78 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xi.

own words addressed to us in the course of a long and
intimate correspondence.

" I will now try and think of something you may care to
insert about languages. So far as I can avoid it, I try not to
write in any language but my own, but I can read serviceably
French, Italian, and Spanish, and also Latin for what I need ;
likewise, of course, German ; Russian I could read once but
not so readily now ; and with the dictionary I can make
something of Dutch and Norwegian."

" Of my very special colleagues who are now gone from
us, were Professor Westwood, Life President of the Entomolo-
gical Society, and Dr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of the Board
of Agriculture of the U.S.A. ; and Professor Huxley, in days
when I sat on the Council of Education Committee of
Economic Entomology, was a valued friend. It was marvel-
lous to see how Huxley with his towering personality led a
committee. On one occasion he asked if any one present
would express an opinion on the subject under consideration,
and he rather suddenly directed his attention to a certain
member of committee, who was so startled he nearly got
frightened out of his life." ^

" The regular course of my work brings me into such con-
stantly recurring communication with the Entomological
Departments of our own Colonies, also of many of the
U.S.A. States, and various Continental Societies or
specialists, that I may venture to say that as occasion occurs
we interchange—;-! mean the heads of the Departments and
myself — friendly observations, very beneficial and pleasant
to me. The plan of my work has long been to reply, if I
could do so soundly, to every enquiry on the day of receipt.
Often investigation is needed for scientific purposes, but a
large proportion of the enquiries may be answered at once
so far as the practical needs of the enquirers are concerned.
For further purposes my custom is to work up anything new
or involved that occurs, for use in the following Annual
Report. I do not devolve on my specialist referees the
researches (so far as I can ascertain the state of the case),
but they tell me if my identification is correct , or correct it
for me, and I quite invariably, if the matter be for publication,
publish also my acknowledgment. The correspondence
continues steadily all the year round, more of course
in the warm seasons of the year than at other times, but even
in winter it never ceases. My plan has generally been to
store up all the observations of the growing (and conse-
* See " Letters from Huxley," pp. 85-87.

Chap, xl] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR ' 79

quently insect-attacking) times of the year till autumn, and
then sort them and prepare them for the Annual Report of
that year. If some favourite subject be under discussion
the letters may be very numerous. I once had a run of 60,
80, to 100 a day for a short time, including on one day a
total of 149 — but of course on such an occasion I was
obliged to get help to keep reply at all in hand. The
steady letter work of the year I estimate at about 1,500."

Referring on December 27, 1889, to a proposal which
had been made to procure an assistant to relieve her of the
enormous pressure of work, she says : —

" I need not point out that, however agreeable the post
might be to my so-called ^assistant,' to me the addition
would be a trouble — loss of time and other inconveniences
beyond telling. It would be more trouble to write to him
than to attend myself, and as a referee he would be almost
useless. My reference work is to the leading men of the
world — those who are known, literally, as the authorities
above all others on the special points ; thus I am in no way
derogating from the respect I bear to Professor Harker's ^
knowledge, but who that knew anything would have cared
for his opinion on Icerya purchasi (scale insect of orange
trees) ? Dr. Signoret's opinion carried all before it. Again,
no one's opinion stands like that of Mr. G. B. Buckton on
Aphides, and he communicates with me whenever I ask.

*'On that most important agricultural matter, Tylenchus
devastatrix, there is no one in England fit to form an
opinion worth comparison with Drs. de Man and J.
Ritzema Bos, by whom I am favoured, through being
allowed any amount of communication. These, and men
like these, pre-eminent each in his own line, are the
referees that I personally am honoured by being allowed
to ask aid from ; and in my own humble way sometimes
I can reciprocate, but ^ an assistant ' would do me no good
in any of these matters. And with regard to agricultural
and applied bearings I do not want a dictum, but year by
year by my own correspondence with agriculturists to work
out on the fields the parts of the cases as they occur, and to
give the points to the public in my reports. I am respon-
sible for the entomological work of the R.A.S.E., and unless
it goes through my hands I do not know what may be going
on, and no one would know to whom to write, or, in fact,

' The late Allen Harker, Professor of Biology at the Royal Agri-
cultural College, Cirencester.

8o BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xi.

anything definite about the matter, if there were an assistant.
I have my own circle of helpers, my own paid special referee,
by whom I reach specialists out of my circle, and my lady
amanuensis in the house, besides my good sister's invaluable
aid — always promptly and ably given. So long as I can
I hope to keep my work in my own hands, and if it were
not for the great masses sometimes sent me, which come
because I have been (up to the present time) the only
Official Entomologist here, the work would not have been
so distressing. Professor Harker is, I believe, excellently
qualified to hold a good and high entomological post, but
not even Professor Riley or Professor Westwood would
w^ork a post without referees. Some day, I hope, he may
be high in office ; then he will, as I do now, have his
organised corresponding staff."

*^ As a meteorological observer, while living at Isleworth
my work consisted in taking notes on about eighteen
different subjects once a day, beginning at 9 a.m., Green-
wich time precisely. These included taking the readings
of the maximum and minimum temperatures, and also
those other thermometrical conditions, as of dry and wet
bulb, solar, earth, and ground thermometers, &c. ; likewise
of rainfall in the past four-and-twenty hours, of the state
of weather at the time ; the nature of the clouds, with the
amount and direction of them, and likewise the direction
and estimated speed of wind. The time occupied out-of-
doors in the observations was about twenty minutes, to
which had to be added the barometrical reading with that
of the attached thermometers, with corrections according
to tables furnished for altitude of the barometer, and such
minute errors in record of the thermometers as were shown
by tables of error furnished by comparison with the in-
struments at the Royal Observatory, Kew. Altogether the
work required some considerable amount of time, and also
most scrupulous attention to accuracy, not to say some
amount of personal self-denial, as whatever the weather
might be at 9 a.m. the work had to be done. Perhaps
there would be a thunderstorm, or at other times cold so
great that my fingers almost froze to the instruments, as
on one occasion, when the thermometer registered nearly
down to zero."

Professor Westwood belonged to the good old academic
type of scholar who made the responses in church in Latin.
He was, till his death, Miss Ormerod's mentor from her

PLATE XX.

Miss Ormerod at her Meteorological Observation Station,

NEAR IsLEWORTH.

To face p. 80,

Chap, xl] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 8i

initiation into Entomology, and she regarded him as the
greatest living scientific authority in the broad lines of their
common subject during the whole period of her advisory
work. They " got on famously," and as she said, he " took
the privilege," which she highly appreciated, '^ of knocking
her work about," as the subjoined letter, written at an early
stage of her career as an authoress, charmingly shows.

University Museum, Oxford,

January lo, 1884.

My dear Miss Ormerod, — I congratulate you on the
publication of your ^' Guide to Methods of Insect Life" —
the nicest little Introduction to Entomology with which I
am acquainted. You have been very fortunate in obtaining
such a good series of woodcuts, many of which were new
to me. Allow me to suggest one or two improvements
after a hurried glance over the contents. It would have
been well to have indicated more precisely the size of some
of the objects figured ; for instance, the locust, p. 28, is
twice the size of the figure — whilst the earwig, on the same
page, is about one-half the length of the figure. In p. 98,
the Death's-head moth, which is twice the size of the Eyed-
hawk moth, is represented smaller than it is in next page.
In p. 118 the fly is the Sirex juvenciis, not the commoner
one S. gigas. In p. 125 the Bee parasite has not the front
portion of the wings black, but as milky as the other part.
In p. 73, line 8, for "glassy" read "glossy." I know you
will thank me for these hurried suggestions, or I would not
have troubled you with them.

Thanks for your kind enquiries. I am thankful to say
that after two months' attack of bronchitis I am nearly all
right again, but have been much confined to the house,
although I have been wanting to go to London. My kind
remembrance to your sister. We should be very glad if you
could come and give us a visit for a short time. — Yours very
truly, J. O. Westwood.

The high terms of approval and appreciation of her work
by Miss Ormerod's numerous foreign correspondents are
shown in no halting manner in the subjoined letter : —

From Dr. J. A. Lintnery New York State Entomologist.'^

Albany, N.Y.

May 29, 1889.

My dear Miss Ormerod, — I must congratulate you
upon your last Report. It is excellent, and reflects
' Who died in Rome while on a visit to Europe.

7

82 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xi.

great credit upon you. I am very glad that your letters
have been so appreciated that it has been necessary to
summon a lady private secretary to your aid. It will be
a satisfaction to you that you will now be able to accom-
plish much more than before. I am led to think whether
I should not ask our next Legislature to provide for an
assistant for me.

Your kind letter of the loth inst. was also duly received.
How strange, and how very interesting to me, that you
should discover Cecidomyia leguminicola (Gnat midge),
red maggot, with you, as you have done, w^orking at
the root — only " infesting the root," and not, so far as
known, attacking the head. If it occurs on the blossoms,
you should have been able to find it there by the time that
this reaches you, for, as I have somewhere mentioned, the
nearly-mature larva shows a disposition to leave the clover
heads very soon after they are picked. You ask if I have
observed this form in other cecids of the clover. We have,
so far as known, but one other clover cecid, and that is
your introduced C. trifolii (Clover leaf midge). The thought
suggests itself to examine some of my dried leguminicola
larvae. I am glad to have found in my collection examples
preserved in alcohol of the larvae which I had forgotten.
As I put up quite a little quantity of them, I can spare you
these, which I am sure will be acceptable to you.

Your investigation of the "warble" presence (p. no) effect
upon the beef-eater will, I am sure, be of much importance.
One of our Western agricultural papers has commenced an
investigation. Probably your studies and publications have
incited them to it.

March 12, 1894.
In going carefully over several pages of your seventeenth
report, which came to me last week, I asked myself, " Is not
this the best report that Miss Ormerod has written ? " You
are pleased to bestow praise on my reports, which from you
is agreeable to receive, but I think that I can judge of their
true value, and very glad indeed would I be if I could feel
that they were up to the standard of yours. These are far
from words of flattery, but are said because I believe that
you need encouragement. Your reports have high merit
and value, beyond similar writings of any of your English
contemporaries — yes, far beyond. — As ever, sincerely yours,

J. A. LiNTNER.

CHAPTER XII

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR (continued)

As a public lecturer Miss Ormerod achieved a high measure
of success. The first effort in this capacity was made at the
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, where as ^* Special
Lecturer on Economic Entomology," she delivered six
interesting and valuable addresses to audiences of about
120 students and professors on : (i) Injurious Insects ;
(2) Turnip Fly ; (3) Effects of Weather on Insects ; (4) Wire-
worm ; (5) Insect Prevention ; (6)CEstridae — Warble or Bot
Flies. The first was given in October, 1881, and the last in
June, 1884. On the first occasion Lord Bathurst, one of
the Governors of the College, was present, and Miss
Ormerod was placed between Principal McClellan on the
one hand and Professor Barker (biology) on the other, as
her sister Georgiana humorously remarked afterwards,
'' for fear her courage should fail and she run away."
Her anxieties in the new capacity knew no bounds.

Although extremely nervous and anxious she succeeded in
concealing this from an attentive and appreciative audience,
and made an excellent appearance. ^ She declared that
while walking from the drawing-room to the large lecture
theatre at the opposite corner of the college quadrangle she
could not utter a word, and on this, as on other somewhat
similar exciting occasions, she experienced a drumming in
her head which she failed to moderate by any attempted
remedial measures. After about three years' experience as a
supernumerary member of the college staff, it was found
that the preliminary preparation of the lectures was robbing
her steadily increasing general work of time which was
inconveniently spared, and, although it was considered an
honour to be invited to give special lectures, she felt it to be
a duty to her main work to retire.

' The Editor, having been present, is able to give this statement on
his own authority.

83

84 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

During this period one lecture was delivered before the
" Institute of Agriculture/' at South Kensington, in April,
1883, in the Lords of Council lecture hall, where as usual
she was in a state of trepidation as to what might happen.
The audience numbered about five hundred — two hundred
and fifty of whom were Government students. The subject
was ^* Insect Injuries to Farm Crops, and their Prevention."
A number of minor incidents were nevertheless disturbing.
To begin with, the driver who had been engaged to take the
lecturer first to South Kensington and again in the evening to
Isleworth, started on the wrong journey first, but the mistake
was discovered before he had gone very far astray. Then a
chairman had failed to appear and another had to be
anxiously watched for at the door. A most suitable person
was at last found in the President of the Entomological
Society. All went well for a time until Miss Ormerod's sight
on the left side wholly failed. Being subject to attacks of
migraine from overwork, she thought one of these had come
on, but on moving a little to the right she discovered that a
brilliant light had been arranged to fall on the diagrams, and
that to her great discomfort she had got into the line of it.

A rather amusing incident occurred as the last dis-
traction. The object was to place the elements of Ento-
mology before the students in the simplest form possible,
but a few definitions were first necessary. They were told
to realise in the words of Professor Westwood that insects
were ^* Annulose animals, breathing by tracheae, having the
head distinct and provided in the adult stage with six
articulated legs, and antennae, subject also to a series of
moultings previously to attaining perfection, whereby wings
are ordinarily developed ! "

The audience burst out cheering, thinking, as Professor
Tanner ^ explained afterwards, that the scientific terms were
being used as a joke.

Apropos of this experience she wrote on October 14,
1890, to Mr. Robert Newstead, '^ If I could find time I
would like to form an instructive book, on the plan of
which I enclose a few lines — so as to proceed gradually
from a foundation well known to the pupils — thus : —

^^ Q, What is an insect ? ^. A fly is an insect, so is a
moth or a butterfly, or a wasp, or a grasshopper, or a
cricket.

"jg. Is a spider an insect ? A, No.

* The organiser of and first Senior Examiner in the Agriculture
Department, South Kensington.

Chap, xii.] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 85

'^ Q. Why not ? A. Because it has eight legs, and never
has any wings. Insects in their perfect state have six legs,
and usually either one or two pairs of wings.

^' Q' Why do you say in their perfect state ? And so on.

" I believe that it is an absolute mistake to begin with a
definition of an insect such as is usually given — half the
words of which are utterly without meaning to the student."

Under strong pressure at a later date, Miss Ormerod
delivered in the same hall a course of ten lectures in five
consecutive days, on the " Orders of Insects," and these
were reproduced in full in her ^^ Guide to the Methods of
Insect Life."

The organisation was defective, and very small audiences
assembled. Professor Axe and others who gave special
lectures in the same course had the same experience. Only
;fio was paid to Miss Ormerod for her share of the
work, a sum which did not cover outlays, and apart from
the annoyance of the bungling the fatigue was great.

About this course. Professor Huxley wrote on November
II, 1883 : — "Dear Miss Ormerod, — I am very glad to welcome
you as a colleague — and I wish I could come and hear your
lectures, being particularly ignorant of the branch of
Entomology you have made your own. I shall be very
glad if any of my students can find time to profit by your
teaching — but I suspect that their hands are pretty full. We
shall be very glad to have your sister's work and thank her
for the trouble she has taken. — Ever yours very truly," &c.

When a copy of the book reached him in the following
January he again wrote : — " Many thanks for your ^ Guide
to Insect Life.' I know enough of your portion of work to
be sure that it will be clear, accurate, and useful, and I hope
that the public will show a due appreciation of it. With
best wishes, &c.

"T. H. Huxley."

Sir Joseph Hooker also wrote as follows : —

Royal Gardens, Kew,

January 11, 1884.
Dear Miss Ormerod, — Pray accept my best thanks for
the copy of your " Guide to Methods of Insect Life." I
have read the first 50 pages at intervals of my work with
great pleasure and interest. I was an Entomologist before
I took to Botany, as was my father before me, and I do
enjoy in my old age the account you give of the forgotten

86 . BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

habits of the friends of my early youth. I think it is
capitally well done and suited to its purpose, and I shall
hope to interest my children with it in the holidays. With
united sincere regards to you both, most truly yours,

Jos. D. Hooker.

In March, 1882, a paper on ^* Injurious Insects" was read
at a meeting of the Richmond Athenaeum. The hall was so
crammed that the Council were crushed up on the platform.
** At the close of the lecture " (Lady Hooker writes) ^^ Miss
Lydia Becker, at that time a vigorous upholder of ^ Woman's
Rights,' rose to speak, and while praising Miss Ormerod's
able lecture, instanced her work as ' being a proof of how
much a woman could do without the help of man.' Miss
Ormerod, in her reply, thanked Miss Becker, but begged to
say that she had no right to the praise accorded to her on
the ground of her work being so entirely that of a lone
woman, for, she said, ' No one owes more to the help of man
than myself. I have always met with the greatest kindness
and most generous aid from my friends of the other sex,
and without their constant encouragement my poor efforts
would have had no practical result in being of benefit to
my fellow men.' "

In the discussion which followed the lecture Sir Joseph
Hooker "referred to the great benefit they had derived
at Kew Gardens from Miss Ormerod's researches, remarking
that to her and her sister (Georgiana) they owed some
of the best illustrations they had of insect ravages upon
plants. He could not but allude also to the elegance
and clearness of the language employed by Miss Ormerod in
her paper as an illustration that scientific matters might be
put in a clear and simple form, so that all might understand
them. ... In conclusion he thanked Miss Ormerod and her
sister for their services to science."

About 1888 an entomological "At Home" was given at
Torrington House, St. Albans, when some sixty people
assembled in the drawing-room and listened to a most
interesting dissertation on the " Hessian Fly," given by the
hostess in a friendly and informal conversational manner.

The Farmers' Club lecture in 1889 was felt by Miss
Ormerod to be the most important and most gratifying of all
similar public appearances. She prepared it with infinite
care and, as the time fixed for its delivery approached, the
state of nervous tension was great. Leading agriculturists
were present, and a number of ladies came to make inquiries

Chap, xii.] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 87

about all sorts of things, but probably the lecturer would
have been equally well pleased had none of her own sex
put in an appearance.

In 1882 Miss Ormerod was invited by the Lords of the
Committee of Council on Education to become a member
of a committee to advise in the improvement of the collec-
tions relating to Economic Entomology in the South
Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums. The other
members of committee were Professor Huxley, Mr. W.
Thisleton Dyer, Professor J. O. Westwood, Mr. F. Orpen
Bower, Professor Wrightson, and Mr. Moore — Colonel
Donnelly and Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen being present
officially. After serious consideration and a good deal of
pressure from influential quarters, Miss Ormerod accepted
the invitation and was a most useful member of committee
till her withdrawal from it in April, 1886. She continued,
however, to assist the supervision of the work, which
went on for some time after. At the first meeting she was
asked to prepare a scheme for a series of illustrations of
Economic Entomology, and her suggestion of classifying
injurious insects by the name of leading plant affected, and
not by the Natural Orders of the creatures, was accepted.
A collection of cases containing natural specimens in all
stages of development, as well as accurate drawings of them,
though never completed, was made, at first mainly under
Professor Westwood's direction, but later on, under Miss
Ormerod's supervision. Many of the specimens were taken
from Mr. Andrew Murray's earlier contributions.

The collection was in 1885 removed from Bethnal Green
to the Western Exhibition Galleries, South Kensington
Museum. The value of Miss Ormerod's services and the
esteem in which she was personally held by her associates
in connection with the work of the committee, may be
gathered from the subjoined letter sent to her by Professor
Huxley.

March 12, 1883.

Dear Miss Ormerod,— Many thanks for the trouble you
have taken. Your suggestion about utilising the figures
which are not specially wanted for our purpose, for schools,
seems to me excellent, and I hope you will bring it forward
at our next meeting.

I hope our first discussion has convinced you that we
want nothing but to achieve something useful. And as I
have at any rate learned how to recognise practical know-

88 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

ledge and common sense, when I meet with them (they are
not so common as people imagine) you will find me always
ready to do my best to aid in carrying out your views.
You really know more about the business than all the rest
of us put together. Yours very truly,

T. H. Huxley.

While Miss Ormerod was associated with the Bethnal
Green Museum she was asked to look at the proofs of a
series of insect diagrams illustrating '^Gardeners' Friends
and Foes " being prepared for publication by the Science
and Art Department. She found that an official of the
Museum had been guilty of wholesale plagiarism, both
in the coloured figures and the descriptive letterpress, and
moreover that a number of figures of a popular kind had
been introduced which were not drawn with scientific ac-
curacy, that she felt conscientiously impelled to report the
irregularities and deficiencies to the authorities. The
results were that the diagrams were withdrawn (only a few
sets having been presented for private use to certain
fortunate individuals) ; and the removal of the official from
the position of trust became a wholesome lesson to those
who lightly make use without acknowledgment of the
work of others.

At a later date she arranged the descriptive matter of a
series of beautiful insect diagrams, the originals of which
were drawn and coloured by her sister, Georgiana, for the
Royal Agricultural Society, and referred to in the appended
facsimile page of a letter addressed to the present writer,
and again at p. 210 of her correspondence.

To Miss Anne Hartwell, Miss Ormerod's private secre-
tary and confidential companion, I am indebted for many
of the following incidents in the home life. The two sisters,
though they were never robust, enjoyed comparatively good
health, when Miss Hartwell, in May, 1888, went to reside
with them, and were at all times very busy. Miss Ormerod
(Georgiana) usually sat in the dining-room working at her
diagrams and Miss Eleanor in the study. They generally
worked all the morning, and in the afternoon they would

An excellent specimen of Miss Ormerod's clear and charac-
teristic WRITING IN WHICH SHE CONDUCTED HER VOLUMINOUS CORRE-
SPONDENCE, PAGE 89 OPPOSITE.

90 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

walk out together, take a drive, or pay calls. They fre-
quently had visitors for a few days, and nephews and nieces
would come and go — which was always a pleasure to them.
They were devoted to each other and spent much time
together. Miss Georgiana's death, on August 19, 1896, was
a sad blow to Miss Eleanor, who missed her sister's com-
panionship and sympathy dreadfully. To a casual observer
time seemed to heal her wounded feelings and she appeared
cheerful and bright, but in reality she was never again quite
the same person — they had been such lifelong friends and
companions.

In a letter to the Rev. C. J. Bethune she wrote on
October 12, 1896 : —

'^ I thank you gratefully for your kind comforting letter ;
believe me such words as yours are a great consolation
and support to me, for I do miss my dear sister exceed-
ingly.

" For her I fully hope that she is safe, and happy, and I
love to think of her as without fears or doubts serving the
Lord she so humbly trusted — but we were so completely
one that I scarcely feel the same person without her. It was
not only our sisterly affection and coUeagueship, but she
had such a good judgment that I am constantly longing for
her sound sense to help me. There is no use in idle grief,
and I am fairly well again. I have not at all put aside
work through all my sorrow, for I felt this would answer no
good purpose, and now I am working on my next Annual
Report and am arranging to have a good portrait of her as
a frontispiece (plate xxvii.). I think she would like it, and
I am sure she would have been deeply grateful for the kind
respect paid by the good friends whose friendship she so
exceedingly valued. I scarcely know how to write about
it — there is so much I should like to say. Perhaps I had
better not write more, but indeed I value your beautiful
words of comfort which I have repeatedly read."

A touchingly sympathetic notice of the death appeared
in Miss Ormerod's Annual Report for 1896.

Miss Ormerod rose early, breakfasted at eight o'clock,
and then read the ^^ Times." On getting to work she made
a special point of replying to inquiries first, saying it served
no good purpose to keep people waiting for an answer ; and,
as a matter of fact, delay or hesitation found no place in
any of her actions. Frequently there were specimens to
examine and report upon, and probably to put aside in a

Chap, xil] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 91

place of safety to permit of maturation or further develop-
ment and to undergo subsequent examination.

After the entomological work was finished — work which
was a real pleasure, but proved a severe strain as the Annual
Report was taking form — her personal correspondence was
attended to. She wrote with great facility and with extra-
ordinary rapidity and accuracy. She had many colonial
and continental correspondents who held standing invita-
tions to pay her visits, when in this country. Many came,
and graciously she received them, and courteously and
royally she entertained them with much pleasure to herself.
None so honoured can ever forget the cordiality of the
breezy welcome which, accompanied by her hearty and
genuinely natural and friendly laugh, were merely har-
bingers of the intellectual treat and the other good things
that were in store for them.

Among her most intimate immediate friends were Lord ^
and Lady Grimthorpe, the Bishop of St. Albans (Dr.
Festing) and his sister, the Dean (Walter John Lawrence,
M.A.), General and Mrs. Bigge, Colonel and Miss Cartwright,
Dr. and Mrs. Norman, and Dr. Lipscomb and Miss Lips-
comb. She was always pleased to see friends who called,
and she was very witty and cheerful with them. It was not
at all necessary that they should be scientific. One of the
httle group mentioned, simply and perhaps too modestly
explains, " I always think that when Miss Ormerod sent for
me, she descended to my level, and our conversation was
generally on the most homely subjects. She would be
most interested in the little events of our everyday life and
thoroughly enter into our pleasures and enjoyments."

The lively sense of humour which has already been men-
tioned as a family characteristic remained with her through-
out life. The following little anecdote told by Mrs. Evans
of Rowancroft, Dorking, is also illustrative of the personal
coolness and power of action in times of difficulty which
were conspicuous among Miss Ormerod's attributes, and it
shows also '' the quietly determined manner in which she
did some things."

*^ My poor little story was told to me a good many years
ago. My aunt was lunching with some friends, and the
peace of the entertainment was suddenly disturbed by the

» Edmund Beckett, K.C., LL.D., J. P., ist Baron (1886), Chancellor
and Vicar-General of York, 1 877-1900. The work of the restoration
of St. Albans Abbey was carried out under his direction. (See p. 296.)

92 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

arrival of a large and lively hornet. No one else ventured
to interfere with the enemy, but Miss Ormerod waited quietly
till the insect came close to her, caught it in her hand, and
forthwith deposited it in one of the little chip boxes which
she generally carried in her pockets. I leave you to imagine
the astonishment and admiration of the other guests, and
the quiet chuckle with which my aunt wound up her story
with the remark, ^ Of course I knew it was a " drone," by
the length of the antennae.' "

Miss Ormerod was not the least nervous in the sense of
being afraid. When just a girl living at Sedbury she
became the centre of admiration of the workmen on her
father's estate by fearlessly seizing a farmyard dog by the
back of the neck and hauling him off her own dog, who
had been rudely assaulted. Great was the applause of
" Miss Eleanor's sperrit."

Another incident with a dog of a much more dangerous
character is best given in her own words : ^^ I only remember
one instance of rabies. The animal attacked was one of
two beautiful Clumber spaniels which had been left one day
at our house with a message that the sender, a friend of my
• brother, desired him to select one of them, and accept it as
a gift. The two pretty creatures, named Caesar and Pompey,
were introduced into our establishment, and one of them —
Caesar — became a great favourite with my father. How
long it was after their arrival I do not remember, but one day
Caesar vanished, and in the course of the afternoon, although
he was not one of the house dogs, he came to me as I was
standing in the front hall. To my astonishment when I
noticed him as usual, he gave a kind of scream, or extraor-
dinary howl, such as I had never heard before, and I saw
that the expression of his eyes was wild and distressed to an
entirely unnatural degree. The strange scream made me sus-
pect what might be wrong, and I called one of the head men.
We took the dog, who was perfectly gentle, into the butler's
pantry and shut the door so that he might not escape,
whilst we tried to find out what was amiss. I did not much
like the business, but it happened I was the only one at
home, excepting a lady relation, who, thinking *' discretion
the better part of valour," mounted herself pro tern, out of
harm's way, on the top of a very large stone table, and
awaited results in safety. I knew that offering water was a
very partial test, but I had some poured out. The effect
was instantaneous. The moment the poor dog heard the
sound he almost flew to me, as if for protection, and tried to

PLATE XXr.

Ap Adam Oak, Sedbury Park.

llEDGEiioti Oak, Skdbury Park.

To face p. 92.

Char xii.] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 93

wrap his head in my dress so as to exclude the sound,
calling out as if in great trouble. I had no right to have
my father's favourite dog destroyed on a suspicion in his
temporary absence, and the dog so far was not violent ; it
appeared to me that the only reasonable course to adopt
was to have him chained securely and led away to an empty
stable, where he was fastened to a pole and the door shut.
By this course no harm could happen, except in prolonging
the poor creature's sufferings. These, however, though
increasingly violent, were not endured for very long. By
the time my father returned, in about an hour, the dog was
tearing the woodwork all around him to pieces. He was
at once destroyed, the attack being pronounced, by those
better versed in the matter than myself, undoubtedly a case
of rabies."

Miss Ormerod's brother. Dr. E. L. Ormerod, of Brighton,
author of ^'British Social Wasps," testified to the courage
and skill with which she assisted him in taking the hanging
wasps' nests from trees. The " Ap Adam" oak shown in plate
XXI. which she climbed after a hornet's nest by means of the
library folding ladder, was one of the very ancient hollow
oaks in Sedbury Park, about one-third of a mile from the
house. She had a sick headache next day about which her
brother John made the sympathetic (?) remark, ^' If young
ladies will play at lamplighters they must take the conse-
quences ! " The Hedgehog oak, at the root of which in
plate XXI. Miss Ormerod is seen sitting in rather an uncom-
fortable position, was another hollow remnant of the primeval
forest. She had remarked that she thought she was sitting
on a wasps' nest when Waring, her second brother, promptly
admonished her in the interests of the safety of the party
to '^ sit tight " ! The two hollow shells of what must have
been at one time splendid timber trees, were historically
interesting, having been boundary marks of the country
referred to in the time of Edward III. Both trees have
been cleared away and the ancient oak now known as that
of ^' Ap Adam " stands only a few hundred yards from the
original tree, within the moat which formerly surrounded
old Badam's Court. There are several other very ancient
oaks in the park. Two on the left of the carriage drive,
going in the direction of the mansion house, were christened
" Darby and Joan " by Miss Ormerod.

On one occasion the eldest sister, Mary, had the mis-
fortune to run a crochet hook through her hand. The

94 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xii.

mother fainted away. Miss G. S. Ormerod, who suppUed
this information, concludes, " My Aunt Eleanor fetched her
forceps, nipped off the hook and drew out the stem without
waiting for the doctor's arrival, showing not only her
courage but her presence of mind." The same authority
goes on to say : —

"She was very fond of children and young people.
When staying at Sedbury, we always enjoyed our walks
with her. She made everything interesting. She taught
me a great deal about insects, helped me to begin a
collection of butterflies, &c., showing me how to destroy
them mercifully and how to set them out properly. I
remember stuffing a splendid dragon-fly under her super-
intendence.

" Fully occupied as her life was up to the time of her last
illness, yet she was always full of sympathy and interest for
her poorer neighbours, always ready to assist in any good
work that came before her.

" You may like to hear how my aunt was beloved by the
servants for her practical kindness and for the keen interest
she took in all outdoor surroundings. Any curiosity dis-
covered by them, whether animal or vegetable, was always
carefully brought in for her inspection. Many were the
snakes, birds, nests, insects, fungi, &c., handed to her,
especially at the time when she did so much modeUing."

She maintained throughout a practical interest in the
survivors of her mother's old servants, and she extended
her kindness and thoughtfulness to those of her own
household. Her strong loyalty was curiously instanced on
one of these occasions, on the King's accession to the
throne, when she summoned all her household, including
outdoor servants, and produced some rare old white port in
which they drank the King's health. She subscribed liberally
to St. Albans' charities and other public objects in the
Abbey parish in which she lived, as well as in St. Michael's,
where she attended church. Dr. Lipscomb gives, in a few
words, " An instance of her great generosity, so well
known to all who were intimate with her, though she ever
did such deeds by stealth and blushed to find them fame."
He goes on : "I may mention a day she asked me to see
her. Being rather late I apologised, telling her that the
annual meeting of the governors of our local hospital
detained me. She said she hoped we had had a successful
meeting, and on my saying ^ Yes, with the exception that
the accounts showed a deficit of some thirty odd pounds,'

Char xil] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 95

she immediately produced her cheque book and gave me a
cheque for the amount." She also extended personal
sympathy and practical help to many of her poor neighbours
by whom she was loved and esteemed.

She never lost taste for the pastime of modelling in plaster
of Paris, and at leisure moments, when unable to go out of
doors, she would occupy spare time in this way. She
modelled some beautiful specimens of common fruits and
made the cast of her own hand. In the evening, when tired
of writing, she would read or crochet. Her great skill in
what is generally regarded as exclusively woman's work is
independently testified to by Miss Emma Swan, niece of
Professor Westwood, who is so well able to speak with
authority, in the following words : " What particularly
struck me as a young girl at the time I visited her was the
very beautiful needlework she found time to do, and
pleasure in doing. Whatever she did, she seemed to do
well ! " From the same source we learn that '' she sang
and played the piano very well indeed." She also composed
music with facility and might have developed musical
tastes, but for the overpowering love of science which was
the absorbing interest of her life.^

We have it on excellent authority that the very greatest
pleasure of all her public recognitions was experienced on
April 14, 1900, in the McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, when the
LL.D. of the University was conferred upon her in com-
pany with a group of distinguished recipients of that
honour 2 before an assemblage of about 3,000 people. The

' In addition to the individual appreciation of her correspondents
and fellow-workers, Miss Ormerod's position in the world of science
was recognised by scientific and educational bodies in a manner which
was most gratifying to her. She was Honorary Doctor of Laws of the
University of Edinburgh ; Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society,
London ; (for ten years) Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England ; (for three years) Examiner in Agricultural
Entomology in the University of Edinburgh (1896-8) ; Fellow of the
Entomological Society, London; Hon. Fellow of the Entomological
Society, Stockholm ; Member of the Entomological Society, Washing-
ton, U.S.A. ; Member of the Association of official Economic Entomolo-
gists, Washington, U.S.A. ; Hon. Member of the London Farmers'
Club ; Honorary and Corresponding Member of the Royal Agricultural
and Horticultural Society of South Australia ; Hon. Member of the
Entomological Society of Ontario, and Corresponding Member of
the Field Naturalists' Club of Ontario, Canada ; and Member of the
Eastern Province Naturalists' Society, Cape Colony.

=" List of the Hon. Graduates of 1900, given in the alphabetical order
in which they graduated : — (i) Horatio Robert Forbes Brown, J. P.,

96 BIOGRAPHICAL [Chap. xil.

trials of the occasion, which are described in her letters,
were greatly lessened by the courtesy and kindness and
whispered words of encouragement of his Excellency,
the American Ambassador, who was placed beside her
during the ceremonial, and preceded her in undergoing
the ordeal of capping. In presenting her to the Vice-
Chancellor (Principal Sir Wm. Muir) the Dean of the Faculty
of Law (Sir Ludovic Grant) said, with his usual elo-
quence : —

^^ A duty now devolves upon you, sir, which has devolved
upon none of your predecessors, and of which the per-
formance will render the present occasion memorable in
the annals of the University. Our roll of Hon. Graduates
in Law contains the names of many illustrious men, but
you will search it in vain for the name of a woman. To-
day, however, a new roll is to be opened — a roll of
illustrious women ; and it is matter for congratulation that
this roll should begin with a name so honoured as that of
Miss Ormerod.

" The pre-eminent position which Miss Ormerod holds in
the world of science is the reward of patient study and
unwearying observation. Her investigations have been
chiefly directed towards the discovery of methods for the
prevention of the ravages of those insects which are injurious
to orchard, field, and forest. Her labours have been
crowned with such success, that she is entitled to be hailed
as the protectress of agriculture and the fruits of the earth —
a beneficent Demeter of the nineteenth century. It would
take long to enumerate her contributions to Entomological
and Phenological literature, but I may select for mention
the valuable series of reports extending over twenty years,
the preparation of which involved correspondence with all
parts of the world. Remarkable, too, is the list of the
honours which she has received. She was the first lady
to be admitted a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society,
and she has been awarded the Silver Medal of the ^ Societe
Nationale d'Acclimatation ' of France. To these distinctions

Editor of the Calendars of State Papers (Venetian) for the PubHc Record
Office. (2) His Excellency the Hon. Joseph Hodges Choate, Ambassador
for the United States of America, London. (3) Miss Eleanor A.
Ormerod, F.R.Met.Soc, F.E.S. (4) C. D. F. Phillips, M.D., LL.D.
(5) The Rev. Thomas Smith, M.A., D.D., lately Professor of Evange-
listic Theology in the Free Church College, Edinburgh. (6) William
Ritchie Sorley, M.A., Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy, University
of Aberdeen. (7) Anderson Stuart, M.D., Professor of Physiology in the
University of Sydney.

Chap, xil] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 97

the University of Edinburgh, sensible of her conspicuous
services, and not unmindful of her generous benefactions,
now adds its Doctorate in Laws."

The honour referred to, conferred by our cultured
neighbours across the channel, was publicly announced in
the press in the following words : —

"At the Annual Meeting on the 25th of June, 1891, of the
Societe Nationale d'Acclimatation de France, M. Le Myre de
Vilers, president, in the chair, the large silver medal of the
Society, bearing the portrait of Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, was
decreed to Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, of St. Albans,
England, for her work in Economic or Applied Ento-
mology."

To a confidential correspondent she wrote, " You will
believe that this pleases me very much."

Plate XXII. shows this medal with three other silver and
two gold medals that were presented to Miss Ormerod
between the years 1870 and 1900 by home and foreign
institutions.

Miss Ormerod preserved very few letters except those
necessary for scientific or business purposes, and these she
classified and fastened into books for convenience of re-
ference. Nothing else, and especially nothing which if
returned to the writer, would hereafter lead to unpleasant-
ness, escaped ordeal of fire. After keeping letters on general
subjects for a few days, she would tear them up. The
result is that, of the mass of interesting contributions on
many subjects, which poured in to the oracle, first of
Isleworth and latterly of St. Albans, from all sorts and
conditions of men and women, the few sample letters
written by prominent public men and reproduced in these
pages, are almost all that remain. To some of her relatives
she WTote very amusing letters, but — no doubt inspired by the
desire to avoid all possible danger of hurting the feelings
of people referred to — she exacted the promise that they
should not be preserved.

Key to Medals Presented to Miss Ormerod and Shown
ON Plate xxil, Opposite.

Royal Horticultural Society,

Victoria Medal of Honour,

1900.

(Gold Medal.)

Royal Horticultural Society.

For Collection of Economic

Entomology.

1870.

(Silver Medal.)

Societe Nationale d'Acclimatation

de France.

Entomologie Appliquee.

1899.

(Silver Medal.)

University of Moscow, 1872

Emperor Peter I., 30th May,

1672.

Emperor Alexander H,, 30th May,

1872.

(Gold Medal.)

International Health Exhibition,

London, 1884.

(Silver Medal.)

Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition,

1872.

(Silver Medal.)

PLATE XXII.

Miss Ormerod's Medals, received between 1870 and 1900, as recognition by
Scientific Bodies of her Scientific Work.

{2rp. 06, 304.) To face p. 9

CHAPTER XIII

LETTERS TO COLONEL COUSSMAKER AND MR. ROBERT
SERVICE

Surface Caterpillars— Leopard and Puss Moths — " Hill-Grubs " of the Antler

Moth.

The letters in this the first chapter of correspondence
(dealing with a number of moths, the caterpillars of which
are destructive to vegetation), were written while Miss
Ormerod was resident at Isleworth, and after she had
issued seven of her Annual Reports. Apart from the
Entomology discussed, the letters show how ready she
was to recognise and to commend the meritorious scien-
tific work of others.

To Colonel Coiissmaker, Westwood, near Guildford.

DuNSTER Lodge, Spring Grove, Isleworth,

August I, 1885.
Dear Sir, — Perhaps the best way I can reply to your
inquiry about the coloured sheets is to enclose the short
description, on the wrapper of one of my reports.^

I should mention, though, that they are the property of the
Royal Agricultural Society ; I only drew them. The insects

' " Royal Agricultural Society of England.

" Coloured Diagrams of Insects Injurious to Farm Crops, suitable for
Elementary Schools. Prepared by Miss E. A. Ormerod, F.R.Met.Soc,
Hon. Consulting Entomologist to the Society. A series of Six Diagrams,
viz. : Large White Cabbage Butterfly ; Turnip Fly or Flea Beetle ;
Beet Fly; Wirevvorm and Chck Beetle ; Hop Aphis or Green Fly, with
Ladybird ; Daddy Longlegs or Crane Fly. In various stages, with
methods of prevention. On paper, 5s. ; for each Diagram, is. Mounted
on linen and varnished, 8s. ; for each Diagram, is. 6d. Procurable from
the Secretary."

99

loo LETTERS TO COLONEL COUSSMAKER [Chap. xni.

are drawn greatly magnified, with a view to hanging the
sheets on walls of schools. The history, and the simplest
means of prevention are given in the very plainest words
I could find.

Have you my current report ? It contains a good
deal on that great pest the Ox warble fly (fig. 5) — con-
tributed by practical men — cattle owners, veterinary observers
and the like. I would, with the greatest pleasure, ask your
acceptance of a copy if you would permit me to do so.
If you have studied its habits in India, I should greatly like
to be in communication with you on the subject. The
Colonial Company procured me a few estimates of damage
to hides — which were of much service as showing com-
parative amount of injury in different parts of the globe,
but I much want to find whether in India the larva is
found to penetrate below the subcutaneous tissue into the
flesh. I am aware from one of my contributors connected
with inspecting army supplies in India, that at one time
meat for the troops was apt to be so damaged from what
he considered to be this attack, that it was to some extent
useless. The locality was not far from Kurrachee. If you,
as a student of insect life, could give me any information on
this point, I should be thankful for the addition to the notes
I am still collecting.

August 4, 1885.

Many thanks to you for so kindly taking the trouble to
write about the injury to flesh possibly caused by the
Warble maggot ; it would be of great service to know about
it. Doubtless your care of your cattle had a great deal to
do with their being free from injury — if we could but get
even the moderate amount of care applied which is needed
to put on a dressing when attack is seen it would make
an enormous difference.

The Dart or Turnip moth caterpillar is doing damage
now — and I do not believe there is a better remedy than
scraping out the grubs, but this is very troublesome till
they are larger. I see in a report on the " Cutworms," as
they call these creatures in the U.S.A., that there is very
much less injury from them on ground which has been
well salted. It is thought that the salt drawn up into the
plant makes it distasteful to the caterpillars. I do not
know how this may be, but in a district of the Eastern
Counties reported from last year — where previously they
had been quite set against anything ^^ artificial " — they were
finding th^ turnips on salted lands answered very much the

i885.]

SURFACE CATERPILLARS

lOI

best. I should much Hke to try the effect of watering with
salt and water, at a safe strength, but from my own garden
being so perpetually used for trial ground it is getting free
of regular pests. I have found watering with soft soap and
a little mineral oil (pp. 66-67, eighth report, 1884), act well
on these caterpillars. The application appeared to paralyse
the creature so that it could not get away from the poison-
ous effects of the mixture, which is a very important point.

(rt) I, Turnip moth ; 2, caterpillar.

(b) I, Heart-and-dart moth ; 2, caterpillar ; 3, chrysalis in earth-cell.

FIG. I. — SURFACE CATERPILLARS : OF THE TURNIP OR DART MOTH, AGROTIS
SEGETUM, OCHSENHEIMER, AND OF THE HP:ART-AND-DART MOTH,
AGROTIS EXCLAMATIONIS, LINN.

I found this mixture act well on Cabbage green fly, and
if you should try it I shall be very much obliged for anj'
observation. The great point is to mix the ingredients at
boiling heat. I would try whether the strength noted was
safe for any special plant. I rather think it is for cabbage,
but certainly not for young leafage of roses. I shall be very
glad if I can be of any help in the matter.

I02 LETTERS TO COLONEL COUSSMAKER [Chap. xiii.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. AlBAXS,

January 26, 1888. .
Many thanks for your note received this morning. I shall
hope to add some of it to my Turnip Caterpillars paper,
which is not yet gone to press. Thank you for the offer
of the specimens, but I do not quite see my way to showing
live ones yet. My lecture [at the London Farmers' Club]
is a terribly anxious prospect to myself, but I can but do
my best, and I am endeavouring with the utmost care to
form something that may be acceptable, but I am sure you
will believe me that to address such a skilled audience is
rather anxious work. I should much like to lay before the
members of the Club some ideas for their consideration as

Female, head of male, and caterpillar.

FIG. 2. — WOOD LEOPARD MOTH, ZEUZERA MSCULI, LINN.

to how some reasonable amount of plain serviceable infor-
mation might be got abroad. I do not believe in all this
lecturing, examining and talking of classification. To my
thinking it is beginning at the wrong end, and that the
learners need first to make sure of their facts in the field
and classify them when they have got them, if they do it
at all.

February 17, 1890.
I have examined your caterpillars carefully, and I find that
of the oak stem to correspond exactly with the larva of the
Wood leopard moth, the Zeuzera cesctili. This is commonly
found in (or at least it is usually sent me from) wood of
fruit trees, but it attacks oak as well as forest trees of various

1890.] WOOD LEOPARD AND PUSS MOTHS

103

kinds. Your specimen has also one of the characteristic
habits of ejecting brown fluid from its mouth on disturb-
ance. I think you have my ^^ Manual/' and there you
would find a figure of the moth and larva. Your specimen
is rather full coloured, but they vary greatly in this respect.
Your other caterpillar is a Lepidopterous larva, but I
cannot name it with certainty. It is quite possible that it
is the larva of the " Hornet Clearwing," the Trochilium
(= Sesia) bembecifonne, but I have never seen a specimen,
although the attack is said to be common, especially to

Male and caterpillar (life size).

FIG. 3. — PUSS MOTH, DICRANURA VINULA, LINN.

Salix caprea. The attack is stated to be mostly in the lower
part of the stem. I think that you very likely have Loudon's
^^ Arboretum '.' in your Ubrary, and if so you would find
some good notes and fair figures of the hornet-like moth and
its larva and pupa in situ in the wood at pp. 1481 and 1482,
vol. iii. The larva is nearly dead now, so that the form is
altered, but I do not see any reason against it being this
kind ; still I cannot say it is.

I have a very curious report of much damage attributed
to Puss moth caterpillars at a locality in Lincolnshire, and

104 PAPERS BY MR. SERVICE [Chap. xiii.

am waiting with much interest for specimens to see what the
cause can be. I rather expect it will be rabbits !

Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

[The following notes by Mr. Robert Service ^ are explana-
tory of subjoined correspondence.

"The ^Hill-grub' (the caterpillar of the Antler moth,
Charceas graminis). Sheep-farmers are threatened with
another plague. The ^ hill-grub ' has often done consider-
able damage to the upland grass-lands, notably in the years
from 1830 to 1835. Just now complaints are rife from
farms in many parts of the wide districts ravaged by the
Voles 2 (in 1891-92-93). As usual the farmers look on
these ^hill-grubs' as very sudden arrivals, but this is not
the case, for last autumn the moths which these larvae
produce were in extraordinary swarms, and far in advance
of their normal numbers. I remember noting at the end of
last September when coming down from the neighbour-
hood of Loch Dungeon one evening in the twilight, how
unusually abundant the Antler moths were flying. The
evening was mild and very moist, and just as we got on to the
level ground at the outside of a moss af perhaps six acres in
extent, we found Antler moths flying in countless myriads
in every direction. The time was 6.40, and there was still
enough of the gloaming left to see the moths quite distinctly
on every side, flying just below the level of the grass-seed
heads.

" On August 23rd I happened to be going across the farm
of Townhead, in Closeburn parish, Dumfriesshire, and about
10.10 a.m. the Antler moths appeared in myriads. Thousands
upon thousands of them were flying in all directions, most
of them just amongst and over the flowering heads of the
spret, f uncus articulatus ; but many were flying higher in
the air, and some mounted up out of sight. It was a won-
derful scene, and one that I would not have cared to miss.
The effect was altogether different to that presented by the

" These observations are extracted from part of a series published
under the geographical nom de plume of " Mabie Moss," this (sometime)
moss district having been long under the observation of Mr. Service —
not a young lady, as Miss Ormerod conjectured, but a well-known
ornithologist who also takes a considerable interest in Economic
Entomology (Ed.).

^ Vide Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the
Board of Agriculture to inquire into a plague of field voles in Scotland
(Sir Herbert E. Maxwell, M.P., Chairman). Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1893.

1894.] ANTLER MOTH CATERPILLARS 105

evening flight I saw near Loch Dungeon in the previous
autumn.

*^A party of gentlemen fishing from near the Holm of
Dalquhairn for some five or six miles down the Ken found
all the trout they caught perfectly crammed with these
^hill-grub' caterpillars. Old shepherds will tell of times
when they were so numerous that after sudden thunder-
showers the sheep-drains have been completely dammed
up with their bodies. The moth deposits its eggs, which
produce larvae that descend to and feed mostly about the
roots of grasses during the autumn and early winter. After
hybernation they commence in March and April to feed
again with redoubled energy, and they turn to pupai at the
end of June and during July, producing the moths again in
a few weeks (the perfect insect flies during August and
September). Thus their cycle of existence in these various

FIG. 4. — ANTLER OR GRASS MOTH, CHAR^AS GRAMINIS,
AND CATERPILLARS.

stages extends the whole year round. Their worst natural
enemy is the common rook at the season when these birds
betake themselves and their young broods to the hills, and I
have reason to believe that many other birds devour them.
The blackheaded gull. Lams ridibundus, and the common
gull, L. canuSy are very fond of the larvae. Curlews take
a good many, golden plovers and lapwings pick them up
in numbers. Cuckoos also feed upon them, and I have
found the stomachs of snow buntings, shot on the hills at
midwinter, filled with these grubs" (R. S.).

Miss Ormerod says : " The caterpillars, when full grown,
are about an inch or rather more long, with brown head,
and the body of a deep bronze colour, exceedingly shiny
on the back and on the upper part of the sides. The bronze
colour is divided lengthwise by three pale lines, the back
and side stripes meeting or almost meeting above the tail,

io6 LETTERS TO MR. SERVICE [Chap. xiii.

and another narrower pale stripe or line runs lower down
along each side."]

To Robert Service, Esq., Maxwelltown, Dumfries.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. AlBANS,

August I, 1894.
Dear Sir, — It is many years since you gave me any of
your good observations, but indeed I would gladly have
profited by them, and it was only lately that I knew you
were continuing them. Perhaps Mr. Bailey, the editor,^
may have mentioned to you that I w^as so struck with the
paper which he sent me, in which you mention C. graminis,
that interpreting the nom de plmne ('' Mabie Moss '') literally,
I wrote to him expressing my admiration and asking if I
might be put in communication with the writer ; and now
may I prefer the request to yourself that, if you please, you
will kindly tell me anything you are inclined to favour me
with about this recent outbreak of the C. graminis. Would it
not be of great interest if we could make out something more
about the parasites ? There are, firstly, the threadworms —
Mermis. Do you chance to have identified them ? I have
got no further than the specialist to whom I sent specimens,
thinking they were most likely Mermis albicans — but this
he was going to investigate. Then there is the bacterian
infestation — the '' flacherie," 2 as they call it in silk-worms.
This seems to me of great practical interest ; and, thirdly,
the larval parasitism of the C. graminis larvae. I had so
exceedingly few specimens that I could not work up the
matter, but, whilst one cocoon sent to me appeared to be
that of an Ichneumon, the only large larva which I found
certainly in many respects resembled that of a Tachina fly.
I should greatly like, if agreeable to yourself, to hear from
you again on entomological matters. Besides the pleasure,
it is a great advantage to me to have contributions of skilled
and experienced information, and I would indeed most
scrupulously acknowledge to whom I was indebted.

August 3, 1894.
I am much obliged to you for taking the trouble to send
the morsels of C. graminis caterpillars. As you say, I am
afraid we could hardly get results from them, but still with
bacteria presence I do not know but dried bits may show
something when moistened, so I am keeping them for the

^ Of the " Dumfries Herald and Courier."
^ Disease caused by Micrococcus bombycis.

1894.] HILL-GRUB ENQUIRY 107

present. That enormous appearance of the imagos must
have been a wonderful sight ; I should have liked to see it —
and what (I wonder) will be the result ?

Pretty surely I suppose there will be egg-laying and a
consequent presence of larvae ? But if your convenience
allowed you to inspect say two months hence, would it not
be very interesting to ascertain — absolutely make sure —
whether there is a presence of the " hill grubs " or whether
the parasitism of their parents has been transmitted, to the
weakening or destruction of their descendants ? If we
found no grubs, nor grubs with '^ flacherie " present, what a
very interesting discovery this would be !

September 14, 1894.

I am writing a few lines at once on receipt of your letter,
first to thank you for your geographical note, which helps
me very much. [These attacks of "hill-grubs" were more
or less general over the hill country of Kirkcudbrightshire
and over the adjacent sheep-farms in Ayrshire, the Dum-
friesshire hills, and the contiguous sheep-farm districts in
Lanarkshire, Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh. Seven
counties were affected to my knowledge. R.S.] What a wide-
spread outburst this has been 1 But I also write to beg you
not to suppose for one minute that I see any reason to
doubt what we have had laid down for such a length of
time about date of hatching of larvae of C. gmrninis. Mr.
Wm. Buckler ^ " lumped " his observations of this and two
other species, and it seems to me that what happened to
caterpillars, which I gather he observed in captivity, in no
way militates against correctness of other people's out-of-
door observations.

With many thanks for all the information you give me.

November 20, 1894.
I am very much obliged to you for the very interesting
note you have let me have about these dipterous parasites 2
of the C. gramiiiis. How fortunate you have been to
secure them, and in such good order too ! As you have
been kind enough to give me two of your specimens, I think
I will presently send one of them to Mr. Meade, of Bradford.
I am sure he would value it very much, and would doubtless
identify it, which would be a help to me, for as you know
I do not like to rest without verification on my own

' In Larv(B of British Butterflies and Moths (Ray Society).
= Exorista lota, "not an uncommon fly, and parasitic on several
Lepidoptera." — Meade.

io8 LETTERS TO MR. SERVICE. [Chap. xiii.

dipterous identifications. You would not mind about this
part, as doubtless if you have not yourself identified, Mr.
Percy H. Grimshaw, Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh,
would see to it (pp. 149, 185).

Do you ever come across the so-called ** Turnip Mud-
beetle," Helophorus rugostts, in your country ? I had the
beetle some years ago, as doing harm to turnip leafage, but
we could not find the larva. Lately we found a larva doing
a deal of mischief in the same neighbourhood by burrowing
galleries in the top of turnips, and it struck me we might
have what we wanted to complete the history. So I sent
it to Canon Fowler, and he identified as beyond doubt
Helophorus and being found where H. r. resorts, it is hardly
open to doubt that we have got parent and child. Please
excuse a short letter, for I am working as hard as I can
manage.

Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

[The parasitic and other enemies of the ^^ hill-grub " are
so effective in their attacks that in the year following a
great increase in numbers a normal level of occurrence is
invariably restored.]

CHAPTER XIV

LETTERS TO MR. WILLIAM BAILEY.

The Ox warble — Its destruction by the Aldersey Schoolboys — Annual gift of
prize money— The Royal Party at St. Albans' Show.

In addition to the entomological value of the next group
of letters dealing chiefly with Ox warbles, Miss Ormerod's
unselfish interest in promoting a wider knowledge of her
subject is well shown in her words of appreciation and
encouragement to Mr. Bailey in connection with his work
(especially in relation to the success of correspondence
with the Duke of Westminster), and the practical induce-
ments, as well as sympathy, extended to his pupils.

To Wm. Bailey, Esq., Aldersey, Grammar School, Bunhury,
Tarporley, Cheshire,

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. AlBANS,

November 2^, 1887.
Dear Mr. Bailey, — I am very much obliged to you
indeed for kindly letting me see the documents which I
now return, after most careful perusal, with many thanks.
It is indeed satisfactory that the good work of our boys
(destroying warbles), should have given such valuable help
in this matter, which is so important to all who have to do
with cattle, and consequently to the nation. The approval
of His Grace the Duke of Westminster (so kindly given, too)
will add great weight, and I am heartily glad also to see the
Hon. Cecil Parker's confirmation from personal experiment
and knowledge of the soundness of the plan and its success.
I think if I can get time that I will write to him, to mention

110

LETTER BY MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

how strongly the many letters which I have received this
year confirm the good effects of removal of the maggots
(2 of fig. 5, and fig. 7), and likewise the prevention (in
almost every case mentioned) of summer disturbance of the
cattle.

I thought you would not object to my keeping a copy of
your letter to his Grace.

The Committee of the " London Farmers' Club " which I
daresay you know more about than I do, but which I believe
to be the great Farmers' Club of England, has sent me an
urgent request to read them a paper on Injurious Insects, at

I, Egg ; 2, maggot ; 3 and 4, chrysalis-case ; 5 and 6, fly. 3 and 5,
natural size, after Bracy Clark ; the other figures after Brauer, and all
magnified.

FIG. 5.— ox WARBLE FLY, OR BOT FLY, HYPODERMA BO VIS, DE GEER.

their meeting place, the Salisbury Square Hotel, London, in
next April. Professor Herbert Little, one of the Council of
the Royal Agricultural Society, brought me the message, and
at first I felt fairly frightened at the idea, and tried to ** make
excuse," for it is a somewhat anxious prospect (in the words
of old John Knox) for a gentlewoman to look in the face of
so many *' bearded men and not be over much afraid," but
I got such serious remonstrance, almost rebuke, from
various quarters that I have consented to endeavour to
prepare as good a paper as I can, and read it myself. Now
if you permit me — I think that in the portion about warbles
it would be very useful (and much more telling than any

i887.]

TO THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER

III

words of my own) to give your terse, clear and attractively
worded account of what really has happened.

The following extract is the chief part of the letter by Mr.
Bailey to the Duke of Westminster (October 28, 1887) : —

My Lord Duke, — I was very thankful to see by last
Saturday's Chester Chronicle, that at the Chester Dairy Show
you drew the attention of our farmers to the enormous loss
caused by the presence of ox warbles in our cattle. During
the past three years, I have been directing the notice of my

FIG. 6.— PIECE OF YEARLING SKIN WITH 402 WARBLE-HOLES.

(Greatly reduced by photography.)

pupils to the mischief done by these warbles, and, as we
have now nearly stamped out this pest in Bunbury Parish,
it has occurred to me that your Grace might be interested
in learning the course which we have taken, and also in
seeing how very easily our farmers might get rid of this
enemy. The great majority of the boys in this school are
either sons of farmers, or of farm labourers. After the boys
had received from me a short lesson on the Warble fly,

112 LETTER BY MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

they were asked to examine their cattle at home, and to

FIG, 7. — PIECE OF UNDER SIDE OF WARBLED HIDE ; WARBLES ABOUT
HALF SIZE.

From a Photo by Messrs. Byrne, Richmond, Surrey.

bring to school as many specimens as they could collect of
the maggots of this fly. Hundreds were squeezed out and

FIG 8.— BREATHING-TUBES OF MAGGOT (TO WHICH THE SMEAR IS APPLIED),
MAGGOT, AND PRICKLES OUTSIDE SKIN OF MAGGOT (ALL MAGNIFIED).

brought in the course of a few days. One boy alone

1887.] ox WARBLE FLY ATTACK 113

destroyed 230 of these warble grubs in the spring of 1885
by the application of common cart grease and sulphur to
the spiracle in the black tipped tail of the maggot or by
squeezing out the maggots. [Vide Miss Ormerod's ninth
Annual Report on Injurious Insects and Common Farm
Pests, p. 92.] Last Easter I desired my pupils, during the
week's holiday, to examine carefully the live stock at home
for ox warble and to report to me. I enclose a copy of the
first list which I received, and I am sure it will satisfy your
Grace that this pest may easily be stamped out, if our
farmers, their sons, or their labourers would apply the
smear, or press out the maggots and destroy them. School
boys can do this work, and feel a pleasure in the task.
What has been accomplished by Bunbury boys can be
equally well done by the boys of any other village
school.!

[A leaflet which Miss Ormerod circulated widely says : —
From ;^3,ooo,ooo to ;^4,ooo,ooo are lost annually through
these pests. One-half the fat beasts killed in this country
are afflicted with this grub. The farmer loses on his stock
from poorer condition, and from death ; from less yield of
milk, and damage to all, especially to fattening beasts, and
cows from their tearing full gallop about the fields, besides
loss to the butcher of from a halfpenny to a penny per
pound on warbled hides. Look at the under side of the
newly flayed hide of a warbled beast and see the grub cells
(fig. 7). Maggots may be squeezed out, or easily killed by
putting a dab of cart grease and sulphur, McDougall's
Smear, or anything that will choke them in the opening of
the warble, and the fly may be prevented from striking by
dressing the beasts' backs in summer.]

May I add that during the past five years I have been
drawing the attention of the boys to insects, which are
injurious to food crops. They are quite familiar with such
pests as the leather jacket, wireworm, turnip and mangold
fly, caterpillars of the magpie moth, and the gooseberry and
currant sawfly, &c., &c., for hundreds of living specimens
have been brought to the school, bird's-nesting having to a
very great extent been superseded by this new pursuit. The

* Recent record of Warbles extracted by the Aldersey Schoolboys
and brought to the Headmaster : —

1895, 1,022 ; 1896, 2,596 ; 1897, 3,965 ; 1898, 1,706 ; 1899, 2,252 ;
1900, 1,851 ; 1901, 1,391 ; 1902, 1,066 — Total, 15,849.

9

114

LETTERS TO MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

boys, having become well acquainted with the pests, were
instructed as to the best methods of prevention and remedy.
These boys will, in the course of a very few years, be the
farmers and farm labourers of this district, and 1 am satisfied
that even the little instruction which I am able to give them
in what I may call " Practical Entomology " will then be
found to be of considerable use to them. — W. Bailey.^

Moth at rest, and with wings spread ; caterpillar walking,

FIG. 9. — MAGPIE MOTH (CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY), ABRAXAS
GROSSULARIATA, LINN.

* Mr. Bailey writes in August, 1902 :— "The Haberdashers' Company
are the Governors of my school, and at our Midsummer distribution of
prizes in June, 1882, Mr. Curtis, who was a member of the deputation
who visited us in that year, suggested that it would be a good thing to
give instruction to the boys on Injurious Insects. Failing to obtain a
lecturer through South Kensington, at my suggestion, he called on
Miss Ormerod. She suggested that I should take the subject, and
added that she would give me all the assistance in her power. From
that day up to the day of her death she took the kindest interest in our
work. She presented to the school many books, beautiful diagrams,
and a series of insect cases [prepared by Mosley of the Huddersfield
Museum, after the cases arranged by Professor Westwood and Miss
Ormerod for the S. and A. Museum at Bethnal Green], and was a liberal
donor of prizes at Midsummer from 1885 to 1901 (both inclusive).
Every Midsummer she kindly wrote a letter to be read on that occasion

1887.] RESIDENCE AT ST. ALBANS 115

November 2^, 1887.*
Dear Mr. Bailey, — The Farmers' Club meeting will be
an exceptionally rare opportunity of pushing forward this,
and some other important matters, as well as of laying
before some of our leading agriculturists some important
facts about a few of the pests of the corn crops of last
season's notoriety. You will think my letter endless, but
I want to congratulate you most heartily on your good
success in the examinations (which must be a weary work
to prepare for), and also on that of your assistant master
and teacher, which is indeed encouraging, and to say how
sorry we are to hear of your illness. I trust, if it please
God, that you may have comfortable health again — it makes
such a difference.

Since my sister and I came to St. Albans we are almost
like different people. We have a beautiful house (pi. xix.)
with such thick walls that we do not feel the changes of
temperature, and a lovely country view along the valley.
We have also met with a most kindly reception, and, last but
not least amongst blessings and comforts for which we are
deeply grateful, is that educated earnest clergy form a
decided element in the Society. But now I ought only to
add thanks and very kind regards from us both.

December 11, 1887.

I must tell you the pleasure with which I heard your letter
to the Duke of Westminster read at the " Seeds and Plants
Diseases " Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society on
Tuesday, and recommended for report to the Council, and I
am glad to see it on the Society's report sheet sent me this
morning, as being recommended for publication. I think
this will do a great deal of good, and it cannot, I think, fail
to be a great satisfaction to yourself that the excellent work
done under your guidance and direction should thus be of
such extended service throughout the land. I also figure to
myself how pleased the good lads will be !

Will you accept the enclosed photo of my new and most
comfortable home (plate xix.) ; it gives a good idea of it,
excepting in not quite showing the very rapid slope down
from the terrace flower beds.

It would be a great and very true pleasure if when you

to the boys. I think I ought to add that the Haberdashers' Company
were good enough to make a grant of £2^ to start us with this new sub-
ject, and have since generously supported the carrying on of the work."
^ Continuation of Miss Qrmerod's letter to Mr. Bailey.

ii6 LETTER TO MR. MEDD [Chap. xiv.

can spare time you would look in on us here for a couple
of nights ; I am sure that with our old Abbey and the many
things of interest here, and some chat which you would let
us have between whiles, the time would not lag. There
are both pleasure and benefit in the work you allow me
a part in. Pray believe me always, with kind regards and
good wishes from us both.

Yours sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

[On the warble question Miss Ormerod wrote on April
22, 1899, to Dr. Fletcher I : —

" Just now I am working hard on Warble affairs. The
butchers (that is, leading men among them) very much wish
that what is called * licked ' beef should be inquired into.
I do not know whether you are troubled by this in Canada,
but it is an alteration that takes place on the outside of the
carcass of the animal beneath a badly warbled part of the
hide. This part becomes soft and wet and blackish, and is
popularly supposed to be soaked with moisture from the
unlucky animal licking itself to soothe the irritation. Really
it is the result of the chronic inflammation of the badly
warbled hide. This causes much loss to butchers, and if I
can get it well brought forward I think we shall through
this rouse the farmers to better attention. The authorities
at our Royal Veterinary College are most kindly helping
me, and I hope before long to have enough sound informa-
tion to be able to publish a paper on it."

To Mr. Medd2 Miss Ormerod also wrote in Nov., 1900: —
" Do you chance to have noticed that the Warble fly of
the United States, the Hypoderma lineata, is considered to be
quite a distinct species to our H. bovis f I believe that
investigation has proved that our bovis is very rarely found
in the U.S.A., just as their lineata is very rarely, indeed,
found here. Practically (that is, so far as injury to the hide
is concerned), the trouble is similar, both in method of
operation and in the frightful amount of damage caused ;
but it has been laid down by good U.S.A. authorities that in
the case of their Warble fly, lineata, the attack is com-
menced by the quite embryo maggots making their way by
the mouth to the gullet and there hanging on until it pleases
them to make their way onward, by piercing through the
coat of the oesophagus and onward through the tissues of

^ See Chaps, xix.-xx. for letters to Dr. Fletcher. ' See Chap. xxii.

1900.]

HORSE BOT FLY

117

the beast until they arrive after their long and curious
journey beneath the ribs, whence they proceed to work
beneath the hide like ours. The matter seems to me very
curious, but I was not called on to enter into discussion,
excepting giving my reasons why I felt wholly certain, and

I, Male ; 2, curved extremity of abdomen of female ; 3, maggot ;
4, mouth hooks ; 5, spiracles at extremity of tail of maggot— all
greatly magnified (after Brauer).

Eggs attached to hairs from a horse's
fore-leg magnified and natural size.
(After Bracy Clark.)

Maggots or horse bots attached
to membrane of stomach. (After
Bracy Clark.)

FIG. 10. — HORSE BOT FLY, OR HORSE BEE, GASTROPHILUS EQUI, FAB.

considered the evidence in our hands proved, that our H.
bovis did not start on its travels in this way."

On May 14, 1900, she addressed another correspondent
thus : —

'' I have another formal application from the authorities

ii8 LETTERS TO MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

of S. Australia ; — (this time from our friend Mr. Molineux)
relative to Horse botfly — and very especially to make
them sure regarding the precise differences between Bot,
Warble, and Gad flies. I have explained that Gad flies,
Tabanidce, may be distinguished by being blood suckers,
and by their maggots feeding in the ground, and that ' Bot '
or ^ Warble ' are only two convertible names for QLstridcey
but that ^ Bot ' is usually most specially applied to internal
feeding maggots, and Warble to those that live in the hide,
notably in Warbles. But such difficulty continues to arise
from haphazard use of the words, I have suggested that if
possible the scientific name — (Gastrophilus equi) should be
insisted on. An entomologist (?) had absolutely called this
attack or kind of attack inside a horse that of ^ Gad fly ' !
But as the attack has been well studied in the Department of
Agriculture, Cape Town, I have suggested they should
communicate with the Government entomologist, Mr. C.
Lownsbury. For their practical needs, I have suggested
clearing the Horse botfly, G. eqin, eggs from the hair by
dressing, and very especially that they should take care all
droppings (in which the maggots pass from the horse, and
where, or in the ground beneath, they go through their
changes to the perfect state) should be so treated as to kill
the maggots. It may possibly turn out that the Gastrophilus
may be some other species than equi — I have not had
specimens. When you are about to devote so much
attention to Colonial Agriculture [in the *'Garton" course
of Colonial and Indian Lectures], I wished very much to
tell you what I am about, lest I should, as this is sent me
officially, go on other lines than you approve."]

Juneg, 1891/
Dear Mr. Bailey, — I have now much pleasure in asking
permission once again to place in your hands a cheque for
;^5 5s., to be used exactly as you may judge fit, in purchase
of prizes for the encouragement of serviceable study of
habits and means of prevention of ravages of injurious
insects by your scholars. I have real pleasure in doing this
because I believe the importance of those who are in any
way connected with agriculture being serviceably acquainted
with the causes of loss to crop or stock, and means whereby
this may be lessened, cannot be over-estimated. I offer
my hearty congratulations to yourself and your pupils on
the satisfactory work achieved in my own department of
agricultural entomology in one more year.

^ Letters to Mr. Bailey continued.

1893-] ALDERSEY SCHOOLBOYS 119

I do not like to offer views of my own on these matters
now that what is called Technical Instruction is receiving
such widespread attention throughout the country. Still I
should like, for the encouragement of any of your boys who
may think themselves behind in the simply scientific race, to
observe that instructions given (let them be conveyed in
what terms the teacher will) must be founded to start with,
on facts, trustworthily observed and trustworthily recorded ;
and the pupil who leaves your school with the knowledge of
the appearance of the common crop pests, as the wireworm,
the turnip flea beetle, the warble fly maggot for instance,
and, as I am well aware is the case with many of your boys,
adds to this a practical knowledge of how to lessen their
powers of mischief, goes forth holding in his mind what will
save him many a pound in the future, and be a benefit
wherever he goes. It is a foundation on which as much as
he pleases may be built, but the solidly learnt field
knowledge will always be serviceable.

J^une 5, 1893.

I thank you very much for your kind letter. If I were
nearer it would be a great pleasure to me to be present on
your prize day, when I might have the gratification of
making personal acquaintance with many of those whom I
know by name as taking much interest in this important
school as well as yourself, whom I should much like to
meet ; and also our " Aldersey boys," whom I have known
and worked with, or they with me, for so many years.

It is a very great pleasure to me that they are continuing
their attention, under your skilled help and guidance, to
observation of farm pests, and their work stands first as a
proof of what can be done in getting rid of one insect pest.

When careful search only produces twenty warble grubs,
in a district ^ where a few years ago they were counted
by hundreds, to my thinking we — that is, the boys, you
and I — may fairly be proud of a thoroughly useful work. If
I might venture on a kind of little moral reflection I should
say that I should like the little prizes which I have so much
pleasure in offering, to remind them sometimes of how
much can be done, in many other things also, by even
moderate attention given at the right time and under the

' This refers to Bunbury only, where we had nearly a " clean bill "
in that year. The maggots brought were found in the adjoining
parishes. I have in late years granted the boys a " roving commission."
On their bicycles they visit farms which are many miles away from their
homes. (W.B.).

120 LETTERS TO MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

guidance of sound knowledge. I trust they will continue
their field work. With the increase of area under cultivation
or occupied by stock so may their insect pests be expected
to increase, and on sound knowledge of what really happens,
and what at a paying rate can be brought to our aid, our
hope rests of coping with the farmer's enemies. What I can
do to help them by advice, or by reply to inquiries, will be
gladly at their service. Whilst I congratulate those who
have won my little tokens of goodwill, and beg to offer the
same for the next prize day, I must say to all that in the
information and benefit they have laid up in their working
and observations they have each gained a prize far better
than anything I can offer them.

May 29, 1894.
It is with most sincere pleasure that I hear from you once
again this year of the good success of the Aldersey boys in
their studies and of their steadiness in work. The methods
by which serviceable instruction on this subject, namely,
Agricultural Entomology, can be given is often a matter oif
difficulty and doubt, and I certainly think that the plan you
mention to me is so good, and meets the points of combin-
ing practical knowledge with so much scientific informa-
tion as is requisite, so well that I shall gladly draw the
attention of those who apply to me for suggestions on these
subjects to its serviceableness. You mention arranging the
observations of the boys who take up the study of crop and
fruit pests on a system which, though so simply worked,
really forms an excellently complete course. You say
that one week the boys bring samples of infestation
injurious to fruit ; in a second week attacks on garden
vegetables ; in another week on field crops ; in another on
timber ; in another living examples of the subjects figured
in the insect diagrams which my sister and I have had
the pleasure of contributing to your school collections, and
in yet another week you receive notes of serviceable means
of prevention and remedies. This plan appears to me so
sound and good that I hope I may be forgiven for intruding
a few minutes on your time in greatly desiring to draw the
attention of the influential visitors who will be present at
your meeting to how excellently this plan meets many diffi-
culties. A boy so taught knows his facts.

June 2, 1895.
Many thanks for your letter received yesterday morning,
which is very interesting indeed to me, and which I hope to
reply to very soon, but now I am replying to your note

1895.] WINTER MOTH CATERPILLARS 121

accompanying the caterpillars from the Peckforton Hills,
though not so fully as I could wish, for disasters befell the
letter, and it arrived by special messenger from the Post
Office, with the announcement that the things had got loose,
and were creeping all about ! Any way but little remained
to judge by, so I report on what was visible. Most of the
caterpillars were loopers (fig. 30), and the largest proportion
of these, though differing so much in colour, appeared to
me to be the Cheimatohia brumata. As you know there
may be every variety of shade in these Winter moth
caterpillars, from pale green down to smoky brown or
almost black. Another kind of which I only find two
specimens (small and very small, respectively), look as if
when grown they would be the Mottled Umber moth, which
is so injurious this year. There are just single specimens of a
few other non-looper kinds, but at this present time all the
kinds come under only one method of (feasible) treatment,
and I am afraid this (even if feasible) would be much too
costly on such a great scale. Washing with Paris-green or
London-purple, or with kerosene emulsion, would be the
right thing, or our British form of the emulsion, made by
Messrs. Morris, Little and Son, Doncaster, and sold, I
believe, at a very low price (consequent on the large demand
for it), under the trade name of ^'antipest." This only
needs diluting. But when we come to dealing with great
areas like the Peckforton Woods, I believe that the only
really practicable way of, in some degree, lessening the evil,
and counteracting its effects, is throwing water from some
large engine. If a fire engine and a supply of water were
available this might do a great deal of good.

I was consulted by the late Sir Harry Verney about ^^an
ancestral oak " at Clayden, which appeared nearly cleared of
leafage, and I advised playing the house fire engine on it —
and the plan succeeded. The moisture falling around the
tree pushed on the second leafage and (conjecturally) saved
the tree. But with woods it is most difficult to manage
application. I am afraid I am only able to say what would
be best, if it could be done.

For the future it is a grave consideration, and consultation
is very desirable, as to what means could reasonably and
safely be employed to destroy the caterpillar in the ground.
They will probably be very soon leaving the trees, and
burying themselves just below the surface, and will most
likely reappear, in moth form, and ascend the trees,
beginning in the early winter, and thus eggs will be laid to

1896.] BATH AND WEST SHOW, ST. ALBANS 123

start next year's attack. I do not know whether the ground
growths would permit of anything hke paring being done
under the trees. The best way would be ''sticky banding" in
October. At the Toddington fruit grounds one year 120,000
trees were sticky banded, but still this is work on an
enormous scale. These are the main points to work on, and
I should be very much pleased to enter on any of them
more in detail, but just now I am writing as soon as I can
(before going to church), as with Sunday and Bank Holiday
posts I am afraid this letter will not, at the earliest, reach
you until Tuesday morning, so please excuse such hastily
written lines.

April 6, 1896.

Now I am working on my Exhibit of Economic Ento-
mology for the Bath and West of England Society Show at
St. Albans. I think you will perhaps like to look at the
enclosed set of labels for the cases.i There are only a few
lines to be fixed outside each. In the catalogue there is a
fuller account, with prevention and remedy. Is it not a
triumph of condensation to get a little life history and pre-
vention and remedy of Wireworm into about half a dozen
lines ? But really there is enough if people would mind it.
I try to give injured material wherever I can, and there are
upwards of sixty infestations. Georgiana helps me with
twenty diagrams — more beautiful than any of her previous
ones — and the Council, who are very kind, have awarded us
all the privileges of stewards and members of Council for
the Show, so that we may have every convenience of transit
there.

It gave me great pleasure to be appointed External
Examiner in Agricultural Entomology at Edinburgh Uni-
versity — for besides enjoying such a great compliment it
will help my work.

May 30, 1896.

N.B. Confidential, I want to tell you how kind and nice
the Prince and Princess were at the Show. T.R.H.
shook hands when they arrived, quite heartily, and when I
had explained my own and my sister's exhibit I thought I
was to retire, but I found I was to attend round the other
exhibits in the building, so I walked on by the Princess —

* See Appendix C.

* ^ , >:< :;= >;; ::j

sample of the scrap notes left by miss ormerod (see page opposite)
relating to the great water beetle recognised by the prince of
wales, now king edward vii., at st. albans' show.

124 LETTERS TO MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

just think, at the head of the Royal party, before the Prince
and all of them ! When we had gone round the Prince
said, ^' Now, I think we must be going," and he shook
hands again, and the Princess, who was a little ahead,
turned back and shook hands also. I was told by one of
the officials that the Prince expressed himself afterwards as
much interested, and my informant had told the Prince
that I was doing work in this country which was done in
other countries by the State. H.R.H. was so interested
about the warbles that he called up Lord Clarendon
to look at the great photo of the warbled red deer's hide
too, and we had quite a chat together.

FIG. II. — WATER BEETLE, DYTISCUS MARGINALIS, LINN.

June 15, 1899.

I had great pleasure in receiving your very kind letter, and
I thought a great deal of you, and your flock, on the prize
day. But now I am troubling you (the idea occurred too
late to be of use at the time), to ask whether you would at
all care to have (say) ten copies of my*' Manual of Injurious
Insects," to give just as you may think fit as an encourage-
ment to the boys — or perhaps a present here or there to one
who might be leaving school and taking up farming. I
should like it very much. You have it yourself and (I
think ?) one for the school library, and Mr. D. E. Byrd
must have his father's copy, but if you cared to have some
copies it would really give me very great pleasure. Though
fruit-insect prevention has made great advances in the last
few years, this is not a special Cheshire interest, the agri-
cultural observations are very correct still.

Mr. D. E. Byrd has kindly given me some very good

1899.] WATER BEETLE AND CHEESE FLY

125

information about Cheese-fly maggot attack, just precisely
what I was wishing for, and also something of the principle
of prevention. Mr. Ward [Organising Secretary of the
Cheshire County Council] was kind enough to procure me
some good information from Miss Forster [of the Cheshire
Dairy School], and I hope to form a good paper by and by.
All I really want now in this matter are a few of the ^* hop-
ping " maggots, which most likely will turn up soon.
Curiously enough, just at the time, I had an application
from a bacon-curing Co. and I think we have on both
sides benefited.

I, Fly ; 2, pupa ; 3, pupa-case ; 4, maggot— all magnified,
with lines showing natural length ; 5, tail extremity, still
more magnified, showing spiracles, tracheae, and caudal
tubercles.

FIG. 12. — CHEESE AND BACON FLY, PIOFHILA CASE/, LINN.

August 5, 1899.

I now, with many thanks for the clearness with which you
have been good enough to note precisely the form of the
presentation labels, enclose twelve, only altering by adding
to the slips for the three boys, the prefix of *^ Mr." I am
sure they will like it. I fancy I see them surreptitiously
turning to the donatory slip, to enjoy their rise ! Very
many thanks to you indeed. I hope it may give the
recipients pleasure, but I am very sure you give great
pleasure to myself by allowing my little remembrance to
these kind helpers.

I am sure you will be interested to know that the Meat

126 LETTERS TO MR. BAILEY [Chap. xiv.

Traders Associations — at the Royal Lancashire Show — are
distributing thousands of my Warble leaflets, with free leave
to write up to London for more.

March 2, 1900.

Many thanks to you for your very kind letter. Indeed it
is a trouble to me that I am not able to write oftener, but
nobody knows better than yourself (who are so burdened
with work for the good of others) how hard work can be,
and if I quite overwork I am ill, so I am afraid to do all I
wish.

Thank you for your kind congratulations. I take it as a
very great honour for the University of Edinburgh to give
me a Doctor of Laws Degree, &c., &c., &c. I am a little
anxious about making such a very public appearance, but I
dare say it will not be so alarming when it comes to the
point. But I do not wish to go out of my own quiet
lines, and I do not certainly wish to be called ^' Doctor."
Would not the right thing be for me to just put LL.D. after
my name where desirable ?

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS,

April 26, 1 90 1.

My dear Mr. Bailey, — I have postponed replying to
your kind letter partly because I have had a long exhausting
illness, and partly because I am sure that you will regret
the subject of my letter, as I do myself. Still I think I
ought to tell you that I am purposing quite to discontinue
my regular entomological work. You would notice what
I said about the Annual Reports, but the attention to
insect inquiries and (almost worse) the requests for co-
operation in philanthropic literary schemes had become a
burthen so very injurious to me that I was warned both by
my doctor and literary colleagues that without rest the con-
sequences might be very serious. All last year my health
was failing, and (though this is temporary) an attack of
influenza early in March, followed by what are called
" effects," has caused me great suffering.

But it is in reference to our long, kindly colleagueship
that I am writing to you. Natural history is on a very
different footing now from what it was in 1884, when with
your good help our good lads started the investigations
regarding Warble, which have proved to the whole world
the possibility of checking this wasteful attack, and I may
add they have carried the work on with their own steady,
patient, long-continued energy. To this I must add my
great appreciation of their useful work in real serviceable

I90I.] PARTIAL RETIREMENT 127

Economic Entomology, and the kindliness and heartiness
of their work.

But now yourself, your school and your scholars have
a world-wide name, and as you will fully appreciate that
to continue, however much I may wish it, publicly attached
to any one philanthropic economic work throws me open
still to whole hosts of applications, I am sure you will
understand my wish to withdraw. You have I think my
subscription for your next great June day, and after that I,
with much regret, purpose to discontinue it. I look back
on many years' kindly communication from you, but if you
could have any idea of the labour which has been thrown
on me from other quarters, I am sure you would think I am
right. I earnestly and sincerely beg you to believe me with
feelings of the highest esteem and friendship and every
good wish. Yours sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormp:rod.

P.S. — Please to excuse handwriting, as I am on my sofa.

CHAPTER XV

LETTERS TO MR. D. D. GIBB

Great Tortoiseshell Butterfly — The Forest Fly — Numerous other fly-pests
and fly-parasites — A few Moths.

The subjoined letters to Mr. Gibb are unique in that they
deal with a wider range of subjects than any of Miss
Ormerod's letters to other British observers. She recognised
and appreciated her correspondent's accuracy of observa-
tion, and gratefully acknowledged the assistance she received
through the numerous specimens he so promptly collected
for her when in need.

To D. D. Gibb, Esq., Assembly Manor Farm, Lymington.^

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. AlBANS,

J^une 26, 1894.
Dear Sir, — I am very much obliged to you for kindly
sparing time to let me have your careful observations
received this morning, together with the specimens of the
Great Tortoiseshell butterfly, Vanessa polychloros, infestation.
I have been very carefully noting, measuring and counting,
so as to secure details, and presently I think with your own
observations these will form a very serviceably interesting
paper. That patch of eggshells contained over three
hundred eggs, as near as I could count by taking numbers
in length and breadth. Your two caterpillars had been
over hasty in their arrangements, and changed to chrysalis
on the journey, and consequently made not a good business
of it, but one of those you sent me previously, having
better surroundings had done its work thoroughly well, and
is a very beautiful specimen which I hope will develop. I

^ Now " Kirkdale," Spencer Road, Bournemouth.
128

1894.]

TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLIES

129

propose to have a good figure engraved of the butterfly,
chrysaHs and caterpillar.

All your other notes I have also read with much interest,
especially those on turnip management, and your remarks
about ^'warble," and in due time I shall be much
obliged ,by being allowed to use these in my next Annual
Report.

Jw/y 27, 1894.

I am very much pleased to hear that you have hatched
two of the Large Tortoiseshell butterflies from your
specimens. This is very interesting as completing your

£ c./r:

Caterpillar and chrysalis, natural size ; branched spine from
caterpillar, magnified.

FIG. 13.— GREAT TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY, VANESSA POLYCHLOROS, L.

previous observation, and I am particularly glad of this note
of date of development for I am afraid that the only really
good chrysalis which I secured from your larvae does not
seem likely to develop. However, it gave me an opportunity
of seeing the beautiful colours and the six bright mother-
of-pearl-like spots on the back. Many thanks for kindly
offering me a specimen, but I should not like to take it — for
it is of special interest with you to illustrate this rare attack,
and also it is very difficult to ensure safety in transmis-
sion. Many thanks all the same, and also for your Hessian
fly specimens received a short time ago, and for the

10

130 LETTERS TO MR. GIBB [Chap. xv.

further notes now. I am sorry not to have acknowledged
them and the information in the letter accompanying them
sooner, but I had a deal of work, and some temporary
difficulty from breaking a blood-vessel in one eye. How-
ever I am thankful to say that is all right again.

I have no doubt you are right about the weather making
a most important amount of difference in extent of injury
both from Hessian fly and Diamond-back attack. If it had
been hot I am afraid Plutella cruciferarmn (Diamond-back
moth) would have done a deal of mischief. The little
Charlock weevil, Cetitorhynchiis contractus (see my seven-
teenth, 1890, report), has been doing a great deal of mischief

In usual position, and also with wings expanded — magnified ;
also natural size.

FIG. 14.— CHARLOCK WEEVIL, CEUTORHYNCHUS COATRACTUS.

to young turnips at some places on the east side of the
country.

July 30, 1894.
The V. polychloros specimen came to hand little, if at all,
injured by its journey, and in beautiful order for figuring.
I am very glad to have it, for besides proving the caterpillars
to be of the " great tortoiseshell," 1 had the opportunity of
seeing the row of long bristles or stout hairs about a third
along the lower part of the front edge (the costa) of the
fore-wings. This row of hairs is the structural difference
between this ''great tortoiseshell," and the ''small tortoise-
shell " (which is without them), but otherwise the two species
are so much alike that there used to be doubts whether they

1894.]

HESSIAN FLY

131

were not merely varieties until this point was noticed by a
Dutch entomologist, Mr. Snellen. I shall be glad to refer
to this point, for it is important and was observed after our
chief manuals of Lepidopiera were published.

On referring to your letter accompanying the Hessian fly
puparia, '^ flax-seeds," in which you notice some of them
being within the stalks, I remembered I had not precisely
replied to this part, so I do it now^ I think this position,
though not characteristic, is not very uncommon, and is
caused by a weakness of the stem. I have from time to

Natural size and magnified.

I, Anchor-process of larva of Cecidomyia destructor ; 2, of Cecidomyia
/nV/d— magnified ; " flax-seeds," or puparia, in different stages of
development, natural size and magnified.

FIG 15.— HESSIAN FLY, CECIDOMYIA DESTRUCTOR.

time found the stem cracked longitudinally and the ^^ flax-
seed " partly slipped into the cavity.

August 22, 1894.
I have to-day had a request from Dr. Ritzema Bos for
some specimens of Hessian fly puparia in situ or otherwise.
If you could do it without inconvenience, could you oblige
me w^ith some '' flax-seeds " if you come on them at threshing
time ; and you will be good enough to let me have also a
few pieces of barley or wheat steni just three or four inches
long with the flax seed still adhering.

132

LETTERS TO MR. GIBB

[Chap. xv.

I hope you are having good harvest weather, but indeed
this is the first really good bright summer's day we have
had for a long time, and to my eye the wheat round here
has a grey look instead of the bright colour.

August 28, 1894.
Your packet of infested straw came safely to hand this
morning and I am very much obliged to you for kindly taking
all this trouble. I have repacked the Hessian fiy straws,

EO

FIG. 16. — YOUNG WHEAT, WITH HESSIAN
FLY MAGGOT AT " rt."

(After Prof. Webster.)

I, Straw bent over ; 2, showing
" flax-seeds."

HESSIAN FLY ATTACK ON BARLEY.

winding a thread over the place of deposit of the puparia on
the barley straw for fear they should get from under the
sheathing leaf and be lost. I am sure Dr. Ritzema Bos will
be very grateful for the help, and also for its coming so
promptly.

Thank you also for the Chlorops (Gout fly) specimens ;
they were particularly acceptable just now, for, if all is well.
Professor Riley means to look in early next week before he
returns to the U.S.A., and I think he would like to see them.

i895.]

GOUT FLY

133

April 26, 1895.
If I am not troublesome I should be very greatly obliged
if you would tell me anything as to the methods
commonly used for keeping off attacks of the Forest fly,
Hippobosca equina, which is such a special pest in the
New Forest to horses not used to it. I mean the thick made
fly of which I enclose a figure (18), natural size and magnified,
which deposits an egg-like puparium or chrysalis case in the
hair of the horses, from which case the fly presently comes
out. I believe you will know exactly the infestation I refer

<QTnTn:?>

Nos. 1-6 and 11 and 12, Gout fly, grub, and pupa — natural size and
magnified ; with infested stem ; 7, 8, 9 and 10, parasitic ichneumon
flies, natural size and magnified.

FIG. 17.

-GOUT FLY, RIBBON-FOOTED CORN FLY, CHLOROPS TMNIOPUS^
MEIGEN.'

to, and any information which you may be good enough to
give me, as to how to prevent it coming at horses and
settling on them, I know would be quite sound and reliable.
I am receiving so much application for information about
the habits, &c., &c., that I feel sure my best plan will be to
issue a leaflet as soon as possible with figure included at the
heading. I have, I think I may say, far more in the way of

^ The attack is caused by the small black and yellow fly, figured above.
She lays an ^gg on the barley sheath ; the maggot from this attacks the
ear, then eats a channel down one side of the stem to the first knot, and
then turns to chrysalis state within the leaves. — (E. A. O.)

134

LETTERS TO MR. GIBB. [Chap. xv.

description and nature of the fly than can be needed, but it
would help me very much indeed to have a recipe for any
application which was really known to answer in keeping
the attack off riding horses. I am sure you would allow
me to add this to my leaflet, acknowledged to you. I make
no doubt quantities of things, especially of the nature of
soap or soft soap (not caustic) or lard, and a little paraffin
or sulphur, would with careful attention keep the flies from
congregating permanently, but the thing in hand is to
prevent them coming at the horses and causing dismal
downfalls ! I have heard lately of a plan of rubbing horses
with paraffin — very efficacious, I should expect, but not the
thing to benefit the clothes of the riders 1

I and 2, natural size and magnified from life ; 3, pupa removed from
puparium (after Reaumur) ; puparium, natural size and magnified, before
complete coloration.

FIG. 18. — FOREST FLY, HIPPOBOSCA EQUINA.

Wednesday night, May i, 1895.
I am exceedingly obliged to you for your most helpful
letter and the live specimen, which I learnt a great deal
from, before we re-captured it, and stopped its activity with
some benzine. It slipped out of my fingers somehow, out
of your careful packing, and kept flying at my light woollen
shawl, varied by taking a promenade (which I was very
conscious of) on the top of my head. It struck me as
suggestive that it selected me (not my sister or our house-
keeper) for this purpose, because I never use any kind of
pomatum. I like my hair as smooth as can be, so the creature
did not establish itself, but judging by feeling, it had much

i895.]

GREAT OX GADFLY

135

pleasure in its survey. I noticed the set of the wings, and
perhaps I can get a figure.

When the flies are more plentiful, so that it would not
give you too much trouble to secure some, I certainly
should like two or three very much, but please do not let
me intrude too much on your good nature and time. I
will write again presently to say how I am getting on with

mmmmm»m

Fly, with wings expanded ; also viewed sideways.
Larva and pupa, after De Geer.

FIG, 19. — GREAT OX GADFLY, TABANUS BOVINUS, LINN.

the leaflet, but I did not like to delay thanking you heartily
longer than I could.

May 10, 1895.

I am very greatly obliged to you for all the information

in your letter, and also for the four live and hearty flies.

These have been very valuable to me, and I cannot help

thinking I have discovered a point not previously observed

136 LETTERS TO MR. GIBB. [Chap. xv.

in the structure of the feet which may prove of importance
practically. However it may have been known, so I have
written to-day to our great English authority, Mr. Meade,
to ask him what he thinks about it and will write you again.
I fancy that your specimen's being so fresh allowed me to
make out the point. Still I may be wrong.

P.S. — I was told yesterday that a worse trouble in the
forest than the Forest fly is the '^ Great Gadfly" the Tabanus
bovinus. Do you think this is so ? This fly is such a very
large creature indeed, see figure (19) of it with wings laid at
rest and expanded. I should have expected to hear of it
before now.

May 20, 1895.

I received the first copies of my Forest Fly leaflet late
on Saturday and now enclose you a few with great pleasure.
Please tell me if more would be acceptable, as you know

Magnified (after Railliet).

(a) CLEG, OR SMALL (6) AUTUMNAL BREEZE (c) SMALL BLINDING

RAIN BREEZE FLY. FLY. BREEZE FLY.

FIG. 20. — BREEZE FLIES: (o) HMMATOPOTA PLUVIALIS. (6) TABANUS
AUTUMN ALIS. (c) CHRYSOPS CMCUTIENS.

how gladly I would send them, and you have helped me
most importantly. I have only had a moderate impression
struck in order that I might be able to alter or add as
seemed desirable.

I thought a deal of what I could manage, as the flies came
at me and I could watch them, but I did not see my way
at all to making a more useful figure than that by Dr.
Taschenberg, which tells little. Mine is after the figure by
Professor Westwood drawn for the plates of ^* Insecta
Britannica — Diptera," and these are regular standard

reference plates.

July I, 1895.
We have really captured some of the Hippobosca equina in
North Wales. The account will be in next number of the
*' Veterinary Record." I have identified them with quite

i«95-]

SADDLE FLY

137

absolute certainty, but I suppose 1 must not forestall the
'' Veterinary Record/' as it sent me the flies.

'July II or 12, 1895.
I am very much obliged for your further consignment
of the Tabanidce (Horse gadflies), and especially for the
liberal supply of the Great gadfly (fig. ig). What a very
grand fellow he is, and how very painful the attack must
be. I have to-day written to Mr. R. H. Meade about this
great variety of Gadflies which you are letting me have,
and offering to send him dupHcates.

Red maggot attack on a stem of barley ; and a saddle, magnified.

FIG. 21.— SADDLE FLY, ? CECIDOMYIA [DIPLOSIS) EQUESTRIS.

Many thanks also for first, and as yet only, note of
presence of Hessian fly this season. About these curious
markings on the side of the straw — are they not very like
those of the maggots, ^^ red maggots," of the Diplosis eqiiestriSy
the Cecidomyia or Great midge, mentioned in my thirteenth
Report, at p. 30 ? I think you have this report, and if you
chanced to have leisure to compare some specimens with

138 LETTERS TO MR. GIBB [Chap. xv.

my sketch, you would see what you thought. The workings
do not seem to me as regular, but yet there is a strong
resemblance.

I am working up the Gadflies as well as time allows, and
through courtesy of Mr. Janson have had a loan of a
volume published in 1842 of a serial called "Isis" so as
to be able to study the very special paper in it by Zeller,
which is the authority on some of the important points, and
which cannot now be bought by itself. I thought this was
a kind help, for the whole book is very costly.

yw/ySi, 1895.

I have a promise from Professor Mik, who is a special
authority on flies, that when he returns to Vienna he will
let me have such duplicates of the Tahanidce as he has,
which will be a great help. I have had an artist down from
London who has made most beautiful drawings for en-
graving of the fly's foot (pis. xxiii. xxiv.), but I greatly
want some dissections made of it, and I have only this
morning heard where I could get this minute work done.
Would you mind the trouble of once again letting me have
two or three Forest flies ? I should be very much obliged,
for though I keep the specimens most carefully that you
let me have, some quite fresh would answer much better fo
dissection.

It is very curious that until Mr. Goodall (a highly
accomplished veterinary surgeon) noticed the long bristle
attached to the H. equina foot, no one except that wonderful
observer De Geer appears to have noticed it, or what is
perhaps still more astonishing, repeated De Geer's observa-
tion and figure.

August 13, 1895.

I am much obliged by your letter of the 8th inst. with
observations of the effect of temperature and weather on
presence of Forest fly, and now again this morning, and
very much, for the supply of Forest flies, which were alive
1 should say by the grumbling in the corn-stem, until I
chloroformed them.

Your *' black ants" appear to me to be Formica fuligi-
nosa, of which it is stated in Frederick Smith's British
Museum Catalogue of British Fossorial Hymenoptera [bur-
rowing four-winged insects], p. 11, that "this species is at
once recognised by its jet-black colour ; its usual habitat is
the vicinity of a decaying tree or old post." I only twice
met with this kind in my father's woods, each time, curiously
enough, one of my brothers who had a great fondness for

PLATE XXill

West, Newman lilli.

Horace Knight ad nal del .

Foot of Forest Fly (Hippobosca Q^XL\TiQ,,Liri7z.)

PLATE XXIV.

)(Mi(i#iw.

Horace Knaghl adnat.del.

West, Newman lith

Foot of Forest Fly (Hippobosca q^miiiq.. Linn.)
Seen from above g reatly magnified.

Tofacep.ldS.

I895-]

FOREST FLY

139

ornithology saw the Hoopoe. As this rare bird is stated to
have a fondness for this special kind of ant I conjectured
its presence was caused by the ftillginosa being present.
Their workings were wonderfully destructive in the felled
stump which they chose for headquarters. I certainly think
you need no advice from me on the head of dealing with
them, but it just occurred to me that, if they come in a
definite line still, and you could not run them up to their
starting point, it might answer to put a couple of half-
decayed stumps across their line of march. Might they not
adopt the suggested new settlement ?

I am getting on with the Forest fly and lately I have been
studying the claws. I have only just discovered that along

Much magnified.

FIG. 22.— FOOT OF FOREST FLY, HIPPOBOSCA EQUINA, SHOWING
DOUBLE CLAWS, CENTRAL PROCESS, AND LONG PRICKLY BRISTLE ;
ALSO PORTION OF SIDE OF CLAW OF HIPPOBOSCA MACULATA, SHOWING
PARALLEL GROOVES AND SAW-EDGE.

the lower part of the large-curved claw is a saw-toothed
edge, and to this the slanting grooves which I had previously
noticed run down one furrow to each notch so as to give an
enormous power of holding and tearing. I think the thumb
claw is also to some degree furnished both with saw- and
file-like markings (fig. 22).

P.S. I can only see the saw and file mark with a good
side light, when the claw is examined in natural state, not
in balsam.

140

LETTERS TO MR. GIBB [Chap, xv

jf^une 20, 1896.
I was very glad to have your note of first capture of Hippo-
hosca (Forest fly) on May 6th. I wonder whether on your
Red Deer (or Roe Deer, if you have them) you find the Deer
Forest fly, the Lipoptena cervi. I am having a deal of com-
munication about it as having been observed as a very
noticeable infestation on Deer in one locality in the North
of Scotland. I beheve it is troublesome to people moving
in the parts it frequents, but the odd thing about it is, that
whilst the females are considered (or conjectured, for it is
not quite certain) to be always wingless, yet the male flies
are developed with wings and drop them, something like
ants, on settling on a host animal. It would be very inter-

I, Leg and base of wing ; 2, base of wing ; 3, abortive wing ;
5, female fiiy, with base of wings — all much magnified ; 4, pupa-
rium, much magnified, and line showing natural length.

FIG. 2

3.— DEER FOREST FLY (FEMALE), LIPOPTERA CERVI, VON
SIEBOLD AND LOEW.

esting if you found any of these ; they come very near the
so-called '^ Sheep tick" in their nature, only neither male nor
female of the *^ Sheep Forest flies " is ever winged. It is
also very curious that from some unaccountable confusion
the generic name has gone wrong ; it seems obvious it
should be Lipoptera, "without wings," but — it is supposed
by some error in printing — Lipoptena, which has no
meaning connected with the fly, has got substituted. I
think it would be well presently to try to get this put right.

1895.] DEER FOREST AND SHEEP SPIDER FLIES 141

August 29, 1895.
I am writing a few lines to mention that Mr. Meade has
verified my identification of the New Forest Tcxhanidce for
me as being all correct, with one exception. He thinks the

With wings thrown off ; also still retaining wings ; and wing —
all much magnified. Line shows natural length.

FIG. 24. — DEER FOREST FLY (MALE), LIPOPTENA CERVJ, VON
SIEBOLD AND LOEW.

glaucoptis is more like cognatus, but Brauer of Vienna says
the latter is only probably a variety of the former, so this is
no great matter. Mr. Meade is not only an eminently
skilled dipterist himself, but he also possesses a collection of

Fly, magnified, with line showing natural length ; puparium,
magnified (showing incrustation), also natural size.

FIG. 25.— SHEEP SPIDER FLY, " KED," OR " KADE,"
MELOPHAGUS OVINUS, LINN.

the Tahanidce (our British kinds) named for him by Dr.
Brauer, the great continental authority. So now we stand
on a very firm footing (thanks to the trouble which you

142 LETTERS TO MR. GIBB [Chap. xv.

and Mr. Moens were good enough to take in supplying me
with fresh specimens) asto the species of these bloodsucking
pests which you have in the Forest. Would you tell Mr.
Moens about this when you see him, with my compliments
and thanks ? I think you meet sometimes. I am longing
to hear something of the military experiences.

October 8, 1895.
I am very much obliged to you for your letter received
this morning, and (as you kindly allow me) I will just say
what I should particularly like, but please believe me I
should be very sorry to be really troublesome. First, about
the Hessian fly straw. If you came on some that had been
infested this would answer excellently. I have got some
"flax-seeds" and 1 could slip some in. But really the
'' elbowed " straw (bent over) into an angle (fig. 16) is what I
want to show. I have excellent Gout specimens. One thing I

I and 2, young and full-grown larvae ; 3 and 4, larvae magnified ;
5, female beetle flying ; 6, male beetle, slightly magnified.

FIG, 26.— BEET CARRION BEETLE, SILPHA OPACA, LINN.

should particularly like is a little bit of Mangold leaf (say two
or three inches square) showing Mangold maggot blister.
I could dry this in blotting paper (like my pea- bean- and
clover-leaf injuries from Sitones) and with a good supply of
Mangold fly and pupae which I have got, I think this would
be very nice. I have good grubs of Carrion Beet beetle,
which would be difficult to get, and I think plenty of the
beetle (or at hand), but, for the mangold, if I could get
them, I should very much like some of the Spotted or Black
millepedes which were such pests earlier in the year. I
am afraid though it is too late now. The only other thing
which I am very much wishing for is a good specimen of
apple twig, injured by American blight. A bit from six to

1895] CENTIPEDES AND MILLEPEDES. 143

nine inches long, which I could split down, would suit me
very nicely.

I may mention that I am preparing an exhibit for the
Bath and West of England Agricultural Society Show next
May, but I am collecting beforehand to be sure. This
afternoon I have arranged a nice case to show Bean and Pea
seed and Leaf weevil injuries. [See Appendix C for list of
cases and contents.]

October 22, 1895.

I am greatly obliged to you for the very acceptable parcel
of specimens, which arrived in excellent order this morning.
Indeed I feel very much indebted to you, for I know the
trouble it takes to collect and pack in this careful way. The
Hessian fly wheat was particularly acceptable as I had just
two or three old straws, but this to freshen them up (with
the insect and figures) makes a beautiful exhibit. The

I, Jiilus londincnsis ; 3, Julus guttatus (pulchelhis, Leach) ; 4, ^iiltis
terrestris ; 5, horn ; 7, Polydesmus compianatus — all magnified ; and
2 and 6, natural size.

FIG 27. — CENTIPEDES AND A MILLEPEDE.

mangold leaves are also a great help ; and nothing could be
more characteristic than the American blight. I have not
fully examined the contents of the bottles, but I see some
nice Jiiliis guttatus (Snake millepedes) and also a few of the
long, thin, yellow, electrical centipedes, which I shall hope
will keep their colour nicely in spirits. Indeed it is a very
welcome contribution.

I have been ill with rather a bad quinsy, followed by some-
thing going wrong with my mouth and tongue, but I have
nearly recovered now, and as I was directed to keep indoors,
I have been getting on with the cases.

Besides the more customary crop and other attacks, I
thought such things as liver-flukes (in spirit) and a good

144

LETTERS TO MR. GIBB

[Chap. xv.

number of the little ^^ water snails/' Linwoea truncatiila, (such
tiny shells !), which is their host in the early stage, with
figures of the intermediate conditions, would be of useful
interest ; also a couple of bottles with contents of sparrows'
crops, showing the great amount of corn they eat, as well
as a number of locusts in the condition in which they are
importad in lucerne from Buenos Aires.

November 26, 1895.
This sort of brickdust-like deposit is, I think, eggs. I had
a quantity of it sent me about six weeks ago by a fruit
salesman and auctioneer who had got 10,000 apple trees

Infested apple spray, natural size ; wingless viviparous female and

young clothed with cottony fibres above ; and small egg-bearing

female beneath the spray ; pupa with little cottony growth — all
magnified.

FIG. 28.— AMERICAN BLIGHT, WOOLLY APHIS, SCHIZONEURA LANIGERA,

HAUSM.

infested. It agrees in measurement and colour, &c., with
the general description given by Mr. Frazer Crawford
(of Adelaide) of the eggs of the Red spider, Bryobia
? speciosaj (fig. 52) found on apple in South Australia, but I
do not think we can be quite certain of its nature until the
contents hatch. About ten days ago I thought that I found
fungi developing in the patches, so I sent a good supply to
Professor M. C. Potter (Botanical Professor of Durham
College of Science), for I was sure whatever he would say
would be trustworthy. He wrote me that there was fungus

1896.] RED SPIDER AND OAK LEAF ROLLER 145

amongst the red spheres. He did not believe that they were
fungoid ; but thought,Hkeme, that they were eggs. Certainly
you are right in considering them not American blight,
although on one of the twigs you have sent me there is a
swelled cankered piece that looks very much, to general
observation, like that attack. 1 wish I could give you a plain
straightforward answer, but the above is the best I can tell
you at present. Mr. Nixon, whose name you will remember
in my yearly reports connected with Red spider, says that
he knows this '' red deposit " well and does not think it does
harm, but I should think it would be but prudent to have
some soft soap mixture or antipest at hand, against hot
sunshine in late winter days.

Many thanks for your good wishes, which I heartily reci-

Moth ; caterpillars hanging by their threads, slightly larger than life
rolled oak-leaf.

FIG. 29. — OAK LEAF-ROLLER MOTH, TORTRIX VIRIDANA.

procate, to you and to your young people. I cannot say I
have been well. However, 1 am much better, but we are
anxious, for my only remaining brother (who is nearly eighty)
had a stroke of palsy last year, and on Sunday he had a
second, but he is not suffering, which is a great comfort.

July 3, 1896.

I thank you very much for taking the trouble to send me
this good supply of Tabanidce, and still more especially for
the Forest flies. I thought these were all dead, but whilst I
was opening the bit of straw in which you pack them so
cleverly, they began to tear out headlong — luckily I thought
of catching the whole affair together in my closed hand, and

II

146

LETTERS TO MR. GIBB

[Chap. xv.

then, pouring some chloroform in between my fingers, I got
them all safe.

I am very much interested about this poor young woman's
death from poisoning by a fly or insect attack. ^ I wish it
had been possible to secure the pest, it would be so really
useful to make out whether the evil was from the nature of
the bite or sting, or whether from ill health or other cause
the sufferer was unusually susceptible.

December 14, 1896.

I am troubling you with a few lines to ask whether you
would kindly tell me if the caterpillars which did so very
much harm to the oak leafage in your neighbourhood in
May, were mostly '' loopers "—or the dull, dirty green, or
leaden-coloured larvae of the Tortrix viridana (Oak leaf-
roller) : you just noted the very great amount of attack to
me, in your letter of the 12th of May. I conjecture they
would be loopers (? Winter or Mottled Umber moth).

(a) Male ; and wingless females.

{b) Male ; and wingless female ; caterpillar.

FIG. 30.— LOOPER CATERPILLARS, (rt) WINTER MOTH, CHEIMATOBIA BRUM ATA, LiNN.
[b) MOTTLED UMBER MOTH, HYBERNIA DEFOLIARIA, LINN.

for you note that ^' the moths appeared unusually early, and
as soon as the bud began to open, the little caterpillars were
upon them," and I think you would be referring to the early
appearance last autumn of the Winter moth. But a note
from you would be very valuable. I am wanting to make a
really good paper on ^^ Leafage Caterpillars" — people seem
not to understand that though the remedies we know of can
be used at a paying rate on orchard trees that we can get

at, yet, for a mile
woods with their

of avenue *^ ancestral timber ! " or for
no passage for
machines, the expense of treatment could not be met.

^ The victim was a resident in the New Forest district, and the sting
or bite was followed by severe local inflammation. Blood poisoning
supervened and caused death. (Ed.).

1899.] DIAMOND-BACK MOTH AND CORN SAWFLY 147

August 5, 1897.

I am greatly obliged to you for your very interesting and
valuable observations, and for the accompanying specimens
of corn attacks. What a collection to find in one field ! I
do not remember having had wheat attacked by Chlorops
before, though it is subject to the attack, and it is years
since I have had the Sawfly attack. In one stem the grub
had spun itself a beautiful case just within the lowest part of
the stem, and being kept steady in the transparent covering,
it gave me an excellent opportunity of examining it.

I am very glad also of your definite observation of pre-
sence of Diamond-back moth. I should not much wonder
if we saw more of it next year, for I have just had a very
few specimens sent from widely distant localities.

I, 2, Corn sawfly, magnified, and line showing natural length ;
3, infested stem ; 4, 5, maggot, natural size and magnified ; 6,
parasite fly, Pachymerus calcitrafor, magnified, and 7, line showing
natural size.

FIG. 31. — CORN SAWFLY, CEPHUS PYGMMUS, CURTIS.

August 7, 1899.
I am very much obliged to you for your letter of the 3rd
with notes of Hessian fly (fig. 15), and Corn sawfly presence.
I have examined the specimens, and it seems to me that
those of the Hessian fly attack close to the root are of the
same nature as some I have had before. I think your notes
would be interesting for my next Annual Report. I was

148 LETTERS TO MR GIBB [Chap. xv.

very much pleased to notice some time back, that in an
official U.S.A. report, attention was markedly drawn to the
great importance of destroying puparia of Hessian fly as a
means of keeping attacks in check. My name was given as
having upheld the plan in England. I am truly glad that the
States people have taken this improved view of preventive
measures.

The weather has been quite distressingly hot here, with
often a glare of sunshine on this exposed south-west slope
that was very painful, and with the heat quantities of the
Cabbage white butterflies came out. I got my gardener to
syringe the brassicaceous plants with " antipest " as an
experiment, and I certainly think that afterwards there was
not nearly as large a proportion of the butterflies on the
cabbage as in the adjacent flower garden.
Believe me,

Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

D. D. Gibb, Esq., Barton, Marlborough.

CHAPTER XVI

LETTERS TO MR. GRIMSHAW, MR. WISE, AND MR.
TEGETMEIER

The Red-bearded Bot fly— Deer and Ox Warble flies— Caddis flies— Black
Currant mites — Crusade against the House Sparrow — Miss Ormerod's
pamphlet and Mr. Tegetmeier's book on the Sparrow.

The grouping of the letters to three correspondents, so
differently interested in Entomology and other branches of
Biology, was more a matter of dates than of any scientific
relationship in the subject matter, (i) Mr. Grimshaw, the
well-known authority on Scottish Diptera, was also the first
investigator to show that the so-called " frosted " condition
of heather was caused by a beetle larva ; (2) Mr. Wise was
one of Miss Ormerod's most interested correspondents in
questions relating to fruit-growing and market-gardening ;
and (3) Mr. Tegetmeier was her colleague through the
trying days of the Sparrow controversy, in which Miss
Ormerod was subjected to bitter personal attacks by her
opponents. He was always ready to lend assistance in
relation to questions dealing with birds and the four-footed
animals.

To Percy H. Grimshaw, Esq., F.E.S., &c.. Museum of Science
and Artf Edinburgh.

ToRRixGTON House, St. Albans,

August 14, 1895.
Dear Sir, — I write at once to thank you very much for
the copy of your paper on the Cephenomyia rufibarbis (Red-
bearded botfly), in the '' Annals of S. Nat. Hist." Will this
be the attack figured (in its effect on the deer) in Dr.
Brauer's spirited frontispiece to his ** CEstridae " ? ^

[In the last few days I have had sent a nice specimen of

' See also a paper on Deer botflies, in Entom. Monthly Magazine,
1898, by Mr. E. E. Austin, Brit. Museum.

149

150 LETTERS TO MR. GRIMSHAW [Chap. xvi.

the Throat Deer botfly, C. rufibarbis, which I alhided to in
my nineteenth Report. It is a very handsome fly, more
than half an inch long, and of very broad make (three-eighths
across the abdomen), thickly clothed with very dark hair
(but much either mixed with or tipped with orange),
and on each side of the thorax a good-sized pale patch,
and beneath the chin the red beard from which it takes
its name. I scarcely think it would occur in the New Forest,
but, if it did, it would be quite a rare prize.] ^

Have you (if I may venture to ask) extended your
researches to the Hypoderma (Warble fly), of our British
deer ? It would be usefully interesting, I think, if we could
work this up. I am doing what I can, with help from some
of the head-keepers, &c., and when deer-stalking is going on
I am promised a warbled red-deer's hide for examination.

Rather larger than Hfe ; Hne showing natural length.

FIG. 32. — RED-BEARDED BOTFLY, CEPHBNOMYIA RUFIBARBIS,
MEIG., BRAUER, AND SCHINER.

August 17, 1895.

I had much pleasure in receiving your letter this morning,
and only wish I had a duplicate of the Hypoderma bovis (Ox
warble fly, iig. 5), to spare — I would most gladly ofifer it,
but now I have only one. I never had many, and with my
best endeavours I cannot get people to rear them. I quite
hope to have a hide of a red-deer presently, and I think one
might make out the larva of the H. diana (Deer warble fly), at
least, by reference to fig. 6, tab. viii. — what do you think ?

May I ask you to do me the pleasure of accepting the
enclosed copy of the ^' CEstridae," lately come rather
curiously to my hands. It was sent through a mistake
instead of the separate impression of Dr. Brauer's
*' Tabanidae," and as I knew how difficult it was to procure
(especially with the plates), I kept it, feeling sure it would be
useful to some friend. • I have a copy which I have worked

' Extracted from a letter of Miss Ormerod to Mr. D. D. Gibb. (See
Chap. XV.)

1896.] RED BEARDED BOTFLY 151

with for years, so I hope that you will not hesitate to give
me the pleasure of making this copy as useful as I am sure
it will be in your hands. I wish it were in better order. I
see that beneath the frontispiece of this copy is a reference
to p. 186 in the '^ Biologic von Cephenomyia, &c./' but I
suppose my frontispiece is a '' proof before letters," for there
is no reference or description. The two are the same edition.

January 9, 1897.
My riifiharhis was sent to me by Mr. Dugald Campbell
from Strathconan Forest, Muir of Ord, Ross-shire. I
received it on June 8th, then quite fresh — and such a
beauty 1 With its long thick coat it almost might be called
furry, and the "glance" on the hairs was lovely. It was
rather darker in some parts (that is, ran to rather more foxy
red on the centre of the upper fore part of the abdomen),
than is noted by some observers, so that it was very richly
coloured, and its red beard was very handsome. I have had
a figure taken of it, with great care, and if when you see it
(for of course I hope you will accept a copy of my next
Annual Report, on publication), you think you would like to
borrow it any time for one of your papers, I should be only
happy to lend it you.

Yours sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Charles D. WisCy Esq., Estate Office, Toddington, Winch-
combe, Gloucestershire.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. AlBANS,

April 16, 1896.

Dear Mr. Wise, — If it would not give you too much
trouble I should be very glad of some information about
the case of Caddis worms attacking water-cresses. You
will know these grubs quite well as the creatures that
go about in shallow ponds or ditches with a case formed
round them. Sometimes this is of very little shells, but at
home the commonest kind was made of little morsels of
rush or stick, with little leaves webbed up with it.

There is a very large trade in water-cresses from the little
river here, but there are such quantities of trout in it,
that probably these keep the Caddis worms in moderate
limits, and I only now and then see their flies, the so-called
'^ Water moths " in the summer. Mr. Richard Coe, Weston
Farm, Guildford, has kindly sent me some excellent speci-
mens of Caddis worms and cases, which I am very glad

152

LETTERS TO MR. WISE [Chap. xvi.

to have. The chief natural helpers against over-presence
of Caddis worms appear to be fish of various kinds, but the
increase of birds which naturally feed on fish — herons,
&c., — destroys the balance of nature, and Caddis worms
increase.

[Miss Ormerod, quoting Mr. Coe in her Report for 1896,
says (p. 156) :_

^'Whenever we find a bed of cresses attacked, we clear
away all the plants, drain off the water, and leave the bed
perfectly dry for two or three weeks in the autumn, previous
to the winter planting. If afterwards we find traces of the

Water moth, magnified, and lines showing natural size (after
Westvvood) ; Caddis worm " cases " of Limnephilus fiavicornis,
magnified.

FIG. 33. — CADDIS WORMS, LARV^: OF CADDIS FLY OR WATER MOTH,
MORMON/A NIGROMACULA TA .

worm, we wait until the plants are well established, then we
increase the volume of water and swim the bed, and pass
the backs of wooden rakes over the tops of the plants very
thoroughly. This process brings the bulk of the worms to
the surface, and they are let off down-stream with the
surplus water."

To Dr. Fletcher she also wrote as follows: — ^'Did I

1897.] CADDIS WORMS i53

tell you about the Caddis worm attack on water-cresses ?
So much harm was being done that the unlucky grower
was in much trouble, and on running the matter up it
appeared that formerly there were numbers of trout in the
water, but lately the landlord's wife had a fancy to encou-
rage herons, and so came the curious sequence. The
herons cleared off the insect-loving trout, so the vegetable-
eating insects got ahead, and the watercress grower could
not pay the rent of his half acre of cresses. I suggested that
as the herons were encouraged by the lady, perhaps she, if
applied to, might to some degree make good the damages !"]

March 5, 1897.

Dear Mr. Wise,— You asked my views about moles
at Strawberry roots. I should say it would be quite worth
while to spare them as you are doing, and see what comes
of it. If they take the Otiorhynchiis grub (of Orchard and
Hop weevils) this would meet a difficulty which we hardly
know how to fight at present, and if the moles took these
grubs one might hope that they would take other under-
ground kinds, which are kitchen garden pests, almost uncon-
querable by other remedial means. I should doubt, however,
whether they would be of much service against Winter
moth chrysalides (fig. 30). Very likely I am not right, but
the mole seems to me to prefer more, open ground and a
larger scope of operations.

April 8, 1897.

So far as I know the only treatment for Black Currant
Gall mite, Phytoptus rihis (fig. 65), which has been in a
measure successful, is that reported by Mr. J. Biggs, of
Laxton, East Yorkshire, in my seventeenth Annual I^eport,
p. 93. There, if you will turn to it, you will see we have
treatment to clear the pest from all localities, whether
straying on the twigs or on the ground ; or in the buds,
this by breaking them off. Mr. Biggs observed, writing
on the 20th of April, 1892: '^You will, I am sure, be
interested in knowing that I have, to a certain extent,
prevented the Phytoptus utterly ruining my black currant
trees. As you suggested in a letter of last March, we
syringed the bushes twice with the solution of Paris-green,
which I procured from Messrs. Blundell, and gave the soil
all under the bushes a good coating of caustic lime ; I also
gave the bushes another dressing of the Paris-green. Just
when the buds appeared this spring I had a boy gathering
all the little knobs off the trees. The result has proved as
satisfactory as I could expect, considering the condition of

154 LETTERS TO MR. WISE [Chap. xvi.

the trees last year, and I have every prospect of securing a
good half crop. Our neighbour's trees in this village are
utterly ruined, scarcely a leaf to be seen, and the trees
completely covered with the affected knobs."

But with regard to the life history of the pest, I believe it
breeds entirely in the infested buds, and I believe also
breeds, i.e., lays eggs, there at any time during the winter.
I know that the nearly allied nui-Phytophis does, for I
have seen them. Outside the buds, so far as I know, the
life is wholly spent in sheltering in crannies or straying
about, on the stems, or on the ground. What we want,
appears to me to be, to clear the mite by syringings from
the stems when the buds (of which we have now the galled
growth) are first beginning to form. But I do not see how
we could do this, for we should ruin the fruit. My only
hope for real prevention where black-currants are grown
on this large scale, is in an alteration of the method of
cultivation. As it stands now, the mites can convey them-
selves, or be carried by wind-borne leaves, or may creep
from one bush to another on the ground, but if there
could be a mixing of some field crop in strips with the
black-currants, I believe it would do a deal preventively.
If the ground between the rows were occupied by some
crop that the Phytopti would not pass, it could not fail to
lessen their presence. Even strips of strawberries or of
gooseberries would be beneficial. I wonder whether
kainite would be a good remedial application ? It might
kill all the mites that are about, but it is quite plain to
me that, as nothing that has been tried for so many years
answers thoroughly, we are on the wrong lines and need
a new plan. I wish you would, at your leisure, tell me
what you think of mixing crops, and if you could let me
have just a few little bits of galled twigs for figuring, I
should be very much obliged. I wish I could help better
about the matter, but so far the attack appears to have fairly
bafBed us all.

April 13, 1897.

I am very much obliged for these remarkably fine speci-
mens of Currant galls, which reached me safely this morn-
ing. About the life history of the Phytopti, I do not think
that anything more is recorded than what both you and I
know. But as we know well that the mites are in the galls
(such as you send me), it seems to me that what we have got
to act upon is their condition (or locality, rather) in the time
between their leaving these galls and when they are starting

1897.] BLACK CURRANT GALL MITES 155

new attack in the embryo buds. I wish I could tell you
more, but I do not see how to get at the point of locality,
excepting by watching shoots with a hand magnifier. I
really am quite at a loss as to what can be done.

April 19, 1897.

I wrote out to Vienna to Professor Dr. A. Nalepa, who is
the great authority on the Phytoptidce, and he is much
interested in hearing about this great spread of attack, but
is not able to give us better advice, as to practical remedies,
than what we are already trying. (See also p. 248.)

He says very truly, that looking at the winter quarters of
the mite pests being most especially in the buds, such
measures as : —

(i) Breaking off and destroying the infested buds. ^ (2)
Cutting off the infested shoots just above the ground, and
so getting new shoots. (3) Only using uninfested pieces
for propagation — could not, he thinks, fail to be of service,
if carried out carefully. I quite agree with Dr. Nalepa
so far as that, without these measures, infestation would be
worse than it is. In a small amount of growth (such as
bushes in a private garden), I can speak from my own per-
sonal experience of having sometimes satisfactorily checked
the spread of these or similar causes of injury by employing
dressings. But it is a very different matter where black-
currant bushes are grown by acres together ; and I greatly
doubt whether, even if consideration of cost were put aside,
it would be within possibility to get this wood (or grove) of
bushes, so examined and so expurgated of evil, as not to
leave centres for spread.

It always strikes me as a very curious circumstance that
(so far as I am aware) the black currant is not affected by
this Phytoptiis on the Continent, or at least in the large
part of it in which the attacks are noted by Kaltenbach
or Taschenberg. Do you think it can be that the black
currant is there of a somewhat different kind which repels
Phytoptiis attack, just as some kinds of American vines are
not as subject as others to Phylloxera f It occurs to
me that it may be well worth while to import some hun-
dreds of plants and plant them, of course on what is
considered clean ground, and see what comes of it. I
should like your views after you have well thought the
matter over. I cannot expect the expense of an experiment

' This, or its equivalent, the immediate and diligent pinching of in-
fested buds with linger and thumb, has proved the most practical
remedy (Ed.).

156 LETTERS TO MR. WISE [Chap. xvi.

of mine to be borne by any Company, but I should much
Hke it trustworthily tried, and if you could give me some
guidance as to where to apply on the Continent, and cost
(a rough estimate), I might be able to get the plants, and
with your permission send a good consignment to yourself.

April 27, 1897.

I have to-day heard from Dr. Ritzema Bos about the
Phytoptus ribis, and he tells me that in Holland he knows
many localities where this infestation is a scourge to fruit-
growers, but it is always the black currant which is attacked.
They do not have it there in the red currant, Rihes rnhrnm.
He says that he is not acquainted with any better remedies
than those mentioned in my letter, but that he considers it
an excellent idea to seek for varieties or families of black-
currants, Ribes nigrum, which may be ^^ Phytoptus proof."
He does not himself know positively whether there are
districts in Holland not attacked by the Phytoptus, and
whether in attacked districts there may be varieties that do
not suffer. Therefore he is going to ask for information on
this head from horticulturists and fruit-growers, and will
write me again. I think it is very kind of him to take so
much trouble to help us, and from his position I expect he
will easily obtain whatever information is to be had, and I
will be sure to let you know. It is very curious about the
red currant being attacked in some parts of the Continent
and not in others.

November 30, 1897.

I have this afternoon heard from Professor J. Jablonowski,
Assistant at the State Entomological Station, Budapest, that
he "sends now the promised black currants." I expect
these will be supposed ^^ mite-proof " plants, as he says that
he hopes they will be serviceable for the proposed experi-
ment — but he does not explain ; only that they have been
given to him by his friend, the Director of the Horti-
cultural Institute, Desiderius Angyal (I do not know what
prefix I should write). When the plants arrive I propose to
divide them (if you please) between yourself and Mr. John
Speir — it would be exceedingly interesting if there really
should turn out to be a mite-proof black currant. But
meanwhile Professor Jablonow^ski would very much like to
have a specimen of the mite galls, for he has never seen
them. If it would not be too much trouble, I should be
very greatly obliged if you would be kind enough to let me
have two or three bits of twigs with galls, if any are showing
enough now to be noticeable, and I would send them on.

1897.] . NARCISSUS FLY 157

December 4, 1897.

Many thanks for the supply of galls, which I shall duly
send to the Professor, and I earnestly hope that he will not
infest Hungary with them ! The consignment came to
hand from him yesterday evening, but it is in the form
of shoots as cuttings, so I now send you about half
in a registered letter. If the pieces root properly I
should think it would be best to plant them amongst the
infested currants — as they are so few it would not be much
trouble — and there is just a chance that they may be mite-
proof. I do not myself (much as I regret it) think that
there is any safety in washes and that sort of treatment,
but as I write the idea comes into my mind whether, as
with us, the Ribes rubnun (red currant) seems mite-proof —
anything could be done by grafting black on red. Would
they graft ? or is my idea quite chimerical ? The black
currant shoots are var. *' bang-up," which suggests England
as their original country.

I do not know whether you have to do with importing
apple fruit, but I see from Dr. Fletcher's (Canadian)
Entomological Report that there is a newly observed fruit
maggot in, I think (without special reference), the District
of Columbia.

December 17, 1897.

I cannot be sure of your bulb attack without developing
the fly, but I should conjecture that the mischief was most
likely caused by the Narcissus fly. This is now known as
the Merodon narcissi, Fab., but from the varieties in colour
to which it is subject, I believe it has been known under all
the following specific names : ephippiuin, transversal is, nobiliSy
constans, ferrugineus, flavicanSy and equestris.

It is a fair-sized two-winged fly, and appears to be (in
grub state) a severe plague to Narcissus and Daffodil
growers in Holland, &c., especially in bulbs imported from
the South of Europe.

In Verrall's list of British Diptera I only find one species
of Merodon named and that is equestris, which on the
principle mentioned on the preceding page, might be
synonymous with all the other (?) species. The grubs feed
in Narcissus and Daffodil bulbs and turn to chrysalides in
the ground, but I do not find anywhere that there is any
known remedial measure. It seems to me that the only
way if a bed were much infested would be literally to trench
it, and so turn down the chrysalides. You do not men-
tion whether your bulbs are home grown. If they are

158

LETTERS TO MR. WISE [Chap. xvi.

imported, could not you suggest to your " consigner " that
unless he sent you bulbs without maggots in them, you
purposed applying elsewhere ?

May 12, 1898.
Excepting one specimen your caterpillars are not yet
nearly full grown ! If you will turn to ^* Lappet moth "

Male and female ; and caterpillar ; also apple twig with leaves
eaten away — all from life.

FIG. 34. — LAPPET MOTH, GASTROPACHA QUERCIFOLIA, LINN.

E.C.^..

in my Annual Reports for 1893 and 1894, you will find
^'the brutes" figured — perhaps get a hint where they may
have come from.

It was about this attack amongst others that I gave so

1897.] LAPPET MOTH 159

much annoyance to "Entomologists" by recommending
that, notwithstanding their beauty and rarity, it would be
highly desirable to make them yet more rare !

December 5, 1900.
Do you happen to have seen the Woburn Report con-
taining, amongst a good deal of information, an account of
results of experiments re Black currant mite ? I would
with pleasure lend you my copy, if you please ; there is a
little in it, as to their views about hydrocyanic acid — the
very great difficulties of applying it to broadscale treatment
— and a politely expressed hope that further experiment
may lead to useful results. The experiment of moving cut
down plants, even if steeped in methylated spirit and water,
has not succeeded. Mine had a charming little crop of mite
galls on those only moved to my clean ground, and even
the steeped plants were not quite without them. In this
case four of the twelve plants died, the others were sickly,
and all of the two dozen sent me flowered profusely but did
not produce one currant !

Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To W. B, Tegetmeier, Esq., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. ^

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. ALBANS,

July 3, 1897.
Dear Mr. Tegetmeier, — I am greatly obliged by what
you tell me about your intentions as to publishing a book
on " The House Sparrow," Passer domesticus. My idea is
this — that for popular use (farmers and gardeners) — the
evidence of what the food of the house sparrow really is,
needs to be put plainly before them by means of records
of trustworthy investigations of the contents of their crops.
For this I have been taking the returns of Mr. Gurney, and
some of Colonel Russell, who used to help me ; an abstract
of the U.S.A. Board of Agricultural Investigations, &c., &c. ;
also from my own Annual Reports, some lists, and observa-
tions of birds which are named as destroying insects — this to
show that we do not wholly rely on Passer domesticus ! With
other material I propose to make a sort of 8 or 12 page " leaf-
let" or small pamphlet, and send it out gratuitously. I believe

' A great authority on the life-history of animals ; author of a
standard work on pheasants, and numerous works on poultry, pigeons,
and horses, mules, and mule-breeding ; on the staff of " The Field " for
nearly half a century ; an old Member of the " British Ornithologists'
Union."

i6o

LETTERS TO MR TEGETMEIER [Chap. xvi.

it would have an enormous circulation, and would not
interfere with your much more valuable standard book.
But I am exceedingly desirous to act completely in con-
junction with you. To me it would be a very great ad-
vantage. I quite reckon on being violently attacked, but
it did me no harm before to be threatened to be shot at,
also hanged in effigy, and other little attentions. Still it was
disagreeable !

FIG, C— HOUSE SPARROW, PASSER DOMESTICUS.

[Miss Ormerod's case against the House Sparrow or
avian rat is briefly given in the following summary,
appended to the aforementioned leaflet, of which nearly
36,000 were printed and issued to applicants : —

*'We find, in addition to what all concerned know too well
already of the direct and obvious losses from sparrow
marauding, that there is evidence of the injurious extent
to which they drive off other birds, as the swallows and
martins, which are much more helpful on account of their
being wholly insectivorous ; also that, so far from the
sparrow's food consisting wholly of insects at any time of the
year, even in the young sparrows only half has been found
to be composed of insects ; and of the food of the adults,
it was found from examination that in a large proportion of
instances no insects at all were present, and of these many

1897.] THE HOUSE SPARROW 161

were of kinds that are helpful to us or harmless. It is well
on record that there are many kinds of birds which help us
greatly by devouring insects, and that where sparrows have
systematically been destroyed for a long course of years other
birds have fared better for their absence. Attention should
also be drawn to the enormous powers of increase of
this bird, which under not only protection, but to some
extent absolute fostering, raises its numbers so dispropor-
tionately as to destroy the natural balance.

" Here as yet we have no movement beyond our own
attempts to preserve ourselves, so far as we legally may,
from Sparrow devastations ; but in the United States of
America (of the evidence of which I have given a part) the
Association of the American Ornithologists gave their col-
lective recommendation that all existing laws protecting the
sparrow should be repealed, and bounties offered for its
destruction ; and the law protecting the sparrow has been
repealed in Massachusetts and Michigan. Dr. Hart Merriam,
the Ornithologist of the U.S.A. Board of Agriculture, also
officially recommended immediate repeal of all laws
affording protection to the English sparrow, and enactment
of laws making it penal to shelter or harbour it ; and
Professor C. V. Riley, Entomologist to the Department,
similarly conveyed his views officially as to it being a
destructive bird, worthless as an insect killer. In Canada, on
October 6, 1888, at the Annual Meeting of the Entomological
Society of Ontario, Mr. J. Fletcher, Entomologist of the
Experimental Farms of the Department, strongly advocated
the destruction of the sparrow; and in reply the Hon.C. W.
Drury, Minister of Agriculture (who attended the meeting
as head of the Agricultural Department of Ontario), stated
' that this destructive bird was no longer under the pro-
tection of the Act of Parliament respecting insectivorous
birds, and that every one was at liberty to aid in reducing
its numbers.' Reasoning on the same grounds as to pro-
cedure in this country, we believe that similar action is,
without any reasonable cause for doubt, called for here.
The amount of the national loss, by reason of ravaged
crops and serviceable birds driven away, may be estimated,
without fear of exaggeration, at from one to two millions a
year. Much of their own protection lies in the hands of
farmers themselves ; and sparrow clubs, well worked, and
always bearing in mind that it is only this one bird that is
earnestly recommended to their attention, would probably
lessen the load to a bearable amount ; and we believe that

12

i62 LETTERS TO MR. TEGETMEIER [Chap. xvi.

subscriptions, whether local or from those who know the
desirableness of aiding in the work of endeavouring to save
the bread of the people from these feathered robbers, would
be money wisely and worthily spent."

In his litde book, *^The House Sparrow," ^ Mr. Tegetmeier
writes : — ^' There is no species with which Passer domesti-
cus is likely to be confounded except the Tree sparrow,
P. montanus (the only other species indigenous to this
country) which is less numerous and which is readily
distinguished by its smaller size, being only 5^ instead of
6 inches in length, and by its having black patches in the
middle of the white feathers on each side on the neck, and
two distinct bands of white across the wing in place of one."

FIG. D. — TREE SPARROW, PASSER MONTANUS

"The so-called Hedge sparrow or Dunnock, Accentor
modularis, is wrongly named. It is a purely insect-eating
bird, and neither in its structure, habits nor food is it closely
related to the House sparrow. It does not occur in large
numbers, and is highly beneficial as an insect destroyer."]

July 10, 1897.

Dear Mr. Tegetmeier, — Your letter received this
morning is a very great pleasure to me — in fact, a great relief
to my mind, for I was truly sorry to feel I might be trespass-
ing on far more authoritative work. I should like to shorten
my work if I could, but when we meet, I hope you will
set me right as to condensing and all other matters. If
we could rout P. domesticus it would be a national benefit.
Much looking forward to our meeting on Tuesday.

^ The House Sparrow, published by Vinton & Co., at is., contains
Miss Ormerod's original leaflet as an appendix.

1897.] THE HOUSE SPARROW 163

August 4, 1897.
I think "House Sparrow" shapes up nicely aUogether,
and I have this morning received a letter from Dr. M. E.
Oustalet, President of the "Comity Ornithologique per-
manent," at Paris, to say that he has not been able to find
any indication of destruction of sparrows having taken
place by order of Government in the districts that I in-
quired about.

August 16, 1897.
Application for our leaflet is very satisfactory. The
Staffordshire County Council has taken up distribution, and
the farmers and parish authorities are again encouraged to
begin sparrow clubs. I have experienced tremendous
denunciations of my own brutality from the Rev. J. E.
Walker. 1 enclose the second, as he purposes to relieve his
mind further in the '^Animal's Friend." Please not to return
it. I returned his book with my compliments and thanks
for sight of the same, and requested that should he desire to
make any further remarks relative to the leaflet that he
would not address them to me, but to you as my colleague
in the work.

August 21, 1897.
In very little more than a week a new impression was
needed to keep up to demand — and we are making way well
with this second 5,000. Many of the applications are from
centres — and great satisfaction is often expressed at the infor-
mation being made available. The Agent-General for New
Zealand asked for a supply, and Mr. Morley, Lord Spencer's
agent, is taking up the matter well ; and as Lord Spencer
appears to steadily set his face against sparrows, I hope that
when he comes home we shall get some support there. A
fair proportion of clergymen want copies for distribution to
parishioners, or for sparrow clubs, which is satisfactory —
and amongst all the great mass of applications there have
not, I think, been more than five or six at all upholding
P. domesticus, and these have been mostly quite trivial
observations.

Mr. Morley was in a difficulty about how to keep the
birds for counting, as in warm weather they got unpleasant.
I suggested preserving their heads in salt and water — if I
remember rightly this was how they managed the difficulty
in South Australia. Altogether I think we are doing well —
there are a good many inquiries as to the best methods of
destroying the bird — but I always say that you will deal
with this in your work. The good folks have not attacked
me again personally by letter.

164 LETTl^RS TO MR. TEGE^TMElER [Chap. xvi.

I should have Hked to write just a short note to the
^^ Field " to mention how well the matter has been taken
up, but I did not feel sure whether you would wish me to
do it ? Would you think well of just mentioning the large
demand yourself ? On several days the applications ran to
above a hundred letters. I am keeping the letters, for in
some there is very practical observation as to the great
injury done by sparrows — especially attacking corn on
allotments.

August 22, 1897.

I am trying — if the thing be possible — to rout people out
of the time-honoured old holes that they creep into — as the
emigration of the sparrows — also the Maine and Auxerre
story. These, I think, we have managed.

[The following is an extract from the " House Sparrow "
pamphlet : —

" For many years mention has been made, by those who
consider sparrow preservation desirable, of great disasters
following on some not clearly detailed methods of extermi-
nation, or expulsion of the sparrow in the countries of
Hungary and Baden, and also in the territory of Prussia ;
and, nearer our own time, in Maine, and near Auxerre in
France. With regard to the three first named, a record
will be found in our own ' Times' for August 21, 1861, p. 7.

" This gives a translation from the French paper, the
' Moniteur,' of a report on four petitions relative to pre-
servation of small birds which had been presented to the
French Corps Legislatif. The report contains much infor-
mation, but in respect to the emigrations of the sparrow
because the bird was aware of the plots that were being
laid against its safety, the statements cannot be said to carry
any weight. The following extract is inserted, as it is
important to agriculturists to have a correct copy of the
baseless statements they are sometimes called on to believe.
The passage is as follows : —

^* * Now, if the facts mentioned in the petitions are exact,
according to the opinion of many this bird ought to stand
much higher than he is reputed. In fact, it is stated that a
price having been set upon his head in Hungary and Baden,
the intelligent proscrit left those countries ; but it was soon
discovered that he alone could manfully contend against
the cockroaches and the thousand winged insects of the
lowlands, and the very men who offered a price for his
destruction offered a still higher price to introduce him

1897] THE HOUSE SPARROW 165

again into the country/ . . . ^ Frederick the Great had also
declared war against the sparrows, which did not respect
his favourite fruit the cherry. Naturally the sparrows could
not pretend to resist the conqueror of Austria, and they
emigrated ; but in two years not only were there no more
cherries, but scarcely any other sort of fruit — the caterpillars
ate them all up ; and the great victor on so many fields of
battle was happy to sign peace at the cost of a few cherries
with the reconciliated sparrows.'

'^ With regard to the destruction and consequent results
stated to have occurred in Maine and near Auxerre, at
present our very best endeavours have failed to find that
the statement of this having occurred rests on any authori-
tative basis ; and the only definite notice of the subject
which we have found is, that in the neighbourhood of
Auxerre there was an injudicious destruction of small birds
generally, not only of Passer domesticus." See 'The House
Sparrow at Home and Abroad,' by Thomas G. Gentry, p. 26,
Philadelphia, 1878."]

August 22, 1897.

Dear Mr. Tegetmeier, — But there is a third story —
though I name this with more reverence than they always
do — the New Testament allusions translated in our version,
the '' sparrow." I find in a copy of the '' Ecclesiastical
Slavonic " Scripture which I have here (the authorised edition
of the Russian Greek Church) that the word is bird; in the
ordinary modern Russian it is sparrow. Unfortunately I do
not understand Greek — but this could easily be looked up
in the Greek Testament. I am trying to find a scholar who
knows what the respective words for bird and sparrow are
in Aramaic, which I believe was the dialect of Palestine in
the time of our Lord. Mr. Rassam, the explorer, can, I
believe, talk a number of these Eastern dialects, but he
always told me that he did not enter on them grammatically
or technically.

September 2, 1897.
I see by a local paper that Miss Carrington's leaflet,
''Spare the Sparrow," is out, and is procurable from the
Hon. Sec. of the Humanitarian League, 53, Chancery Lane,
London, W.C., price id. I have now written to the Hon.
Sec, enclosing 8d., and requesting him to send six copies
to myself, and two to yourself. This leaflet, I think, will be
spirity. There are only a few lines quoted, but if the rest is
so discourteous and inaccurate it will not be of much
value.

i66 LETTERS TO MR. TEGETMEIER [Chap. xvi.

Amongst applicants for my leaflet, the Duchess of
Somerset and also Lady Alwyne Compton have asked for
copies, which I am glad of. If it were ''fashionable" not to
protect sparrows this would go far with some people. I am
longing to see the reply leaflet. I expect I am roundly
abused, but I think it is rather strong to head something or
other in the '' Animal's Friend " for September '' God Save
the Sparrow." I expect we shall very likely have Maine
and Auxerre, and Frederick the Great, and the cherries and
cockroaches and the whole story resuscitated !

September ii, 1897.

The Secretary of the Yorkshire Union of Agricultural
Associations asked for some leaflets, and with his consent I
have sent him down 2,000 copies, which gives one for each
member of the Agricultural Clubs or Chambers in the
Yorkshire Union, and the matter is to be brought before
the next quarterly meeting, with the view, the Secretary
says, of seeing about asking the Board of Agriculture to
remove P. domesticus from the list of protected birds. Mr.
Crawford wrote me acknowledgment of receipt of the
leaflets I sent by his desire to the Board of Agriculture,
and said that next week, when the Secretary returns, they
will be laid before the Board. I wonder what they will do ?
Daily applications are running from seventeen or eighteen
to thirty — and some very good. To-day I have one from
Smyrna and one from Stavanger, Norway.

September 19, 1897.

The applications are going on so well that I have had
to order a fourth 5,000 of the leaflets to be printed as soon
as can be managed, and of these over 2,000 are bespoken.
A few days ago 3,000 were wanted for a Scotch centre, the
Agent-General for New South Wales will send out 500,
and other distributions are floating about ; I think this is
not bad.

October 16, 1897.

As you will see by the enclosed, I am now working on
the twenty-first thousand. I have only about fifty copies
left, and Mr. Newman has sent out some of the twenty-
second thousand, so I think that we are doing well. One
of the largest amounts asked for lately has been 1,000
for the Lancashire County Council, and also a little while
ago Lady Aberdeen wrote for a small supply from the
Government House, Canada.

October 27, 1897.

I hope you will be pleased to hear that I have brought

1898.] THE HOUSE SPARROW 167

our sparrow work under the notice of Mr. [now Sir
Ernest] Clarke, Secretary, Royal Agricultural Society —
I hope in a way to advance our work. I sent him
a couple of the twenty-second thousand, with a sort of
report letter, giving some points. Mr. Clarke has replied
very courteously that he is much obliged for my interesting
letter, which he will lay before the Society's Zoological
Committee. Also that, as he is occasionally asked for the
leaflet, it might '^save me (E. A. O.) unnecessary corre-
spondence " if he were able to send copies to inquirers.
I am delighted to follow up this suggestion — for practically
it is the Royal Agricultural Society distributing for us, and
thus giving their marked approval. I wonder what will
come of the Zoological Committee's consideration. As
the President of the Society has such an exceedingly bad
opinion of the sparrow, I hope we may get some good
coUeagueship. I am perpetually asked how to destroy
sparrows, but I refer the inquirers to you. I am longing
to hear when your book will come out — surely it will have
a good circulation. I am well advanced now in the twenty-
second thousand, and the information is well spread, for we
have a splendid notice — much more than a column — in the
" Madras Mail," and I have had two applications from
scientific U.S.A. centres.

I am still dispensing knowledge about the evil ways of
P. domesticus so steadily that I have had to order a sixth
impression.

The store of letters grew to such a size that a week or two
ago I sent them (excepting about seventy which were to
some degree private) in a great parcel to Mr. Janson, and
I have arranged with him that this great mass, perhaps of
1,500 or 1,600 letters, should be sorted out into those that
are merely applications for leaflets and those which contain
any information.

The overwork and worry was too much for me, joined to
my bad fall, and I was very far indeed from well for some
time with gout and exhausting troubles, but I am better,
and regaining strength.

September 14, 1898.

I most truly think it a great distinction that my name
should be associated [on the title-page of "The House
Sparrow"] with that of an Ornithologist of such world-
wide reputation as yourself, and as it is your wish I
very heartily agree. The only alteration I would suggest
is that the word " Miss " should be removed. I do not like

i68 LETTERS TO MR. TEGETMEIER [Chap. xvi.

the word if it is not quite needed ; and would it not be well
to add a reference to my being an authorised agricultural
worker ? It may protect me from some '' mendacities,"
and, a better reason, show that we are attentive to all three
of the points (Ornithology, Entomology, and Agriculture)
on which anti-passerine observation rests.

I like your frontispiece (figs, c and D, kindly lent by
Mr. Tegetmeier) very much. It is very pretty as well as
very useful. When your book appears I shall like to get
some copies to send to some of my own friends, British
and extra-British.

April 15, 1899.

It was a great pleasure to me to see ^' The House
Sparrow" yesterday, followed this morning by your kind
and cordial letter. I like your book exceedingly ; it appears
to me to be exactly what is needed. Chapter IV. [Diminish-
ing the Sparrow Plague] meets the want which is greatly
felt, and your voice being raised against poisoning will do
good. I propose to send samples to the Agents-General of
South Australia and New Zealand, where the ^' Avian Rats"
are special pests ; also to Mr. McKinnon, for the benefit of
the Republic of Uruguay.

I think one or two would be well placed in the hands
of the Department of Agriculture, U.S.A. I suppose that
in an obviously much-needed matter like this it is hopeless
to expect our Board of Agriculture to do anything. But I
have, besides the above, several centres of work which I hope
to make use of.

I do hope that your book will have the success that it
deserves, and be of infinite benefit. I like it thoroughly —
its pretty dress, the good figures and readable type on strong
paper ; it is a National gift, in your good and authoritative
working up of the subject, and I feel myself honoured to be
associated with you in the good work and the pummelling,
which I dare say we shall get more of !

With my very kind regards and remembrances, believe
me, Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XVII

LETTERS TO MR. MARTIN, MR. GEORGE, MR. CONNOLD
AND MESSRS. COLEMAN AND SONS

Elm-bark and Ash-bark beetles — Roman remains — Bladder plums — The

Silver Y-moth.

A NUMBER of interesting and important fresh subjects are
here concisely treated in letters addressed to various British
inquirers. These are merely characteristic samples of a vast
amount of correspondence for which space could not be
found.

To the Rev. John Martin, Charley Hally Loughborough,

ToRRiNdTON House, St. Albans,

April 2, 1897,
Dear Sir, — From your description of the elm-bark
attack, I should certainly think that the maggots were
those of the Elm-bark beetle, the destructor. If you do
not feel certain after this hint as to the nature of the
infestation, and will send me a little piece of bark, I will
with pleasure examine it and report to you. This in-
festation does not injure the timber of the tree. The
burrowings are mostly between the bark and the wood,
though necessarily there are a number of borings through
the bark, caused by the entrance and exit of the beetles.
It would be desirable to fell the trees, and peel off the
bark and burn it. The timber would be quite good (so
far as this matter is concerned) but if the bark is left,
the maggots will in due course develop to beetles and
fly off to continue mischief elsewhere. Further I would
suggest that you should direct your wood-superintendents to
examine whether other elms show shot-like holes in their
bark — the sign of the presence of the infestation. From

your mention of the locality of the trees being rather damp,

169

lyo

LETTERS TO MR. MARTIN [Chap. xvii.

I should conjecture that the trees were not in absolutely
perfect health, and this is the state of things the beetle pre-
fers for its attack. Injured boughs, or moderately recently-
fallen boughs, or, above all, felled elm trunks in which
there is still sap, but not flow enough to stifle the little
maggots, are the very headquarters of infestation, and it is
quite worth while to have such felled trunks peeled and the
bark destroyed, or they will be the nurseries of great mis-

Beetle, much magnified (from " Poorest Protection," by W, R. Fisher) ;
workings in elm bark — from life.

FIG. 35. — ELM-BARK BEETLE, SCOLYTUS DESTRUCTOR, OLIV.

chief. If you will supply me with more detail I will with
great pleasure give my very best attention.

April 5, 1897.

The little larvae came safely yesterday and the specimens

of bark this morning. Necessarily when the attack has

been going on so long the burrows intersect each other

so very much that they cease to show the typical pat-

i899.]

ELM-BARK BEETLE

171

terning or tracks, but I do not see any reason at all to doubt
that this is attack of the very great elm-pest, the Elm-bark
beetle. With regard to its infestation of other trees besides
elm, I have no knowledge of its ever attacking either oak or
ash, but on careful search I find that one German writer
records it as '^sometimes" attacking the ash. I greatly
doubt this having been observed in our country. Our
ashes have, however, a bark beetle which tunnels much
in the same manner between the bark and wood, and of
which the presence may similarly be known by the shot-
like holes in the bark. But you would distinguish the
difference in pattern of gallery at a glance on raising the
bark. As in the figure given, the mother - gallery is
branched. This Ash-bark beetle, Hylesinus fraxini, does

Workings, showing forked "mother gallery," with larval galleries
from the sides.

FIG. 36. — TUNNELS OF THE ASH-BARK BEETLE, HYLESINUS FRAXINI, FAB.

not do very much harm, for it chiefly attacks felled
trunks, or sometimes sickly or damaged trunks and boughs.
It is not to be compared in its ravages with the Scolytus,
well-named destructor. I am not aware of this ever attack-
ing oak.

April 12, 1899.
You have certainly two kinds of bark attack present in
the specimens which you send me, but without the beetles
I am not able to say at all what species may have been
doing the mischief. I can say quite certainly that I do not
see any signs of the presence of the Hylesinus fraxini
(Ash-bark beetle), but I have never, so far as I remember,
seen the very long, narrow borings, hardly wider than

172 LETTERS TO MR. MARTIN [Chap. xvii.

a thread of silk, which are a good deal represented on the
inner surface of one of your pieces of bark.

There are two or three grubs in fairly good condition
which I have gently inserted into a burrow in the little bit
of bark and have put carefully aside in the little box, and if
these develop, we shall then know what we have to deal
with. Perhaps you may be able to secure some beetles in
a month or two; it would be of interest to make out the
attack with certainty.

November ^jy 1899.

I have very carefully examined your beetle and find that
it is Hylesinus crenatus, sometimes known as the ^^ Large
Ash-bark beetle " to distinguish it from Hylesinus fraxini,

I, Beetle, with wings expanded, and one wing-case drawn only in
outline, to show lower part of wing ; 2, beetle as usually seen —
magnified ; 3, smaller and paler variety ; also lines showing natural
length.

FIG. 37.— GREATER ASH-BARK BEETLE, HYLESINUS CRENATUS, FAB.

the ^^ Ash-bark" or the ^' Small Ash-bark beetle.'' The
life history of each kind is stated to be the same, and I
think, if I remember rightly, that some time ago, perhaps
a year or so, in the course of our occasional correspondence,
we have gone into the history of the fraxini, but if not I
should have pleasure in either looking up the account in
my Manual and sending the pages to you or condensing the
points.

There appears to me to be this difference in method of
larval proceedings : that whereas in the case of fraxini the
parent galleries are formed somewhat in the shape of a T,

IQOO.]

ASH-BARK BEETLES

173

with a short stem and long arms to the top, and the larval
galleries placed at right angles to the others (fig. 36), so
far as I understand this form is not followed by crenatiis

(fig. 38).

The beetle obviously pierces the bark, for the orifice is
visible ; and in or under the bark there are the mother-
galleries, but I do not find the larval galleries feathering as
it were from these, and the figure before me gives the idea
of the body of larvae having by their united attack cleared
a flat space from which they have continued their solitary
tunnels. Perhaps in cutting up your trees you may come

FIG. 38. — PIECE OF ASH BARK, SHOWING MOTHER GALLERIES OF
HYLESINUS CRENATUS ON THE INNER SIDE,

on some of these markings. It is said that there are two
generations in the year, of which the flight time of one is in
April and of the other in October. This species frequents
oak as well as ash, which is an important consideration,
and I find it noted as frequenting old trees. These are the
main points which I see about the history. I should think
that if you find the trees which you have felled much in-
fested, it would be a good thing to strip the bark off
and burn it.

June 25, 1900.
I am very much obliged to you for all the great
trouble which you have been good enough to take about

174 LETTER TO MR. GEORGE [Chap. xvii.

the Ash-bark beetles, including your letter of the 23rd and
the box of specimens received to-day. Some of the work-
ings are quite certainly of H.fraxini. One bit catches the
eye at a glance as showing quite typical galleries. In the
long strip the workings are not so clearly distinguishable.
According to descriptions or comparison with other
specimens they appear to me of both kinds. But I really
cannot think of giving you further trouble. We have all
that is needed to make out a good, sound account, and
I hope, if all be well, to do justice to the subject in my next
Annual Report, and that you will be satisfied with my
working up of the points of the infestation.
With renewed hearty thanks, yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To A. W, George, Esq., Sedbury, Tidenham, Chepstow, Agent
on Sedbury Estate.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS,

February 17, 1897.
Dear Sir, — My work is chiefly on injurious insects, so I
am afraid I am not qualified to give you the exact name of
this curious collection of cement-like pupa-cases. Still
I may say that your description most resembles those of
the Mason bee, a kind of Osniia which constructs cells of a
plaster formed of little morsels of stone, earth, &c., and
then fills them with food and lays an e,gg on it, walls up the
cell, and begins another. The grub in due course hatches
and feeds, and goes through its changes to the perfect bee
— and somehow or other manages to make its exit. These
cells are sometimes made on walls, in parties of as many as
a dozen (as shown in a figure before me), but as I said, I am
not a '^specialist" on Hynienoptera (Bees and Wasps), so I
would not like to express a decided opinion. Your mention
of the Roman coin found near the Severn cliffs is very
interesting, for it was quite inexplicable to my father how it
happened that, whilst coins are just the things often found
in such great plenty amongst Roman remains in the
pottery, bones, &c., of which there was such quantity in
the site of the Summer Station of the Augustan Legion
from Caerwent on the Sedbury cliffs, we absolutely did not
have a single coin. Circumstances since we left have made
me think that the word I have underlined may be more
correct than that none were found. On one occasion it
chanced I went when the ditch-diggers were at their
dinners, and under a little shelter of turf (which naturally I

PLATE XXV

KuiNS OF Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire.
{p. 16.)

To face p. 174.

1900.] MASON BEE 175

inspected) I found a very nice little Samian cup. No
more were reported as found ; but after we left I heard of
a box being in one of the lofts over the stables, addressed
to myself, which when opened was found to contain more
of these Samian cups, and also geological specimens from
the cliffs. Of course I wrote down at once, but (perhaps
equally of course) by that time the box had vanished.
Your letter of this morning recalled all this to me, and
made me think that very likely the domestic collector
of curiosities who appropriated the Samian cups also
made a little collection of the coins, whose total absence
appeared so surprising. This is a very long story, but
I thought it might be of some interest to you.

I suppose most of our old work-people are gone ?

Might I venture to trouble you, in case you should be
good enough some day to find time to write, kindly to let me
know whether my father and mother's grave (vault) just below
the high bank with the pathway on the top in Tidenham
Churchyard (plate Vll.) is in proper repair ? If anything is
requisite I think you would likely be so very good as to tell
me, and to whom I should apply to do the work. Trusting
you will forgive the intrusion on your time of such a long
letter, I beg to remain, yours truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Edward T. Comiold, Esq., F.E.S., Hon. General Secretary^
Hastings and St. Leonards Natural History Society.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. ALBANS,

Jw/y 4, 1900.
Dear Sir, — I think that perhaps before this reaches you,
you will have heard from the Rev. E. N. Blomfield that
these curiously formed damsons, of which you have for-
warded me such excellent specimens, owe the galled growth
to the attack of a parasite fungus. They are what you called
popularly Bladder plums, or Pocket plums (fig. 39), and the
cause of this extraordinary growth is the presence of the
fungus Exoascus primi. I do not myself work on Fungi, so
I should not have considered myself qualified to give you
trustworthy information, but I see in Professor Marshall
Ward's good account of this attack, that, besides reproduction
taking place by means of the spores carrying the disease
from tree to tree, he mentions that the fungus can carry
on its existence from year to year by means of its
mycelium in the branches. Consequently much pruning
back, as well as collecting and burning the ^^ pockets," is

176 LETTERS TO MR. CONNOLD [Chap. xvii.

needed to combat the attack to any serviceable extent.
I am not troubling you with details, for you would find
them so well entered on in Ward's useful little book, of
which I gave the name yesterday to Mr. Blomfield, that I
think you would prefer them in his wording. Hoping
I may have assisted you a little in the matter.

December 19, 1900.
I am greatly obliged to you for the kind thought of send-
ing me the photo of the Bladder plums. This shows the
difference between the healthy and the diseased fruit so
well that if I had not secured a figure of the diseased growth
I think I should have asked your permission to copy part

FIG, 39. — POCKET OR BLADDER PLUM INFLATED AND DISTORTED BY

THE FUNGOID ATTACK OF EXOASCUS PRUNi (After Sorauer).

for my next Annual Report. This assuredly is not an insect
attack. Still, as it may very often give rise to much per-
plexity, I thought that (with due explanation) there could
be no objection to including your good contribution, and I
hope that when in due time you receive your " contributor's
copy " you will not disapprove.

About Dr. Nalepa's publications ; I dare not offer to lend
them, for all I have are copies presented successively during
a long course of years, and if any mishap occurred, I should
be in a difficult position. But if you have not yet applied
to them, Messrs. W. Wesley & Son would be more likely to
help you than anybody I am acquainted with. They would

I900.] BLADDER OR POCKET PLUMS 177

almost certainly be able to give you the titles of the succes-
sive publications and prices, and also procure for you such
as are published. At one time I worked a great deal on
vegetable galls, Cynips galls chiefly, but Phytophis galls
I have always found so very troublesome in several points
of view that I have never worked on them more than I can
help. Very truly yours,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Messrs. W. J. Coleman & Sons, Fruit, Pea, and Potato
Salesmen, Covent Garden Market.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS,

August I, 1900.

Dear Sirs, — I would very gladly help you about the
moth-caterpillar attack on your potatoes, but I am afraid
that without caterpillar or moth I cannot name it. There
are very many infestations to potato of caterpillars, nearly
allied to what you will, I think, very likely know well as
the " Turnip grub." These are so numerous that it would
be quite hopeless for me to endeavour to name merely from
description and the chrysalides; and even with the caterpillar
it would have been difficult (though I would with pleasure
have tried), on account of some of these pests greatly
resembling each other, and also some (identical grubs)
altering their colours completely as they moult. I should
have been glad to help you, but as these creatures are now
turning to chrysalides the attack is presumably nearly over
for the present.

P.S. — For general use in an attack of this kind the spray
that you have been using, which is very nearly equivalent
to the U.S.A. kerosene emulsion, is probably about as good
as you could try ; for I conjecture that you might not like
to try '' Paris-green " ? Possibly this would not answer,
and for various reasons— it being a ground crop as well as
the tuber a food crop — it might not be desirable ; still, I
just name it.

August 4, 1900.

I am obliged by the fresh specimens of caterpillars
received this morning from your agent, Mr. Carswell, and
from these and the moths coming out to-day from the
chrysalides previously sent me, I am able to say that the
larvae are those of the Pliisia gamma moth, popularly known
as the Silver Y-moth. I am not aware of these caterpillars
having been recorded as injurious to potato leafage, except-
ing in the year 1892, when I had information of two attacks
to this crop, in both instances from caterpillars migrating

13

178 LETTERS TO MESSRS. COLEMAN [Chap. xvii.

from clover. It is too late to-night to give you a detailed
account, but I write now, as you will be interested to have
the identification as soon as possible.

August 5, 1900.
Your potato attack is, as I mentioned last evening,
caused by the caterpillar of the Silver Y-moth, so named
from a small bright mark on the fore-wings, in shape like
the English Y or the Greek Gamma, The moth is about
half an inch in the spread of the fore-wings, which have a
satiny lustre and are varied with rich coppery, as well as grey
and brown, marks. The hinder wings are greyish, with a
brown border. The caterpillars are fairly recognisable by
being what are called '^ half-loopers." Having only two
pairs of sucker feet beneath the body (besides the customary
claw feet) they form a slight arch when they walk. The
attack is occasionally very destructive and is one of those

I, Eggs ; 2, caterpillar ; 3, chrysalis in cocoon ; 4, moth.

FIG. 40.— GAMMA OR SILVER Y-MOTH, PLUS r A GAMMA, LINN.

which we have proof of having been blown to us, in moth
condition, from the Continent ; and, from some information
which has come to my hands since I received your letter,
I think it is not at all unlikely such may be the case now,
with another kind of crop. The caterpillars feed on many
plants, those of the cabbage and turnip kind especially ;
also on Leguminosce, as peas and beans. Sugar beet they
are destructively partial to. I should not at all think that
the attack was likely to recur to potatoes, or that, as the
infestation is now past its destructive stage, it was worth
troubling yourselves about. If you should desire more
about it than I can easily condense into a moderate letter
space, you would find a careful account of the attack, with a
good figure, in my sixteenth Annual Report on Injurious
Insects. Hoping, however, that my few notes may be all
you require, yours truly, ELEANOR A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XVIII

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR RILEY AND DR. HOWARD

Flour moth and Winter moth — Orchard growers' Committee — John Curtis —
Entomology in Cape Colony — Handbooks and Reports — The General
Index— The LL.D.

The letters addressed to the two distinguished United
States officials are unlike most of those we have passed.
Miss Ormerod writes, as usual, in courteous and even in
deferential terms to the two acknowledged chiefs among
Entomological authorities in America. The considerable
variety of subjects touched upon are dealt with in less simple
language, and minor details give place to discussions on the
higher polity of Economic Entomology. The letters contain
internal evidence of the esteem in which her work was held
by her correspondents.

To Professof Riley, Entomologist to the Agricultural Depart-
ment, Washington, U.S.A.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. ALBANS, ENGLAND.

March 6, i88q.
Dear Professor Riley, — We have got a flour caterpillar
in England, newly arrived in the last two years, which is
so very troublesome and injurious where it establishes itself
that I should like to place a short account of it in your
hands, hoping that at your leisure (I should rather say at
your best convenience, for leisure you have none) you may
kindly tell me whether you have it in the U.S.A., and, if so,
whether you manage to keep it in check. The caterpillars
were first observed in Europe in 1877 by Dr. Jul. Kuhn, of
Halle, doing much mischief during the process of grinding
some American wheat. The imagines from these larvae were

placed by Dr. Kuhn in the hands of Professor Zeller, who

179

i8o LETTERS TO PROFESSOR RILEY [Chap, xviii.

considered them to be Ephestia of a species previously
undescribed, and they were named by him kuhniella (fig.41)
specifically after their observer. All this most likely you
know well, but it is the appearance of this '^pest" here
which I am more particularly writing to you about. In
1887 the caterpillars did great harm in some large stores in
London, and last year the attack established itself in a
wheat-flour steam-mill in the North of England. The
great harm caused is by reason of the caterpillars " felting "
up the meal or flour by the quantity of web w^hich they
spin in it. They feed, of course, but this is not so injurious
as working up the flour together, as thus they clog the mill
apparatus to a very serious extent. I have much reduced
their numbers by getting the manager of the steam-mill to
turn on steam to scald them; and cleaning, whitewashing, and
some use of paraffin have done good. The real cure would
be to change the material ground. If we could use rye-

I, Moth, with wings expanded ; 2, moth, at rest ; 3, caterpillar ;
4, chrysalis — all magnified ; lines showing natural length.

FIG. 41. — MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH, EPHESTIA KUHNIELLA, ZELL.

meal for a few weeks we could clear out effectually this
wheat-flour-feeding caterpillar. Unfortunately, however, the
delicate apparatus of our recently arranged wheat '' roller "
mills does not allow of this. One point that would help us
in preventive measures would be to know where the attack
comes from. I am told it is a *' scourge " amongst the flour
(or rather the meal, as it prefers the more branny parts) in
wheat from Russia and Hungary at the Mediterranean ports,
so I am making inquiries ; but Dr. Lindeman is not aware
of this attack having been noticed in Russia. Under these
circumstances I thought that I would write to you about it,
and if you are acquainted with this moth and the larval

1889.] FLOUR MOTH 181

working, and, still more, if you know how to destroy it, I
should feel greatly favoured and obliged by any information
that you may kindly give. I believe that unless it has
very recently been placed on your American lists of Lepi-
doptera it is not noted as known there, and I am trying to
persuade myself that it is not all selfishness which makes
me trouble you thus, but that if by any possibility you may
not chance to have heard of the serious nature of the work
of these larvae, you may care to have a few lines about
them. The moth is about f in. in spread of the fore-wings,
which are of pale grey with darker transverse markings ;
the hinder wings remarkable for their whitish semi-trans-
parency with a darker line from the point along a part of
the fore edge. The larvae, when full-grown, as far as I see,
are about five-eighths of an inch long. You will not care
to have full description, but they have surprising instinct
for travelling, and amazing strength. One that I watched
to test this power escaped from under a little smooth-edged
cardboard frame which I had placed on a woollen cloth on
a quite flat table and pressed down with a one pound
weight.

I hope before long to forward* my twelfth Report for your
acceptance and that it may meet your approval.

June 22, 1889.
I have not until to-day been able to find time to study
your interesting and instructive Report (which reached me
a little while ago), and now after my best thanks I hasten to
offer some observations about our use over here of the word
paraffin — see p. 104 of your Report. So far as I know or
can learn, the different oils sold under the name of paraffin,
kerosene, or crystal oil, only differ from each other by
reason of treatment to secure various degrees of purity or
refinement. The common paraffin oil is the coarsest ;
kerosene I understand is a little more refined, and a trifle
higher in price ; and crystal oil — or (as it is sometimes
described in the trade) '^Ai Crystal Oil" — is limpid like
water, and the purest of all. I do not know why, but
kerosene is a name little used here. Paraffin is certainly not
a correct term for the fluid form, but this fluid or oil is used
so enormously compared to the solid paraffin that the
appended word oil necessary for correct description is
usually omitted as being understood. I quite feel it is a
loose and inaccurate plan, but so the matter stands. In
the same number of my Annual Report from which you
quote — namely, that for 1884 published 1885— at pp. 66-67,

i82 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR RILEY [Chap, xviii.

is a recipe for a mixture of soft soap with *^ paraffin or any
other mineral oil." It has been thoroughly tried over here,
and found very useful. If you should think fit to experi-
ment with it I should greatly like to know results.

A single report of appearance of Hessian fly (fig. 15) here
has been sent me on June 13 — with specimens accompany-
ing — full grown but still in larval condition. These were
on lower shoots of wheat of which the plant was then
coming into ear at Revell's Hall near Hertford — the farm
on which Hessian fly was first observed here.

September 23, 1889.

It was very kind of you to spare time to write to me
before leaving England, and I well know how very much
occupied you must have been, so must not be selfish
enough to say how much I regretted not being able to have
both the pleasure and the great benefit of a little conversation
with you.

I beg to place in your hands the little brochure which
I am now issuing on one of the consequences of warble
presence, and might I ask Mr. L. O. Howard's acceptance of
the other copy ? You will see I have tried to condense the
points of the subject into a space that workers would not be
frightened at. It would be a great satisfaction to me if the in-
quiry met with your approval, and if you should judge fit to
forward the cause of prevention in your country, your high
authority w^ould be a great help in strengthening my hands
here. If you care to have a packet of the leaflets for distri-
bution it would be only a pleasure to me to send some for
your acceptance.

I have just seen with great pleasure that the Association
of Economic Entomologists has been formed, and that they
have elected the highest representative of the important
work as their First President. This is a great satisfaction to
me, and I hope ere long I may have the honour of being
enrolled amongst its members.

You pay me a compliment in saying you would care
to have an occasional contribution of mine in your
valuable ^' Insect Life." If I had anything that I thought
would be of sufficient interest to send, I would very gladly
do so.

[Here a contribution on the " Shotborer Beetle" (Appen-
dix D) followed, which was published by Professor Riley.
See also page 199.]

April 10, 1890.

I must take up a little of your valuable time in offering

1890.] WINTER MOTH 183

my best thanks for the exceedingly interesting transmission,
received through your kindness this morning. Your own
*' Insect Life," 3 pts. ; '' The Root Knot disease " ; and Mr.
Koebele's ''AustraUan Thrips" are all very valuable contribu-
tions to my library, and I greatly wish I were able to recipro-
cate more worthily. There is one point in reply to which, if
you are quite willing, I should much like to be allowed to
insert a few lines. It is to the paragraph headed ''Traps for
the Winter Moth Useless," p. 289, of March No. of " Insect
Life." Mr. R. McLachlan is mentioned as having stated
that traps which aim at destruction of the males of the
Cheimatobia bnimata, Winter moth (fig. 30) are useless, as
enough will remain to fertilize the winged females. This I
should have conjectured to be a well-known fact — but it is
not this point which we are in any way working on, in any
of the prevention details with which I am myself acquainted.
Our difficulty, as you will see mentioned in my thirteenth
Report, if you will kindly turn to p. 67, is the transportation of
the females in the act of pairing by the winged males to the
trees. This is a point much observed in this country, and I
have to-day once again had my attention drawn to this
difficulty in the matter of prevention, by a Somersetshire
correspondent who in confirmation of his observation has
preserved the pair in his collection. It is solely to meet this
difficulty that we use tarred boards and lights in any pre-
ventive operations with which I am connected. I do not
see the " Gardeners' Chronicle," and I am not in communi-
cation with Mr. McLachlan or I would have replied in my
own country and given the necessary explanations, but, if
you approve, I should much like to be allowed to insert the
above observations, otherwise the various Superintendents
and myself might appear to your readers (whose good
opinion I should like to merit) as wonderfully ignorant of
what I believe is a well-known fact.

We have now formed a kind of Society Conference with
Experimental Committee of some of our best orchard
growers in the West of England for the purpose of them-
selves experimenting, and reporting to the frequently
recurring meetings — as to the effects of Paris-green,
London-purple, &c. At last our people are roused to
feel that " greasing " will not do everything.

I shall look with exceeding interest to the result of your
Hypoderma or (Estrus (Warble and Botfly) experiments. I
sincerely hope that you will be able to rear the imago.

I have been greatly disturbed (and am consequently not

184 LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

writing you in as good form as I could wish) by a report
being published in several of our London papers that I had
been thrown from a carriage and met with serious injuries.
This is altogether erroneous, but the many applications, and
much writing and wiring to get the press to stop the
report, has been indeed disturbing, and it has wasted me
much time.

With kind regards and all good wishes from my sister and
myself, pray believe me, yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Dr. X. 0. Howard, Entomologist U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. ALBANS,

July 26, 1894.

Dear Mr. Howard, — I do not myself know what
arrangements the Royal Agricultural Society of England
made with John Curtis. ^

In the ^'Gardeners' Chronicle" for October 18, 1862,
however, I find at p. 983, vol. iii., the following remarks in a
short notice of the decease of John Curtis, which I transcribe
in case they should be of interest. After mentioning that
he had for many years been engaged in investigating the
habits of insects injurious to farm and garden produce, the
writer continues : " These he published in detached
memoirs in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' under the signa-
ture of * Ruricola,' and in the 'Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society.' At a subsequent period they were
collected into a single volume and published under the
title of ' Farm Insects.' It was chiefly on account of the
value of these articles that Mr. Curtis was awarded a
pension from the Civil List which was augmented about
three years since on account of the sad loss of sight which
he experienced." The note is given as quoted from the
'* Athenaeum," and in case you should not have references
to Curtis having the pension he so well earned, I thought
you might care for the extract.

Thank you for letting me know of Professor Riley's visit
to England ; I greatly desire to have a long talk with him.
He may have comfort in having such a skilled successor.
Special thanks also for your paper on the Army worm,

^ The author of Farm Insects (to this day the most beautifully illus-
trated standard work in English on the subject) died at Islington on
6th October, 1862.

1894.] ARMY-WORM AND CUT-WORMS 185

Lticania iinipiuictata.^ It is such a good one, and the
remedies so practicable. I hope to quote from this presently
— duly acknowledged. You speak very truly as to informa-
tion not being asked until the attack is so set up that much
hope of victory over it is lost.

1 should very much like to be allowed to offer my best
regards, and respectful expression of my admiration of
their good w^ork, to the many kind friends who will
be present at the Economic Entomology meeting in August,
together with my hearty good wishes for the prosperity
of the Association and its members. I owe much to the
kindness of my U.S.A. colleagues and friends.

October 17, 1894.

I hasten to thank you for your letter received this after-
noon, setting me right as to the origin of the bran-mash
and Paris-green application for killing '^ cut- worms " (leather
jackets). I should indeed be sorry not to give credit in the
right quarter, and you may rest assured that the first time I
have to mention the matter this shall be set right. I am
sorry also on my account not to have known that this
remedy was in use, and now you have pointed the way I
shall be very glad to look the matter up. Through the kind
liberality (public as well as private), with which I have always
been treated by your country, I have a truly valuable
library of your U.S.A. works, from which I often and
gratefully profit.

I am looking forward very much to getting your paper
on Economic Entomology, but at present I have only seen
pleasant notices of it, and I am greatly desirous to read it
in extenso. Attention to this subject is spreading very
satisfactorily on the Continent. I am now in communica-
tion with Professor J. Jablonowski, of the Entomological
staff of the Hungarian Government Department of Agricul-
ture at Budapest. He is doing very careful and good work
on Thysanoptera (Thrips). Also at Helsingfors (Finland) I
hear from Dr. Enzio Renter that they are contemplating
arranging an Entomological Station, and I hope I may be
in communication.

I am now beginning to pass my eighteenth Report through
the press. One of the interesting appearances of the past
season has been a widely spread outbreak of Charceas
graminis, Antler moth (p. 104). This was more or less in

* The larva of a noctuid moth which now and then appears in great
numbers in America, marching over the country and destroying young
grain crops, grasses, &c.

i86 LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

seven contiguous counties in the South-west of Scotland,
and though not remarkable in itself, yet, as there were one
or two competent observers on the spot, some good notes
were secured, especially as to presence of parasites, which I
hope in due time you may find of some interest. There was
much presence of a Mermis in one district. Out of a single
larva I withdrew in three pieces about i8 inches of thread-
worm. Also there was presence of '' flacherie " and some
Tachina larvae. Dr. Ritzema Bos, of Wageningen, who is
always most kind in colleagueship, helps me rnuch about
identification.

I hope to have a good deal to say about Heterodera
schachtii (an eel-worm enemy of hop-roots). Different
kinds of eel-worms seem each year to be showing them-
selves more, and I am greatly desiring to find whether the
schachtii may not have come to the roots of oats here as
well as in Holland. The Great Tortoiseshell butterfly,
Vanessa polychloros (fig. 13), which is not common in this
country, made a destructive appearance on elms and cherry
leafage in one locality in Hants. And not far from
Lymington was a destructive attack in one wheatfield of
the caterpillars of a small moth, which ate out the heart
of the young plant and was utterly ruinous. I cannot find
the kind of attack on record (that is from a Lepidopterous
butterfly or moth, larva), and we are all perplexed as to
species. There seems little doubt that it is a Miana, and it
appears to me most like expolita, but none of us contrived
to rear it.

March 23, 1895.

I have been long in your debt for a letter, but sometimes
it is very difficult to keep all work in hand, and I am sure
you will forgive me. I had been endeavouring before your
letter on Warble came to hand, and have since also been
trying in some of what appeared the most likely quarters to
gain information whether the form of attack which you
mention in the U.S.A. was observable here, but as yet I
have not been able to find that such is the case.

Many thanks to you for your presentation copy of your
most interesting paper on ^' Rise and Progress of Economic
Entomology," and your only too flattering mention of my
own work (pp. 295-97). ^^^ ^^e continent of Europe there
is grand work going forward, and the colleagueship I
am favoured with from many of the leading Continental
Government Entomologists is most kind and gratifying
to me.

1897.] ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 187

September 23, 1895.

I think it is but a proper respect to you, as Entomologist
of the Department of Agriculture of the U.S.A., to mention
what I have been doing relative to the recent appointment
of one of the U.S.A. staff of skilled Entomologists to the
post of British Government Entomologist in Cape Colony.
On the 17th inst. I heard from Mr. C. P. Lounsbury from
Cape Town, with a letter of introduction enclosed from
Dr. Fernald, which, he regretted, from pressure of time he
had not been able to deliver. So did I, for I should very
much like to have made his personal acquaintance, as well
as that of Mrs. Lounsbury, of whom Dr. Fernald writes in
such high terms.

I think it is a most happy thing for the Cape Colony to
have secured the services of a good, trained Entomologist,
but that he should bring with him in the person of his wife
a lady so highly qualified to be a companion (an '^ alter
ego ") in his work was a good fortune past hope. I wrote
at once to Mr. Lounsbury expressing the pleasure it would
be to me to co-operate so far as lay in my power. And I
have since written to the same effect to the Agent General
for the Cape of Good Hope, especially drawing his attention
to the fact (though of couise I did not word it in this way)
that really instead of one Entomologist they had thus secured
the services also of an excellently trained assistant ! Yester-
day morning I received a reply, expressing his best thanks,
and mentioning that he was then communicating the contents
of my letter to the Hon. the Secretary of Agriculture at
Cape Colony, who he felt sure " will be extremely glad to
hear the high opinion you entertain of the newly appointed
Entomologist, and he will also be grateful for your friendly
offer of co-operation in the work of that office." I hope all
this will meet with your approval. I am deeply indebted to
the aid and encouragement I have received for years from
the wonderful staff of workers of the U.S.A. and from its head
— first Professor Riley, and now yourself — and if I can be
of any service to a member of it by what I can do from here
it would be a very great pleasure to me.

September i, 1897.

I never before have ventured to submit one of my leaflets
to you. I felt as if I should be taking a liberty. To-day,
however, I have a request from the Boston Public Library
for one of the leaflets on the House Sparrow, and I have
therefore ventured to ask your acceptance of a few copies
sent accompanying by book post. You will see that I have

i88 LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

extracted largely from the excellent work of your own
Board of Agriculture, but in a condensed work of this kind
it is impossible to show the value and importance of the
observations as I should greatly desire. At least I have
acknowledged my obligation gratefully. I am sure I need
not say that I should think it a pleasure and an honour if
you cared to have some copies of the sparrow leaflet for
distribution. The farmers here are delighted to have
something reliable, and their reports confirm the severe
losses which P. domesticiis causes. But there is virulent
opposition from a few people who rail at me in a most
unpleasant manner.

Lately I had the great pleasure of a little visit from our

3. I I ^-C.K.

I and 2, Moth, magnified and natural size ; 3, caterpillar, magnified,
and line showing natural length ; 4, pierced grain, natural size and
magnified ; 5, grain with frass, magnified ; 6, chrysalis in grain, and
removed, magnified, and line showing natural length.

FIG. 42. — ANGOUMOIS MOTH, FLY WEEVIL (U.S.A), SITOTROGA {GELECHIA)
CEREALELLA, OLIV.

good friend Dr. Fletcher, and we spent half an hour or so
in cutting up some Plum-wood, infested by what I took to
be the Xyleboms saxeseni (Shot-borer beetle) (fig. 46), given
as a maker of flat cells, or burrows, by Eichhoff ; but very
likely you have heard about this from him already.

I have had some nice observations in the earlier part
of the year of the workings of the Angoumois moth,
Sitotroga (Gelechia) cerealella, which was imported in such
quantity from North Africa in one or more cargoes of
barley as to give some alarm.

5.]

FLY WEEVIL AND EARWIG

189

The wings, such as they are, of the female Lipoptena
cervi (fig. 24), have given me some good figures. There is
demonstrably at times a mere abortive wing, but whether
sometimes there has not been a developed wing which
has been torn across so that only about an eighth of
the wing remains, seems to me open to doubt. Also the
Lesser earwig. Labia minor, has been locally a little
troublesome. Altogether there have been a good many
rather nice observations sent in, which I hope may
presently be of some interest to you. Pray accept my
sincere thanks for the enormous benefit I receive from the

1 ^ E.C.K.

I, Male ; 2, female with wings expanded, much magnified ; line
showing natural length of body and forceps.

FIG. 43.— LESSER EARWIG, FORFICULA MINOR, LINN., LABIA MINOR, LEACH.

valuable publications so kindly sent me, and believe me with
most hearty good wishes, &c.

April 7, 1898.
Your letter of approval was a very great pleasure to me,
and I greatly value your words of encouragement. Before
this letter reaches you, you will perhaps have received a visit
from Dr. Ritzema Bos, who gave me the pleasure of a visit
on his way to the U.S.A. to investigate the amount of danger
to be feared in Holland from this A. peniiciosiis (San Jose
scale). From what I gather from the different publications
with which I am most liberally supplied from your own head-
quarters and the experimental stations, I hope that we need
not fear this veritable pest making a settlement here. I

190 LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

have an impression that a part of the commotion here is
from a desire to exclude foreign fruit imports. I am
working now on what I hope may make a '^ Handbook of
Insect Attacks, injurious to Orchard and Bush fruits, with
means of Prevention and Remedy." Fruit growing is
extending very much with us, and so many Httle-known
attacks have been reported to me in the last few years, that
I thought a volume including these, with our old standing
attacks brought up to date and very fully illustrated, would
meet a need here. Also I was somewhat afraid that if I did
not do it myself some one or other might be ^' good enough "
to save me the trouble.

Our chief crop trouble during the spring and winter has
been the presence of Tylenchus devastatrix (eel-worm), in
clover. This still continues, but I hope that with good
growing weather and sulphate of potash (as a manure dress-
ing to encourage growth) we may fight it down.

March 24, 1899.

I am afraid that you will have been thinking me very
negligent in not replying sooner to your kind letter, but I
felt sure you would understand that if I could have sent
any information in reply to your inquiry about the
'' Cigarette beetle " I should have hastened to submit it.

My Annual Report is late this year, for work on my Hand-
book, &c., &c., threw me late.

I have been following the urgent advice of our good and
much regretted friend, Dr. Lintner, by having a *' General
Index" prepared to the series of twenty-two Annual Reports
(chap. IX.). It is not a magnificently exhaustive compilation
giving everything that can be desired, like that to your
invaluable ** Insect Life," but I think that both entomologi-
cally and practically it will be of service. When printed, I
purpose to forward copies for your own acceptance, likewise
to Professor Webster, to the State Entomologist, Albany,
and a few other positions where I think they very likely
have a set of my twenty-two annual issues, and therefore
might care to have the Index. But if I were not intruding
too much on your kind good nature, would you allow me to
send a few, say a packet of ten or twenty, to yourself, which
perhaps you would so greatly oblige me as to present to
mutual friends whom you might see. I should think this a
kind favour, for I might go rather astray in my sendings.

With my next number (all being well) I propose to com-
mence a '' Second Series " — altering my plan a little, so as to
have a special section in which I could place any good

i899.]

GENERAL INDEX TO REPORTS

191

short notes of information sent me, thus utiHsing what may
come to hand, but without being encumbered by perpetual
repetition, year after year, of Hfe history and figures, of well
known, or what should be well known, attacks.

J^une 26, 1899.
It is too good of you to give me the two copies of this
valuable pamphlet, '' Some Insects Injurious to Stored
Grain," and I thank you very much. But I did not beg
for more of your publications, and tried to get them via
Messrs. Wesley, because you are so good to me, in con-
stantly presenting information quite invaluable to me, that,
as it is, I do not know how to reciprocate the kindness. We
have nothing like your publications to fall back on here,

e.cK.

I, Snail-slug, in motion ; 2, contracted ; 3, head, with tentacles,
magnified ; 4, shell, upper and under side, slightly magnified ; 5, shell,
much magnified ; 6, egg (4 and 6 from Plate v. of Jeffrey's British
ConcJwlogy, vol. i. ; the other figures from specimens taken at St.
Albans).

FIG. 44. — SNAIL-SLUG, TESTACELLA HALIOTIDEA, URAPARNAUD.

and when a very heavy case is brought to me I naturally
benefit by your books.

I have lately been called in about a cargo of flour of
46,200 seven-stone bags, every bag (so far as examined)
infested by Calandra (= Sitophilus) granaria (Granary
weevil, fig. 68), and the Mediterranean Flour or Mill moth
(fig. 41), and it was for the importers that I was trying to
procure a copy, the other for my own lending. I am truly
obliged to you.

My Index is not ready yet. I thought I could improve it,

192

LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

and strained my eyes so badly that I caused delay without
much good.

Now I am trying to work up Piophila casei (Cheese and
Bacon fly, fig. 12) as a cheese pest. How curious it is that
it should not trouble cured meats with us, as with you — nor
cheese with you as with us.

The Shell-slug, Testacella haliotidea (fig. 44), seems to me to
deserve a little notice, as (by its carnivorous habit) ridding
us of various under- and above-ground troubles (slugs espe-
cially), and I have been gathering a few notes about the
creature for some years. Another (I believe) unusual pre-

I, Worm extended ; 2, contracted ; 3, 4, and 5, different forms taken
by the head — all life size (after figures by Prof, F. Jeffrey Bell) ; 6, bifid
form of head, rather larger than life.

FIG. 45,— FLATWORM, LAND PLANARIAN, BIPALIUM KEWENSE.

sence lately sent me was a specimen of the Ground
Planarian, Bipalium kewense, found eating plants '' like a
slug." I did not know the worm (so to call it) at all,
but the name was given at S. Kensington. When it
arrived it looked only like a very narrow slimy strip about
three inches long — but I thought from its reported habitat
possibly some slightly warm water would revive it, and
immediately it roused up and swelled to a narrow cylindri-

1900.] SNAIL-SLUG AND LAND PLANARIAN 193

cal shape, and leaving the moss on which it lay made such
fair speed (by adhesion of the lower surface) up the side of
the bowl, bearing an unpleasant looking bilobed head before
it, that I restored it to its box as soon as might be.

January 24, i9(X).

I thank you most sincerely for this great trouble which
you have been good enough to take for me. I feel very
much gratified that you should place my Index in such dis-
tinguished hands, and I thank you very much also for your
kind letter. Please allow me to add that if you should at
any time care to accept copies of any works of mine which
are in print, for yourself or friends, it would be a real
pleasure to me to be allowed to send them.

I had a very pleasant letter from Mr. Lounsbury a few
days ago. He is working with great interest on the ''tick"
[which conveys the disease known as red-water or Texas
fever to cattle.]

March 21, 1900.

I do not know whether, according to etiquette, I am quite
right in mentioning the following matter, but I think that to
a kind friend like yourself I may mention the great gratifi-
cation it was to me lately to hear from the University of
Edinburgh that they were about to confer on me the
Honorary LL.D. I feel this to be a great honour. It is
not only the compliment to myself that gratifies me, but I
greatly hope that one of our chief British Universities
giving its approval to Economic Entomology will be a
great strengthening to work in this country, which it has
greatly needed.

April 30, 1900.

I was very much gratified by your kind congratulations
(p. 295) on the great honour which the University of Edin-
burgh has conferred on me. They were all very kind when
I went to receive the degree. I had the great pleasure one
day of meeting His Excellency your Ambassador at the
Vice-Chancellor's [Sir William Muir], and was charmed
with the kind interest with which he conversed on Agri-
cultural Entomology, and indeed all subjects which were
brought forward. At the ceremony I was next to him, and
now and then he kindly interchanged a few pleasant words.
As I took my seat by him after receiving the degree he
gently whispered, *' I congratulate you ; you did it splen-
didly," and I thought it very interesting that my first
congratulation should be so kindly given me by the

^4

194 LETTERS TO DR. HOWARD [Chap, xviii.

Ambassador of the greatly advanced country to which I
am so indebted for help in my work.

September 29, 1900.

It was a great pleasure to me (though it was only such
a little visit) to make personal acquaintance with Dr. John
Smith of New Jersey. Also Dr. W. Saunders (who came
for the Paris Exhibition) and Dr. Mills kindly came to see
me. These visits are very refreshing.

Meanwhile I have been learning a great deal from your
" Notes on the Mosquitoes of the United States." It is a
great gratification to me to possess this valuable work,
and my medical adviser, Dr. Lipscomb, is only waiting
until I can spare it, to borrow it for his own perusal. With
kind regards and good wishes and grateful thanks for all
your kind help and encouragement, pray believe me.
Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XIX

LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER

General references to insect infestation— Progress of Economic Entomology
— Success in using Paris-green in Britain — End of work done for the
Board of Agriculture and Royal Agricultural Society of England.

The series of selected letters to Dr. Fletcher in this and
the succeeding chapter is the most comprehensive of the
remnants of Miss Ormerod's correspondence with distant
scientific authorities. Although only a portion of the
original group of letters, it ranges over a period of fourteen
years, and touches, sometimes only lightly, a great many of
the leading objects of interest which had specially engaged
her attention. Some phases of character come out here
more conspicuously than in any other part of the volume.
The mutual confidence in business matters which speedily
established itself developed in this, as in most other
instances, into intimate personal friendship.

To Dr. J, Fletcher^ Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa, Canada,

DuNSTER Lodge, Spring Grove, Isleworth, England,

February 4, 1886.
Dear Mr. Fletcher, — You ask about gas lime (as a
top dressing for land). There is certainly need for caution
in its use, but I do not think you would find a better short
treatise on it than the little paper printed by the late Dr.
[Augustus] Voelcker, of which I have had a copy taken for
you (now enclosed with much pleasure), for I do not know
where (or whether) it was published.^ The kind old man
sent me a copy w^hen I wrote to him during his last illness,

' Printed by King, Sell, & Railton, Limited, 12, Gough Square, and
4, Bolt Court, E.G.

195

196 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

I not being aware how ill he was at the time. He had a
great opinion of the lime, and I think it does immense good,
but still, if too fresh or if too thickly applied, dire are the
consequences. Even if the heaps are left standing a little
while on the field, the chances are the spots will be poisoned.
But I always use it in our garden. When we came here
about twelve years ago it could be had as a gift, but
when I wanted some a few weeks ago it cost about 7s. the
cart load, and was only sold to me as a favour, there is
such a run on it. One of the market gardeners said he
could not do without it, and it is splendid for getting rid of
the diseased growths in cabbage and turnip known as
" Club root" or " Finger and Toe." But withal it does not
do to trust the application to hands without heads. You
will find reports (or rather notes in some of my different
Reports) about quantities used.

I hope you will be able to come over, there are so many
points it would be so pleasant to talk over, and Croydon is
only a little way off by rail. It would give me great pleasure
to make your sister's acquaintance.

July 19, 1886.

Lately I had good specimens of a Hippobosca, H.
Stnithlonis, Janson, which is doing harm in South Africa to
Ostriches at an up-country station. It appears to be a
very curious instance of the migration of a parasite, as
M. Lichtenstein (if I remember right, or M. Offer) thinks it
may have been caught so to say by the Ostriches from the
Quagga. It is very interesting as a quadruped pest on a bird.

March 15, 1887.

I was SO very much gratified to receive your kind letter
this morning, that I will reply as soon as I possibly can.
Your Entomological Society of Ontario is the one of all others
that I desire to belong to. I shall think it a real honour, one
made still more welcome by the kind and courteous manner
in which you notify I am likely to be permitted to have such
a distinction [honorary membership]. Your society seems
to me a pattern, a thorough example of what a Society
should be, so truly scientific, and using its knowledge for
the general benefit. I shall be proud to be allowed to add
its title to my titles — prouder still to have the approba-
tion and cordial friendship of its President, and its late
President.

You have encouraged and gratified me very much by
what you kindly say about my Hessian fly pamphlet;
very few of our English Entomologists care for subjects of

1889.] SEVERAL INSECT INFESTATIONS 197

practical bearing, and it has grown me many a grey hair,i to
endeavour to '' keep the bridge." The " flax-seeds " are now
being found near Errol in Scotland in the light grain or
^* shag/' or " chog," as it is called, which is thrown down by
a separate apparatus from the machine. Meantime I am
trying to get a kind of cordon established for watch on the
straw at such of our importing ports as 1 have influence
near. We give the working men, through whose hands the
straw daily passes, full instructions what they are to look
for, where, and how, likewise a small gratuity, and a
promise of a handsome bonus to the first who finds and
produces specimens of infested imported straw. The
working men can help enormously if they are kindly and
properly dealt with, and I did not think sending an inspector
would do much good. Hessian fly puparia would not have
been '^at home " on the day of his visit ! Could you tell me
whether straw is usually cut above the point of attachment
of the puparia in Canada ? This would make an enormous
difference as to danger of infection.

Dr. Lindeman, Moscow, has given me a list of the
Governments over which C. destructor has spread in Russia
since its first appearance in 1879, and with his permission
I am publishing it in my tenth Report (p. 104). Would
you care to have a packet of copies sent over ? Of course I
shall send copies immediately on publication for your and
Professor Saunders's kind acceptance, and to a few other of
my Canadian friends ; but if you will give me leave I should
have real gratification in having a packet forwarded, and
also begging acceptance of electros of any of my own
figures which you thought might be acceptable to your
Entomological Society.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

April 22, 1889.
It was indeed a pleasure to me to see your hand-
writing again, and very soon after I received your Report
which you have so kindly sent me. I have turned over the
pages to see the general contents, and first of all I am
exceedingly interested in your ^' Silver top " attack corre-
sponding with our *^ white eared" wheat. They — these
peculiar ears — appeared in Southern Russia, Dr. Lindeman
tells me, two years ago, and he could not discover any
insect traces any more than I could. It seems to me quite
unaccountable, if it really is caused by Thrips, that they

* This was a purely metaphorical expression (Ed.).

198 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

should not leave their cast clothing behind them ! I wonder
what you will think of my idea of ring vegetable disease ?
Dr. Lindeman writes me that he means to examine for
A ngtiillulidce (eel- worms) .

I am particularly interested in your notes of C. legumini-
cola [American clover-seed midge], for I have long
suspected we had the larvae here, and to-day I succeeded
in rearing my first imago, and have sent it off to Mr. Meade
with Dr. Lintner and Professor Saunders's description and
figures to see if he will agree with me. Will you kindly
thank Professor Saunders from me for having the new
edition of his excellent book on fruit pests sent to me. It
is a pleasure to see it in this less expensive form, so many
more people will buy it.

September 2, 1889.

You must indeed have had pleasure in your visit to
Washington, but what a spectacle your study table must be
on your return ! Does not the collection, all calling
" answer me first," quite make your heart sink ? I cannot
face it — it is such a terrible strain, so I stop nearly entirely
at home like a limpet on a rock, and keep my work as well
as I can in hand.

November 11, 1889.

Did I tell you that the Xyleborus dispar, Fab. (Shot-
borer), has made what I hope may be only one of its
strange intermittent appearances, in plum stems at the
great Toddington fruit ground near Cheltenham ? What a
strangely destructive attack it is ! I could not completely
understand how it killed the young trees so wonderfully
quickly until I dissected some stems, and found that, like
your X. pyriy Peck, the creatures partly ringed the stem to
begin with. And what a quantity in one stem ! We need
a descriptive English name, so I propose to call it the
" Crowder," from the manner in which all the galleries are
so crowded with the beetles, that there seems hardly room
for another specimen.

December 6, 1889.

How very very curious is what you say about Professor
Riley's now thinking E. kuhniella (Mill moth, fig. 41} may be
a South Carolina insect. I shall await the letter you promise
me with great interest. I suppose some records have been
searched out, for in the spring he wrote me that he thought
he could safely say that this species did not occur in the
United States. Dr. Lintner also held the same view, and
he is care itself. I am so glad you told me, for I had

1889.]

SHOT-BORER BEETLES

199

written quite a neat little paragraph for my Report on the
remarkable circumstance of advance of one insect attack
being so minutely recorded. How awkward it would have
been ! How good of you to spare me a male specimen. It
is quite different your sparing me a specimen to my putting
anything I have in your hands ; I really hope you have not
robbed your own valuable collection too much. I have
been trying to compare them as well as I can manage under
present circumstances, but I cannot of course do much
without the microscope. The colour of mine is deeper, but
this is not much. It was alive, but mature, when I took it.
I do believe all good work is done in concert, though we

E,C^

I, Beetle ? ; 2, larva — magnified, with natural length of each ; 3 and 4,
cell, natural size, showing broad and flat, and also narrow view.

FIG. 46.— SHOT-BORER BEETLES, XYLEBORUS DISPAR, FAB.

do not know how it may be fitting together yet. It is very
often a great comfort to me to think so.

December 16, 1889.
I put off writing for a few days because I wanted to tell
you more about the Xylehorus dispar (Shot-borer or Apple-
bark beetle), which I am afraid is likely to be a very serious
matter in other localities than where it first appeared,
and it is doing much mischief : I do not quite like to raise
the *^ danger flag " on my own sole responsibility, so I have
sent out some of the new specimens to have my identifica-

200 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

tion confirmed, and then I mean to write to you again and
send a few more males. I found seven with hardly more
than that number of females ; also I found specimens of the
white stuff that Schmidberger observed the larvae fed on,
and I have asked Professor Bernard Dyer to analyse it
for me. He is a very kind as well as skilled helper. I
cannot find the least sign of disease about the attacked trees :
if the bark had been washed it could not be cleaner from
Scale or moulds of any kind, but the havoc is dismal — what
my correspondent calls ^'a slaughter" of trees.

We have now got the subject of Agricultural Entomology
regularly announced as one of the subjects (voluntary) for
examination of the Senior Candidates of our Royal Agricul-
tural Society of England. I have been trying to get this
arranged for some time, and I hope it will do good.

I have drawn up the questions as practically, i.e., on as
practical points as I could.

December i6, 1889.

Your letter was hardly started this morning when I
received the confirmation from Mr. Oliver E. Janson
of my identification of the fresh supply of Shot-borers
from plum wood being quite correct, beyond doubt
X. dispar. So I have great pleasure in enclosing two
males and two females in a thin quill. They are
packed in fine bark clippings, which they have shredded
out themselves, so I hope they will travel safely. These
are from plum stems, and in some cases they attack the
branches. I have just now written a letter to the Worcester
Herald, warning fruit growers to be on the alert, giving
as much practical advice as I could compress into reason-
able space, and especially recommending burning infested
trees.

December 24, 1889.

I think that Agricultural Entomology is moving forward,
but we are much hampered at present by various difficulties,
which I fancy you would dispose of very rapidly on your
side of the Atlantic. I suppose that in a sort of confidence
I may mention that by private liberality of a Scottish
advancer of science a lectureship of Agricultural Ento-
mology is being endowed at Edinburgh University, but
then comes the rather comical difficulty : Who ever is to
take the position of lecturer ? I am complimented by the
expression of a wish from the authorities who have the
election in hand that I should take it ; but then Lady
Professors are not admitted in Scotland. We know of

1890.] PARIS- AND SCHEELE'S GREEN 201

'* one man " fit for the purpose, Professor Allen Harker,
of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He would
do well, and as much desires the post as we wish to put him
in it, but then the Principal of the Royal Agricultural
College is very much set against his holding the post, as
well as his Professorship at the college. It is a great puzzle.
I have been doing my very best to help the Professor of
Agriculture — a member of the appointing body — to find a
suitable man, but what will come of it I do not know.
This is not private amongst friends, but it is not yet before
the public. Why, with you, I believe in a day you could
fill the chair. I think I could do all that is wanted, but
then, oh ! Shades of John Knox 1

I am hoping each day to receive the copy of '^ Insect
Life " Professor Riley kindly sends me, and to see what the
Association of Official Entomology did at Washington.

[Cablegram,']

December 28, 1889.
Is not " Paris-green " the same as *' Scheele's green," that
is, arsenite of Copper, not arseniate ? With us arseniate of
copper is a bluish powder ; please write. ^

January 20, 1890.

I am exceedingly obliged to you for so kindly and
promptly replying to my enquiry about the arseniate. I
thank you most heartily, and Professor Saunders also, for
so very kindly taking the trouble to make me sure how the
matter stood.

I have been taking a great deal of pains to make my
paper on the Paris-green as plain and sound as I can, but
whether I can induce the growers to use it is yet to be
seen. If any of your orchard operatives accustomed to
apphcation of it should chance to be in England, I believe
that the best way to start affairs would be for his services to
be engaged at Toddington, and from a proper method of
spraying (and, w^ithout any doubt, its good effect), we should
then, I quite believe, make progress. If you should know
of any orchard workers being likely to come over, I should
be very glad if you would give me a line, and then if none
of my orchard applicants were disposed to engage him, I
would myself ask for a lesson and a lecture, and he " should
not lack his fee," as the old ballads say. Unless something
is done to rouse the good folks they will go on smearing

* An arseniate is a salt of arsenic acid, while an arsenite is a salt of
arsenious acid.

202 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

and smearing until their trees are one mass of grease,
and swarming, nevertheless, with caterpillars of all kinds.

Now, I want to mention to you and to Professor Saunders
that I have felt obliged to tell Mr. Whitehead, as gently and
courteously as I could, that I must decline to continue the
assistance which I have given since 1885 to the Entomo-
logical part of his work as Agriculture Adviser to the Board
of Agriculture. I have recommended professional helpers
who can aid him in the technical identifications, and if he
needs more aid on general matters I have suggested that he
should apply to Professor Harker, who has a great deal of
strictly technical entomological knowledge, and of late years
has given much attention to the agricultural application
of it.

Even if the post of " Entomologist " should be offered
to me, I should not think myself justified in accepting, for
my great wish in my work is to be of immediate use, and if
I had to wait for permission from boards and committees,
&c., &c., before I came down on pests that want attention
by return of post, I should not feel in the right place.
Please forgive my telling you this story about myself, but
though of course it is only meant for private friends, I
thought I ought to let you know. My own work has
steadily increased to such an extent that, with this sort of
underground (unacknowledged) Government work in
addition, I did not feel able to do full justice to it, and
especially I wanted more time for experiment and corres-
pondence.

February 13, 1890.

Many thanks for your kind congratulations on my better
health. I am really better now. Work was bearing me
down so very seriously I was obliged to make some degree
of alteration. I regretted very much indeed not continuing
any help I could give to Mr. Whitehead about his entomo-
logical Government work, but it was too severe a task, and
it prevented my giving proper attention to my own, and
likewise when the post of Agricultural Adviser was avowedly
a paid one, I felt, and my friends felt, that if aid were needed
it ought to be on a business footing and obtained from
professional helpers.

March 24, 1890.

I thank you very heartily for the little box of X. dispar
which you have kindly spared, for your own paper on the
^^ Mediterranean Flour Moth " preceding the copy in the
"Canadian Entomologist," and for all the information in

1890.] ENTOMOLOGICAL WORK 203

your always truly acceptable letters. The little beetles
came quite safely. I divided them duly, and I have no
doubt both Mr. Janson and Canon Fowler will be very
much pleased to possess them.

Our Worcestershire and Toddington people are really
roused to see about these weary caterpillars. We have
formed a " committee of experiment " with two or three
very sensible and able men at the head, and I officiate as
their entomologist, and benefit the stationer, at least ! You
should see the sheets of paper covered with sage advice !

At present I am trying to keep well before them that the
very centre of all advance is to arrange our ^' washes " and
our means of applying them, so that we may be able to
destroy the hordes about May or June, when they are really
and evidently doing harm. Your information is invaluable,
not only in itself but because whatever may be advanced I
can say Mr. Fletcher advised it, or more often, reported its
success in Canada, and I feel secure. I really hope we
shall make progress ; the leading people are quite weary of
this everlasting greasing, but I certainly do feel that our
only excuse for asking you so many questions about it, is
your own great knowledge of the subject, and great good
nature ; and, indeed, I am most truly grateful.

Professor William Fream, of Downton College of Agri-
culture, has just been appointed, by unanimous vote of
Council of our Royal Agricultural Society, to be Associate
Editor of their journal. This is such an excellent appoint-
ment it delights me. Professor Fream is an old friend of
mine, so that besides the great benefit to the society of
having such an able man in the post, I gain a skilled and
heartily helpful colleague.

I hope that you will come over to England this summer,
it would be such a benefit to me and such a pleasure both
to my sister and myself. We hope you will stay here as
long as you can make it convenient. This is a very good
centre, and Rothamsted [the great English Agricultural
Experiment Station] is only about four and a half miles off,
and I am quite sure the staff would be delighted to show
you everything.

July 7, 1890.

I believe that after our hard fight we have won the victory
and Paris-green is now acknowledged, so far as the area of
the work of our Committee has spread, as an indispensable
insecticide in orchard-growing on a large scale. The
caterpillars have been killed and the leafage not injured, and

204 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

the Superintendents at Toddington are, up to date, quite
satisfied and grateful. We are greatly indebted to you for
your kind and able help, and what it has been to me I
cannot say. It would fill a volume to record the progress
of our work. It at first appeared as if the spirit of folly had
got into the heads of the opposition ; everything imaginable
turned up one after another, and, as Entomologist to the
Committee, I have hardly had a day's peace till now
for weeks or months. We had one definite combination
against us, and when all seemed quiet the beekeepers raised
a commotion. This had to be answered publicly, but it
seemed self-evident that if we did not spray when the trees
were in flower we would not hurt the bees. One of our
members made a commotion about his own health, and I
had to point out to him that if he were not used to standing
out in a March wind slopping with cold water (only I put
it more politely) he was likely to feel uncomfortable.

If we meet, as I hope we may some day, I am sure you
would be entertained with *'The rise and progress of Paris-
green." But really all the work and terrible anxiety have
tried me very much, and I am going to have a little holiday
with my sister for a couple of days at Oxford as a
refreshment.

October 6, 1890.

You encourage me very much indeed by all you so kindly
say, and I value your approval of my new book greatly, but
I always feel, and I try to acknowledge, that the real use-
fulness of my work is derived from the kind co-operation
I am allowed the benefit of. Just look at the Paris-green
matter. I quite sheltered myself behind your name as an
active referee. The good folks were hard of belief anyhow,
but I really doubt if I could have driven the nail home
without having you to fall back on. But for the pain that it
could not fail to give, the history of our Evesham Committee's
work, and what we had to meet, would be a most interesting
chapter, and at last we had perfect success !

I think I told you of the wonderfully diseased strawberry
plants, looking more like pieces of cauliflowers placed on
the ground than their own graceful forms. Dr. Ritzema
Bos has found that this is from the presence of a Tylen-
chus (eel-worm) (figs. 47 and 49), hitherto undescribed,
and is going to bring out a preliminary notice in November,
and as some portion of the observations (not the scientific
parts) were mine, he will kindly let me use what I need for
my Report. He is a very kind colleague.

1890.] SPRAYING WITH PARIS-GREEN 205

November 18, 1890.

My sister is delighted to send you two copies of her
Hessian fly maggot diagram, which she hopes you will
kindly accept. This, as she says, is "her first public
appearance," so she is rather anxious 1 But I have been
doing my best to ensure her picture a good reception, and I
revised it very carefully before it went out. I think you
will like it. It should accompany this letter, but it comes
so very near parcel post limitations of size that if it
does not arrive please expect it shortly in a different
travelling dress, by book post.

December 22, 1890.

For your collection you will, I think, like a regular letter
of our good old Professor Westwood, but this is not in the
least characteristic. He usually takes a postcard, and into
it, by small writing, and adding in little bits where there is
room, he gets in a surprising quantity of instructive matter.
Mr. Meade's letter you would perhaps care for, as he is one
of our leading Dipterists — he is very kind to me in identify-
ing whenever I ask him ; and the letter from Mr. Hormuzd
Rassam is a contribution from my sister. He was, I
suppose, our greatest British explorer in Assyria (after
Sir Henry Layard) and was for a long time one of the
prisoners of King Theodore in Abyssinia (to liberate whom
this country went to war). I am not sure whether you saw
him when you were at Spring Grove, but he was a near
neighbour, and when he went on his Assyrian trips used to
leave his very charming wife, and untoward little flock
of Chaldee children, in what he was pleased to call " our
care."

Many thanks to you for such gratifying notices of my
Manual. They are only too kind, but it is very encouraging
to have such approval, and very refreshing too, for sometimes
I am nearly eaten up by anxiety.

I think the beneficial effect of Paris-green is quite estab-
lished, and I hope that the use of it may spread widely next
season ; I fully believe that in it or in London-purple, lies the
sole hope of keeping in check the crowds of miscellaneous
kinds of moth caterpillars which appear with the leafage.
In my fourteenth Report (that is, in the paper on orchard
caterpillars which I am now preparing for it) I have tried to
dwell with even tedious repetition on the points of the
small quantity of the Paris-green to be used, and also the
importance of the fluid being distributed as a mist or fine
spray so as to coat the leaves, but on no account to be

UErnSBS TO DK. FUETOEDSM ICBir. SEC

[Dt

Ml

Ite-

1

■asoirs

1891.J SPRAYING WITH PARIS-GREEN 207

at intervals in a way which I suppose you are quite free
from in Canada. Surely it should be recorded of me,

'' SHE INTRODUCED PARIS-GREEN INTO ENGLAND " !

You should see the mass of correspondence since this time last
year, from the first feeble efforts, through opposition and all
sorts of things, up to success. The work is well begun, and
though I may in fun mention myself, our Experimental
Committee has worked wisely and grandly. Now they are
going to publish the reports of all the members who have
sent them in. That by Mr. Wise ^ is very good indeed, and
I am to write a preface for them, so 1 can show the
teachings, where they agree, and why they differ.

We have had a long spell of cold weather, bringing great
suffering to the poor, and to my sister and myself the loss
of a brother, who was '^ coldstruck " and carried off almost
instantaneously by angina pectoris. I had a temporary share
in troubles from a severe fall, my feet going from under me
down a slope on hidden ice, and sending me down on the
back of my head ; but I think I am right again now.

There is a great want over here of some kind of lesson
book for village schools telling something that would
interest the boys — possibly, too, the girls. I do not know
whether I could manage it, but I am thinking of trying to
take some thirty or so of the very commonest attacks — includ-
ing a very few to stock, which boys always care about — and
seeing what I can do. I have a hope that through the boys
we might get at the agricultural labourers and cowmen.

I like your address very much at the Economic Entomo-
logists' meeting in reply to Professor Riley's grand and
comprehensive address ; but as yet I have not been able
quite to make out the scope of the Society's arrangements for
extra-American members. It must be a great pleasure to
all members who can meet, to talk over serviceable points,
and a great benefit conferred on the country, but I am
puzzled about the external bearings. It does not seem to
affect me say, for example, in my communication with such
kind friends as yourself and Dr. Lintner. I would venture
any way, I think, to ask at your convenience for advice or
instruction, and where I can afford information I shall think
myself honoured and happy to render it.

But I do not understand qualification. You have the

names of Mr. C. and Mr. S. on your list. I do not know

the gentlemen, so cannot tell what they may be doing, but

our grand old chief, my entomological master, and friend

' See letters to Mr. Wise in chapter XVI.

2o8 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

almost of a lifetime, dear old Professor Westwood, is not
there, and yet ex-ojficio as Hope Professor of Zoology he
lectures on Entomology (to the best of my belief) regularly
at Oxford. And what work Dr. Lindeman does ! It would
be a great help over here if we had some such Society. My
work is so very solitary, but I do what I can.

Dr. Fream's lectures. [Steven course in Edinburgh Univer-
sity] have been quite a success. This delights me. Professor
Wallace has been exceedingly pleased with the sound manner
in which he built up his Agricultural Entomology in the
students' minds, and I think the course has given great
satisfaction. He is a very sound worker, and I should
greatly like him to be my collaborateur at the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of England. I have not brought the subject
forward yet, but if there were an Assistant Entomologist
who might present my Reports instead of my personal
attendance being necessary in all the business hurry of that
great number of gentlemen, it would relieve me of a very
distasteful part of my work.

March 23, 1891.

We have just got a full stream of applications for gratui-
tous distribution of '' Paris-green " pamphlets, so we are
very anxious to keep all in hand. I greatly hope that this
will take hold. We broke through many objections last
year, and now we can point to saved crops, and no disas-
trous massacre of gardeners — not even a sparrow defunct ;
also a lessened amount of Winter moth in autumn, and a
glorious promise of flower bud on trees which have been
reported on. Last year we did not know where to turn for a
proper sprayer ; now, on the day before yesterday there was
to be a** contest of sprayers" at the Crystal Palace. I think
this shows of itself how the matter on insecticide sprayings
has come forward. I am fairly broadcasting the P.G. pam-
phlets. Many years ago when a railway bridge on a new
method of construction was made over the Wye (plate xxvi),
near my old home, the natives were ^'afraid for their lives"
to go over it, but the ingenious plan was struck, of running
any one gratuitously over and back all day long — the trains
of trucks were crammed, the people shouted for joy, and the
victory was won ; and now I am carrying out the same prin-
ciple. Gentle and simple, wise and very unwise, are wanting
" Paris-green " pamphlets, and I hope that by the sheets of
advice, &c., that have to be sent accompanying, that the very
silliest souls will not do harm ; and meanwhile we are getting
the subject popularised. You will think that I am tete niontee

mr^^K^^:

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1891.] EEL-WORMS AND INSECT DIAGRAMS 209

about it, but it has been a long, severe labour, and I tho-
roughly believe that on the adoption of the arsenical
insecticides depends the success of the English orchard
growing in the future.

So far as I see, the " grubs " have not been the least the
worse for the cold of the recent frost so long as they were in
their self-made shelters below ground, but we carried devas-
tation amongst hundreds of Cockchafer grubs, Melolontha
vulgaris, by ploughing. The larvae were too torpid to bury
themselves, and the birds disposed of them very thoroughly.

Dr. Lindeman writes that he ^'had a district inspection
set on foot " to find presence of Tylenchus devastatrix in

I, Adults; 2, anterior of female, showing mouth- "Tulip-rooted"

spear ; 3, embryo in egg — all greatly magnified, oat plant,

anterior portion 440 times (from figures by Dr. J, * * * *
Ritzema Bos). One of the causes of clover-sickness.

FIG. 47.— STEM EEL-WORMS, TYLENCHUS DEVASTATRIX.

Russia, but '^always with negative results." This is very
interesting.

June 26, 1 89 1.
Did I tell you that my sister has been preparing a set of
twenty-four diagrams — same size and in the same style as
that of the Hessian fly ? These are of our most destructive
or most remarkable insect pests — and our Royal Agricultural
Society has approved so highly of those which are printed
that they have arranged for her to transfer to them the
ownership of copyright of the set. This gratifies her very

15

210 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

much. They pay her " out of pocket " expenses of printing
and she presents the copyrights and her work. 1 think they
form a very beautiful collection, and I believe the Society
means to bring them out (together with my previous ones —
p. 99) in little half-dozen sets. Thus, one set for village
schools, one for fruit growers, one for forest use. I hope
they will be very useful in this way for those who do not
wish to purchase the whole.

We have certainly good proof this year that in our insular
climate cold does not ^^kill the grubs." If it were possible
it would even seem the Entomons were the better for it.

September 26, 1891.

A letter came from Adelaide to announce Mr. Frazer
Crawford's decease. It was caused by chronic gout and heart
disease. He had been as cheerful as usual, and when a friend
left him about nine o'clock in the evening he set to work to
prepare a scientific article, but not long after he went to
bed. On the following morning, October 30th, the servant
found the lamp still burning, but Mr. Crawford had quietly
passed away as if in sleep with his book, a volume of Crypto-
gamic Botany, fallen from his hand. He was a perfectly
indefatigable worker ; even in the last month of his life,
weighed down as he was by all the inconveniences and
pains of hip disease besides those which took him from us,
he prepared a long paper on vegetable and other plant pests
for the '^ Garden and Field," in which he wrote, besides a
review of my Manual. And a warning paper by him on the
danger of importing Phylloxera appeared in the Report of
the Bureau of Agriculture of South Australia accompanying
the notice of his death. As a friend he was excessively
valued by all who knew his kindness and his worth, and
his loss is deeply regretted at Adelaide. To myself it is
a very great cause of regret both as a true friend and an
Entomological colleague.

February 6-8, 1892.

I have this afternoon sent the index to my fifteenth Report
up to press, and am now enjoying myself by at least begin-
ning a letter to you. I hope you will like the report. The
paper on Plutella cruciferarum (Diamond-back moth) is quite
enormously long, but I believe so far as evidence in my
hands shows, that, taking all points of the attack together,
it has been unexampled in this country before, and I was
very desirous to present a trustworthy record, which would
bear sifting at every corner as to what did happen, and
readers could judge for themselves whether my con-

1892.] DIAMOND-BACK MOTH 211

elusions are well founded. I think the moths were wind-
borne. When the report reaches you I should very much
like if you would read the ^^ General Summary," pp. 157-164,
first, or you may really wonder what could have induced me
to give such a host of reports on the pest. I greatly doubt
whether, without proper identification, we could trust to
farmers distinguishing between Diamond-back moth cater-
pillars and those of Turnip sawfly, and there is no good at all
in trusting to their reminiscences ! No more than to moths
being attracted to the dark side of a lighthouse (see p. 159
of my Report). I have taken great pains to be accurate.

In No. I of '^Canadian Entomologist" for this year,
which arrived on Saturday, the 6th, I read with much
interest some of the observations on " Can insects survive
freezing ? " and I thought perhaps you might like to look at a

I, Caterpillar ; 2, eggs ; 3-5, diamond-back moth, natural size
and magnified.

FIG. 48. — DIAMOND-BACK MOTH, PLUTELLA CRUCIFERARUM ZELL.,
CEROSTOMA XYLOSTELLA, CURTIS.

few slight observations which I read before our Entomo-
logical Society in 1879. ^^ ^^at time I was one of the
regular daily observers of the Royal Meteorological Society,
so I was able to be sure of readings of temperatures, but I
could not get nearly as many examples as I wanted of the
insects. Mr. Whipple's experiment, which I have added,
was the best. I used to think it very interesting to see how
some larvae would crack across like little bits of stick, and
their brethren when thawed would recover themselves. If
you think the remarks are of any interest pray make any use
that you please of them — it would delight me if they were
of any use.

Have you chanced to hear from any quarter that the

212 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

Mediterranean flour moth (p. 179) has made its appearance
in Moscow ? It is now a few weeks since Dr. Lindeman
wrote me that it had been found there in a chocolate or
cocoa store brought by bags from London (England). Ap-
parently the enemy was descended on with full power, and
no delay, and he hoped it was stamped out. It puzzled me
at first how kuhniella came to be in chocolate, &c., but it was
suggested that these food-cake compositions were much
adulterated with flour. The pest is steadily spreading here,
and you will see in my Report that I have again reprinted a
portion of your directions.

The weather has been so wet that very great breadths of
wheat-land have remained unsown, so at present I have had
little inquiry about the young plant pests, but with warmth
and sunshine I expect they will come with a rush. I am
just beginning a second edition of my little ^' Guide."

August 22, 1892.

After an operation on my knee the joint was right, but the
long suffering had lowered my health exceedingly — and great
pain pretty constantly in the troubled limb, with occasionally
racking neuralgia, reduced me to such a state that I was
gravely warned recovery was hopeless unless I lessened
the enormous load of work. So as it was the engaged and
routine work of my *' office " which was so very harassing, I
resigned my post at the Royal Agricultural Society as their
Consulting Entomologist, and I have ever since been steadily
progressing towards recovery. Sleep has returned, and the
ierrible pain of the neuralgia is gone, and I can work happily
and comfortably.

I do not know how it happened, but the work (quite
beyond what seemed my work) amplified on all hands —
Continental and Colonial, and revision of papers, &c., &c.
— until it would have required a good man of business and
a staff to see to it all. So I cut the Gordian knot.

I hope not to make any difference at all in my Agricultural
Entomological work for the country, especially as referee for
the farmers and fruit-growers and the agricultural papers ;
also to continue my Annual Reports — and in all ways to work
thoroughly. But this is very different to being obliged to
attend ex-officio to people and things who or which appeared
to me really often to take up time to little purpose, or even
to prevent attention to really important investigation.

November 21, 1892.
One very great trouble last year was the fungoid attack to

1892.]

ANBURY AND EEL-WORMS

213

cabbage and turnip roots, which we call here " Club " or
" Anbury/' or ^* Finger and Toe." I do not know whether
you have it in Canada. You will recognise it perhaps best
under the scientific name of the ** Slime fungus " which
causes it — Plasmodiophora hrassicce of Woronin. Our people
confuse it so constantly with maggot root attacks that they
send me a deal of inquiry about it, so I do not think there
can be any harm (as I have really studied it for many years)
in giving a paper on it in my next Report, and I have secured
three excellent photos from life, which I hope will each give
a good whole-page figure of the three chief forms respec-
tively.

There are some nice new reports of infestation (so to

I, Larva; 2 and 3, females; 4 and 5, eggs in different stages of
development — all enormously magnified (2 from sketch by E. A. O, ; the
other figures after Prof. Geo. Atkinson).

FIG. 49. — TOMATO ROOT-KNOT EEL-WORM, HETERODERA {ANGUILLULA)
RADICICOLA, MiJLLER.

describe them), and I am working as steadily as I can, but
I wish I could get on faster. I envy you your power of
doing sound and good work so rapidly.

I have never thanked you for your excellent paper on the
" Horn fly " {Hcematohia comiicola), which I read with very
great interest and benefit, and lodged some of your liberal
supply of copies where I thought they would be most
useful — including getting attention drawn to the subject in
the "Agricultural Gazette."

Dr. Bethune most kindly asked my sister and myself to

214

LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

come over to stay at Port Hope for the Chicago Exhibition,
but deHghtful as it would be to see all the friends who would
be gathered to such a centre, neither sister nor self could
manage the fatigue.

Our millionaire lady who is so known for her philan-
thropic work — Baroness Burdett-Coutts — wrote me that she
had been elected President of the, or a Woman's Branch of
the, Chicago Exhibition, and desired an account of the
" Genesis of my organisation ! " What could I say ?
There is not a woman but myself and my sister in it.
I thought of Canning's famous ^' Knife Grinder" story,
^' God bless you, I have none to tell, sir." The Baroness
wrote that she was obtaining information from the Bishops

:e.c.k.

Female, showing side and upper surface ; larval scales, with legs
still visible — all magnified ; infested gooseberry twig.

FIG. 50. — CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY SCALE, LECANIUM R/BIS, PITCH.

and the heads of all the Churches, so I suppose her branch
is pur et simple religious female organisations.

March 13-16, 1893.

You will see by a copy of the Report I have just issued
that we have really got the Heterodera radicicola (Root-knot
eel-worm). I should have liked to give the name of the
sufferer, but he is our greatest English tomato grower, and
it might have injured his business. He is trying many
experiments, and at the end of April he is going to give me
a report. It would be a pleasure indeed if we managed to
make out any serviceable remedy.

At present I am trying to make a fair history and descrip-

1893.] SCALE AND MUSTARD BEETLE 215

tion of the Gooseberry scale, Lecanium ribis, Fitch, which
has made such a headquarters here (I suppose set up when
I was too ill to look after it) that I think I must almost have
a chance of finding the desiderated male ! But except the
few lines by Dr. Signoret we do not seem to have a European
description. Locusts came over in imported vegetables and
fodder about a month ago, so that I secured three species,
but no more are arriving now. Mine and the grower's
chief investigation at present is as to finding measures to
check the attack of the Mustard beetle, Phcedon betulce, and
evil-doers of similar habits, and I am making a kind of link
in operations with Messrs. Colman and Messrs. Keen, our
two great rival mustard firms, and I greatly hope we shall
make some advance.

Beetle, natural size and magnified ; maggot, magnified, and
natural size on leaf,

FIG. 51.— MUSTARD BEETLE, PHMDON BETULM, LINN.

One great worry is these (to my thinking) unqualified
so-called lecturers sent out by the County Councils.

May 22, 1893.
I only knew as a fact a very little while ago that Professor
Riley was standing for the post of " Hope Professor of
Zoology " at Oxford, vacant by the death of our grand old
friend Professor West wood. Mr. Hachett-Jackson (Professor
Westwood's assistant, I believe) wrote to me very urgently
from Keble College, and I responded most heartily,
mentioning everything I could think of that might assist
Professor Riley's election. It would have been a benefit to
myself past hoping for to have a really great Entomologist
like Professor Riley in a definite post over here. The
magician's rod would have beaten all kinds of underhand
misrepresentations, scientific and practical, out of the field.

2i6 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xix.

Anyway I fear that Professor Riley has hardly a chance,
and indeed I wonder that he should contemplate changing
his grand central' position — central to the whole world — for
such a very inferior post without genial colleagues around
him.

By book post accompanying I send a copy of Mons. J.
Danysz's paper on Ephestia (Flour moth), to your kind
acceptance, in case you have not yet seen it ; you will be
interested to run it over and see his views of Pyrethrum.
I very much doubt whether we could get our millers to try
it, but it would be different with you.

CHAPTER XX

LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER (continued) AND TO
DR. BETHUNE

Foreign correspondents— Book by Dr. Napela— Efforts to endow Agricultural
lectures at Oxford or Cambridge -Literary productions — Sympathetic
communications.

The letters addressed to Dr. Fletcher after his visit to Miss
Ormerod and her sister Georgiana at St. Albans have here
been grouped, as a matter of convenience, with letters to
the Rev. Dr. C. J. S. Bethune, another Canadian Ento-
mologist, who held a high place in Miss Ormerod's esteem,
both as a man of science and as a sympathetic friend in
whom to confide in times of sorrow.

To Dr. J. Fletchery Dominion Entomologist^ Ottawa^ Canada,

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS,

September 2()-20, 1893.

Dear Dr. Fletcher, — We were very glad to hear you
had safely returned home. I wish we could have had a
longer chat, but I will be thankful for the very great
pleasure of chatting with you at all.

Just after you had left (or rather, I think, were leaving)
England the Rothamsted Jubilee took place, which brought
very many distinguished agriculturists to this part of the
country, and you may imagine how much it was wished
that you could have been present. I did not attend, but
a few friends from long distances off looked in here on their
way.

November 26 and December i, 1893.
I have long been owing you a letter, and thanks, too, for
your '^ Entomological Report," which I read at once when
it reached me. You know the pleasure and the confidence

I feel in all I learn from your writings. They and your

217

2i8 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xx.

kind co-operation have been an immense help to my work
and me for many a year, which I have never ceased to
appreciate most gratefully. I am working now on my next
Annual Report. There has been a good deal of nice fresh
matter sent in, and (so far as I could) I have tried not to go
over old ground. I have a grand paper on Locusts (fig. 55),
my specimens being identified at Madrid by Senor Don Igo
Bolivar. Wasps were a terrible plague — and I have got
some charming observations, so entertaining 1 but I have
taken great care to have them on good authority — and
M. Schoyen kindly sent me some notes by the Swedish
State Entomologist of an enormous appearance at Tromsoe
a few years ago. As this is so high up in the Arctic circle I
thought the record would be of interest scientifically, and it
is so spirited I have had many a good laugh over it (p. 239).

But what I hope you may be really pleased with is, that
through the kind introduction of Dr. Friedrich Thomas, of
Ohrdruf, whom you will know, I think, as one of our lead-
ing European Phytopathologists, I was put in communica-
tion with Dr. A. Nalepa (of Vienna), who for some years
back has quite especially devoted himself to the study of
Phytoptidce (Blister galls). So that now we have in his
successive publications first-rate specific descriptions, with
measurements and everything requisite for certain identifica-
tion of all the species which he has studied so far. Also in
very many cases he gives good magnified figures, and he
added to his many kindnesses to myself by sending me a
plate with the details of the creatures marked with the tech-
nical names. In his treatises already published he has
given excellent accounts of very many species as well as a
good serviceable classification, and I rather think that the
work which has been coming out in the Reports of the
Imperial Scientific Society of Vienna is to be completed
this spring.

This letter has been lying by me for a few days for an
addition I wanted to make, and now I have to thank you
very heartily for the great kindness which you have shown

to poor Mr. T [a West of England farmer who had

been unfortunate]. If he can manage to adapt himself to
circumstances your timely and great assistance will have
been the means of setting him up again. I doubted rather
whether it was right of me to trouble you about him, still I
thought I would venture, and indeed your help will have
been the means of saving him from going quite down. I
had no idea (no more apparently than Mr. T ) that his

1894.] DR. NALEPA ON GALL MITES 219

Canadian prospects on his own and relations' standing were
so hopeless. Do you think a little money would help ?
Say a couple of £^ notes or so, for possibly thick clothing
is a matter needing supply. If you think it would be well,
we would very gladly (if you would kindly give me his
address) send out a little. One can get over scruples by
calling it ^^a loan," and to be returned, if ever, at con-
venience, or not at all if more so, but I do not like to send
without your leave.

December z, 1893.

A hasty line to catch post, about Dr. Nalepa's books. I
have just heard from Messrs. Wesley that they have ordered
(as I asked them) a duplicate set of the four of Dr. N.'s
pamphlets which I have, and sent you the names of yester-
day. When these arrive I shall send them on to you,
hoping you will kindly accept them, if for no other reason,
to be a trifling reminder to you of how much I appreciate
your always kind help to myself. The money value, as I
mentioned to you, is small, but I am very desirous that you
should have them as soon as possible, and ordering from
here will save some delay.

Mr. Sinclair [the editor] wrote me thanks for your paper,
and that he is having a figure of your fly copied for the
^^ Live Stock Journal." This will attract attention surely.

December 21, 1893.

I wonder if you ever came across any observation of
moths — i.e.f their larvae — injuring silk in the raw material,
as they habitually do woollen goods. I did not know that
they did, but this morning I had an inquiry about it from
Tiverton, and amongst the moths sent as offenders was a
lovely white cocoon, which appeared as if it might have
been made of the same material as the beautifully fine silk
manufactured web or net sent with it, and outside this
cocoon, now empty, were a number of little pellets of pale
larval excrement, as if they were the results of feeding on
very pale material. I hope to hear more of this. Would it
not be a nice new observation ?

March 13, 1894.

Very many thanks for the copy of your charming Report
kindly sent to myself, and the six so liberally also presented,
which I am placing carefully where they will be appreciated
and useful. One I sent to our Lancashire and Cheshire
Entomological Society, to the pleasure of the President.
They are doing a good deal of nice work, and were going
to have a special exhibition of Silphidce (Beet carrion

220 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xx.

beetles), with observations (fig. 26). I like your Report very
much ; there is an immense amount of good, sound,
straightforward information, both scientific and practical,
in it, and it is quite an example of honest dealing with your
body of observers. I have been very much interested in
your Silpha notes, and I wonder whether we could get our
farmers to try poisoning the cutworms, "surface cater-
pillars " as we call them here. I wonder whether I should
not do well to follow your example and have short notes of
anything interesting, even without giving a long story.
These embody a great deal of useful information, but with
us who are so behindhand in entomological information, I
have been afraid that without a full account and a figure the
readers would be all abroad. I was very much gratified to
see the honourable place you give my name among your
colleagues. Indeed this pleases me very much.

I was very much interested with what you told me of
overplus of wasps having accompanied deficiency of rainfall
in one portion of your part of the world. Our Press has
been very kind to me, and I was particularly pleased with
one remark, that (although retired from the Royal Agricul-
tural Society) I had not ceased to be the "Consulting
Entomologist of the Agriculturists of Great Britain."

Just now I am running a leaflet on Bryohia prcetiosa
(Gooseberry red spider), through the press, and this morn-
ing I had an order for 3,000 copies ! Just think of that, and
without the firm even seeing it !

April 9, 1894.

I am trying to bring kerosene, or mineral oil emulsion
more forward as an insecticide. I have given a number of
the best recipes in one of our leading agricultural journals —
" The Farmer's Gazette," Dublin — with the information that
for those who cannot manage permanent combination of
the constituents, the so-called "antipest" makes a good
substitute.

It appears that "formalin," as the trade name is called, is
being brought out as a disinfectant. Mr. A. Zimmermann
has been trying the effects as an insecticide on greenhouse
plants, and he considered it so bad for the insects, and
beneficial rather than hurtful to the plants, that he wanted
my co-operation in getting it tried. Dr. Bernard Dyer told
me he thought it would be well worth trial.

The point that occurred to me was could we use it against
the Flour moth, E. kuhniella ? At present we have got some
flour well impregnated with emanation from some of the

i894.]

GOOSEBERRY RED SPIDER

22i

tablets, and Mr. Zimmerman n was going to have a loaf baked
of some of this flour, and consumed in his own large house-
hold, without letting them know there is anything peculiar
about it ! I am to know results ; and I have said I should
like a piece of the experimental loaf. I hope we shall not
all be made very miserable indeed. If the flour rises
properly, and the bread is fit to be eaten, then I am
meditating getting an experiment made as to the destruc-
tive powers of the fumes by some of our folks here connected
with milling, and also suggesting to Mons. ]. Danysz,
Director of the Laboratory of Parasitology, Bourse de
Commerce, Paris, whether he might care to experiment
in some of the French mills with which he had been in

From life ; Red spider (outline figure after Koch) — both magnified.
Infested leaf, natural size.

FIG. 52.-

■GOOSEBERRY AND IVY RED SPIDER, BRYOBIA PRMTIOSA,
C. L. KOCH.

communication regarding destruction of E. kithniella. The
chemical is sold in tablets like large thick lozenges, and also
as a fluid, and, I believe, in powder.

Enclosed is a little packet of seed of the pink hawkweed,
which you thought pretty while here last summer, and a few
seeds also of the white Lathyrus (vetchling). I hope they
may remind you how welcome your visits here are.

^U7ie 20, 1894.
I was so sorry to learn from Professor Riley's circular that
he really had resigned, and also from some observations in it

222 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xx.

to surmise that all had not been quite comfortable. Who
will be his successor ? Will it be Mr. L. O. Howard, I
wonder ? I expect that Professor Riley (unless he is really
very ill) will work at his Entomology from morning till
night or more.

The oak trees have been very severely injured by cater-
pillars in various places. Down near Lymington, Hants,
one of my correspondents tells me the leafage is stripped
so that the trees look as if it were the middle of the winter.
Aphides also are very great pests this year, and we had a
bad grass attack of them near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They
were reported to be spreading rapidly from one large field
(that is, large for us) of 15 to 20 acres, so I thought the best
advice I could give was to mow the field — in the most
literal sense, cut off the source of evil.

Is it not rather an interesting point to think of — that
whether the weather be hot and dry, or cold and wet, there
are some kinds of insect attack which appear to do equally
well ? The- crops bear up better in special circumstances,
but their unpleasant enemies seem to me just as com-
fortable.

I have got a very curious investigation on hand of the
mischief of some beetles on the grassland of our South
American Land Co. in the Argentine Territories. I will
enclose or send you a little note I put in one of our agri-
cultural papers. Is it not curious that the two Scarabseid
beetles sent over with the Dynastids should so rarely come
to hand here that there is only one specimen of each in our
British Museum ! I hope to work up the observations, or
rather, to get a good deal of trustworthy observation to work
upon, and to get some more specimens.

July 16, 1894.

I am now writing first of all to ask you kindly to accept a
copy of the translation by Professor Ainsworth Davis of Dr.
Ritzema Bos's "Agricultural Zoology." It seems to me a very
useful book, but I think it is a mistake of Messrs. Chapman &
Hall to have so arranged it that the price is 6s. This is almost
a prohibitory price to many who could find 2S. 6d. or 3s.
Also, if I had seen proof of title I think I would have asked
for my name to appear in a much more secondary fashion.
I should mention this copy is one of a few sent me for
friends. I did not buy it or I would not have enlarged on
the price ! I have written, by request of Professor Davis, a
short Introduction, and I was very glad to do it to show that
I had no feeling of opposition, for much of it is on parallel

1%.]

GROUND BEETLES

223

lines with my Manual, and there might have been misunder-
standings which I should have been very sorry for — for Dr.
Ritzema Bos is always kind in helping me.

You will believe how intensely I was interested in all I
could hear about Professor Riley's retirement. I was sorry
for his indifferent health, but perhaps it was more the desire
to be a free agent that led to his resignation. I think I
could feel very much with him, but his was a magnificent
post to resign.

October 28, 1895.

I was shocked and grieved to receive the news of our
friend Professor Riley's fatal accident.^ Dr. Bethune kindly
sent me a paper with the full account, and as I did not know
what any one might do in properly announcing it here, I
wrote a short letter to the ^' Times " which they inserted at
once. This was just what one might call a friendly notice ;

H.K.

Magnified, and lines showing natural length ; strawberry fruit
gnawed by Harpaliis nificornis.

FIG. 53. — GROUND BEETLES — "BAT BEETLE," HARPALUS RUFICORNIS,
FAB. (left), PTEROSTICIIUS VULGARIS, LINN, (right).

an account of the accident and a few observations,; the dry
obituary notice (I mean the regular formal notice) had been
inserted the previous day. I was very pleased to see
yours in the ''Canadian Entomologist." It was very sad,
and I feel his loss much, for he was always, when we cor-
responded, kind and helpful.

Here, things are going on (or standing still) much as
usual, but it has been a grand year for fresh observations.
I have secured a long carefully watched observation of
Harpalus ruficornis (Ground beetle) feeding on strawberry

* See Appendix E.

224 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xx.

fruit. I watched and recorded until I got so weary of acting
as their fruiterer that I thought seventeen days' observation
was enough.

Amongst pine attackers I have had a lovely specimen of
the Astynonms cedilis (Timberman beetle), sent me from the
north of Scotland, the longest horned of the European
^Monghorns." It is wonderfully pretty to see the tiny beetle,
not three-quarters of an inch long, comfortably bearing
its delicate antennae, nearly half a foot in expanse. Also
I have got a good observation of the Pine Shoot moth's
bad doings ; the Retinia buoliana, the " Post-horn " attack
as they call it in Germany, from the twisted shoots ; and
some other fresh work — but the great point of this year's
observation is Horse and Cattle Diptera, Warble flies, Gad

Slightly larger than life ; line showing natural length.

FIG. 54. — TIMBERMAN BEETLE, ASTVNOMUS MDILIS.

flies, and Forest flies. Just now Forest flies are being sent
me from India. The Indian species is very pretty. I have
been working up the structure of the Hippoboscal foot, which
is indeed wonderful (pis. xxiii., xxiv.). I do not understand
the details, so I have had two great drawings made, and litho-
graphed, for my next Annual Report, with the tiny foot mag-
nified to a size of 6 inches by 5, showing every detail that
appears to me observable, and I wonder what the parts will
be considered to do. I think I have made out a good deal,
but there is some apparatus that none of the few people I
have consulted make out.

May 15, 1897.

You will have seen the state of enthusiasm this whole
country is in about the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee.
I trust that the exertion and excitement will not be quite too
much for her, but it will be a great trial.

Another matter I feel more at home in — do you happen
to have seen in some of our English papers that some of us

1898.] UNIVERSITY MATTERS 225

are trying to get an Agricultural Lectureship established in
the University of Oxford ? It came about this way. It
appears that the funds for support of the Sibthorpian Pro-
fessorship of Rural Economy had fallen so low, that it was
feared it would have to be given up. But the Clothworkers'
Company came forward with the offer of ;^2oo a year for
five years on condition of Agriculture being made one of
the subjects to be taken for degrees. I offered ;^ioo on the
same terms, and then it was offered by one or two people
jointly, on the same terms, to clear off a debt which seemed
growing like a snowball. The matter is now under con-
sideration by the University authorities. They would gladly
accept the money, I believe, for an Agricultural Lecture-
ship on which attendance was voluntary, but the difficulty
is accepting the matter as essential for a degree.

Instruction in agriculture (that is, chemistry, forestry,
entomology, &c.) would do a great deal of good at such a
centre of our ''coming on" great landholders as Oxford,
but the students will not attend the lectures unless the
matter is compulsory. Prof. Warington is the Sibthorpian
lecturer — a friend and neighbour (at least, he and his wife
live very near by railway) — so we can talk over progress.
He has his hands, I think, very full. In case after due con-
sideration Oxford does not think it desirable to establish the
Chair, I fancy it is very likely our offer may be then trans-
ferred to Cambridge ; but this is at present uncertain.

[These efforts in the higher interests of science as applied
to agriculture having failed. Miss Ormerod, in her Last Will
mid Testament, bequeathed, out of her ample means, a sum
of ;£5,ooo to the University Court of the University of Edin-
burgh, '' upon trust for the benefit of that University."]

December 6, 1897.

I thank you very much for your two Entomological
Reports lately received. I want to read your observations
on " Hair-worms " carefully as soon as I can get time, for
these creatures come, I think, as regularly as the summer.

You will perhaps have seen the turmoil that the Sparrow-
lovers raised, and the floods of abuse they bestowed upon
me. But it advertised ' the leaflet beautifully, and I could
hardly print at first quickly enough to keep up to the
demand. Our Royal Horticultural Society has asked leave
to reprint the Sparrow leaflet in their Journal, which
gratifies me much.

'January 21, 1898.

I think you will be pleased to know that I am in

16

226 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [Chap. xx.

most pleasant co-operation with the Duke of Bedford's
staff at the Woburn Experimental Fruit-ground as to
endeavouring to find some way to lessen presence of
Phytoptus (mite galls), on black-currants. We are going to
try grafting on species which are not affected, for one thing ;
after I have been trying for I do not know how long to get
growers to consider having their bushes in line, with other
crops between, I hear to-day from Woburn that it appears
as if those which had been grown that way were much
the freest from attack.

February i6, 1898.
We are having an extraordinarily mild winter, and vegeta-
tion is said in some places to be one or two months over-
forward. Of course insects are plying their trades heartily
underground, but (so far) I do not see any difference in
amount of above - ground appearances. If this is so
generally, would it be too far-fetched an idea to think
it was a still further confirmation of hibernation being
constitutional, not an effect of weather ? The underground
workers that are sent me are larval ^'eaters" when not
frozen torpid ; also Tylenchus devastatrix (eel-worm) is,
I believe, making wild work with clover, which is popularly
attributed to Sitones (Pea weevil) larvae. I found the little
eel-worm (fig. 47) in quantities in abortive shoots of " stem-
sick " clover sent me, and I am giving warning about it.

January 7, 1900.

I am very much gratified that you approve of the Index
to my Annual Reports. You will believe that it was a
weary work to make up our minds what arrangement would
be desirable. The time and sight that I worse than wasted
on it was incredible, for, I believe, I really complicated
matters very much, and doctor, and business manager (Mr.
T. P. Newman) spoke so seriously that I left off meddling,
and I think Mr. Newstead did the work well.

I now very gladly forward a copy by book-post, and
I should be only too pleased to send any copies that may
be desired. My hope is that besides being just a paged
reference list, it may stand for a sort of up-to-date '^catalogue
raisonne" of British Economic Insett attacks.

June 12, 1900.

I have owed you an answer to your kind letter so long
that on receipt this evening of your very valuable pamphlet,
which I am delighted to possess, I sit down at once to write.

I promise myself a great deal of information from your
'' Recent Additions," which is obviously of quite exceptional

1895.] BOOK ON FOREST INSECTS 227

value. What you say of the number of injurious insects
being greater, as well as the number of species, is very
interesting. I am hoping to utilise the reports of forest
insects which have been sent me up to date, in co-operation
with Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall, the consulting Entomo-
logist of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.
I have much information scattered in my Annual Reports,
but I have not strength to work it and attend at the same
time (as I wish to do) to regular application, so we are
thinking that, as a " Textbook of Forestry " is much needed
for University use, we might work together ; that is. Dr.
MacDougall to take the heavy scientific part, as his engage-
ments allow, and I to add what I can to the entomological
notes which he has been collecting for years, and also give
the figures. I should like this collaboration very much. Mr.
Robert Wallace, the Professor of Agriculture in the Edin-
burgh University (an old friend of mine), is a very kind
ally, and now I do not feel so very lonely in my work. By
parcel post (posted with this letter) I am sending a photo of
myself, taken in Doctor's robes, for your kind acceptance ; I
hope you will approve of the appearance of your old friend
in her new dress ! With very kind remembrances and good
wishes, pray believe me, ever sincerely yours,

Eleanor A. Ormerod, LL.D.

To the Rev. Dr. C. J. S. Bethune, Editor of " The
Canadian Entomologist."

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

April I, 1895.

My dear Mr. Bethune, — My sister and myself were
indeed grieved and shocked to see from the papers you
kindly sent (received yesterday morning) what a disaster
had happened.! What a mercy that all the boys were saved !
The order and promptness speak volumes for the spirit of
obedience and discipline — and we have been reading the
whole history with the greatest sympathy and admiration.
Poor boys — I feel so sorry for them — running out into
the cold, to watch their pet collections and treasures
burning !

I gather that for building purposes you are fairly insured,
but will you let my sister and myself try to replace what we

" This reference is to the destruction by fire of the main building of
Trinity College School, Port Hope, Canada, of which Mr. Bethune was
Head Master for a period of 29 years ending 1899.

228 LETTERS TO DR. BETHUNE [Chap. xx.

can of our own books and drawings ? We are writing up to
Messrs. Johnston to ask how best to forward my sister's and
my five sets of Insect diagrams, which were published by
our Royal Agricultural Society. When we learn, she is going
to have them forwarded, and hopes you will kindly accept
them as a little token of her great sympathy. By this post
I am sending, in two book-post parcels, my Manual (2nd
edit.), '^ Cobham Journals," ^ and Annual Reports, vols.
13, 14, 15, 16, 18. These I have here, and I am going to
write to my printers to forward some more to try and make
up the set. Kindly accept these, and please excuse the
''Cobham Journals" not being absolutely new. But it has
long been out of print and I secured a presentation copy
which was offered for sale and had it bound, and put a strip
of paper to hide what might be on the title-page.

Mr. Fletcher is my chief Canadian correspondent, and it
is a great delight when I get a letter from him.

You will not have time at present to think of entomo-
logical matters, but we were desirous to assure you as soon
as possible of our great sympathy in your trouble. With my
very kind regards to yourself and Mrs. Bethune, in which
my sister begs to join me.

June 7, 1897.

I was very much pleased to see your handwriting again a
short time ago — and a little while before exceedingly grati-
fied with the long kind review. You, living among so many
friends and colleagues in work, can hardly appreciate how
very greatly indeed I value such kind encouragement.

Your beautiful letter was a great support and comfort to
me in my loss last year,^ and now my health is fairly estab-
lished again. I had great trouble for many weeks, some
months rather, from some very troublesome disturbance of
sight, but I did as well as I could, and when circumstances
allowed, I got one of our best London oculists to come and
see what was amiss. To my great joy he told me that each
of my eyes individually was in excellent order, but there was
some such difference in their action that some special glasses
were needed, and I find great comfort from them. He said
he wondered how I had been able to work.

Just now Alfalfa (lucerne), infested with locusts is coming
in from Buenos Aires, and one of my correspondents
found his horses so ill after feeding on the infested lucerne,
that I sent a copy of his notes to our '' Live Stock Journal."

^ Containing Miss Ormerod's Meteorological Observations.
' The death of her sister Georgiana.

1898.]

LOCUSTS AND ORCHARD PESTS

22()

One of the three animals was reported to appear to suffer
from coHc; another recovered when bran was substituted
for the locust-infested hay. The third I should con-
jecture was very ill when I heard. But as I know nothing
of veterinary matters, I thought it was but right to send
the notes on, with a kind of apology. The locusts are of the
South American migratory kind — Schistocerca paranensis.
Pretty creatures — even all flattened out. My correspondent
sent me about 120 of them.

July 20, 1898.
I am working now on what I hope to bring out in
the autumn as a good thick volume, called, ^^ Handbook

Locust with wings spread : tip of male abdomen to the right, and of
female abdomen to the left, (After Conil, but reduced ^.)

FIG. 55.

-SOUTH AMERICAN MIGRATORY LOCUST, SCHISTOCERCA
PARENENSIS (MALE).

From Lawrence Bruner's Locust Investigation Commission Report,
Buenos Aires,

of Insects Injurious to Orchard and Bush Fruits, with
means of Prevention and Remedy/' very fully illustrated.
I am trying to include all the attacks of any real impor-
tance of which observations have been sent to me in the
past twenty-one years, and though I give these from
British observations to a great extent, I am trying to bring
them all up to date. I hope you approve of the idea. Our

230 LETTERS TO DR. BETHUNE [Chap. xx.

fruit industry is increasing so much, that more information
is needed for growers ; but I do not feel sure I should have
had courage to begin it, if some one had not written to me
that he purposed bringing out a book on insect pests, and
would like the use of my figures to illustrate it ! It oc-
curred to me that when he was about it he might like my
letterpress also ! So I have set to work and I have got to
about p. 224.

There are more of the rarer attacks about than usual
this year — Atomaria linearis at mangolds, for instance.
This morning I heard from Messrs. Laxton, of Bedford,
that they have gained a complete victory over that destruc-
tive pest, the Strawberry ground beetle, or beetles, I should
say (in this instance cockchafers, fig. 58). They bought a
multitude of pudding basins and sunk them in the straw-
berry beds, baited with sugar and water, and tempting
solids, and the beetles were caught in hosts, sometimes by

Magnified ; natural length, one twenty-fourth of an inch.
(After Taschenberg.)

FIG. 56. — PIGMY MANGOLD BEETLE, ATOMARIA LINEARIS, STEPHENS.

the half basin full. I think this is real good news for
strawberry growers.

I wish I knew better how to manage my work. I do not
think I should have any difficulty in keeping the real work
in hand, but there is so much correspondence on subjects
which, indeed, one can hardly call even allied, and yet I
suppose one should return a reply, and that adds uselessly
to the work. How well you must know this sort of thing !

I was grieved at the loss of our kind Dr. Lintner,^ and
I saw my good friend Mr. T. P. Newman about some not
wholly inadequate notice being inserted in the ^* Ento-
mologist." I could from my heart record his exceeding
kindness to his weaker brethren.

July 28, 1899.

Your very kind letter to me of a few weeks back was a
sincere grief to me in its information of your abiding sorrow
under the heavy affliction with which it has pleased our

' State Entomologist of New York.

1899] MANGOLD BEETLE AND SPINACH MOTH 231

Father to visit you.i I scarcely know how to write to you,
for it would be presumptuous in me to endeavour to enter to
you on the only sources of consolation, which, in my own
great loss, you placed so comfortably before me ; but, believe
me, I earnestly sympathise in your affliction, and earnestly
hope that any arrangement you make may be to your
comfort. I am much pleased to see in the paper of which
you have kindly sent me a copy, that great care is being
taken, that, so far as may be, you shall have a worthy suc-
cessor in the office you have so honourably held for so
many years [Head Master of Trinity College School, Port
Hope].
I do not often hear from Canada, for Dr. Fletcher is

From Newman's "British Moths," p. 193.

FIG. 57.— " SPINACH MOTH," CIDARIA DOTATA, LINN.

SO occupied and has to move about so much, that he has
not time to give me the bits of entomological novelties he
used to form most interesting letters with. I am trying this
season to get my applicants to fill up their observations to
some degree. Rather an undertaking this, you will believe 1
But I am getting a few new (or rather little brought for-
ward) infestations.

The Cidaria dotata, sometimes called the " Spinach
moth " is, I think, of interest at present.

I am sure that when you move to a new home you
will kindly let me have your address, for I should be very
sorry not to be allowed to still look forward to our occa-
sional interchange of pleasant friendly communications, and
with my very kind remembrances and most sincere good
wishes, pray believe me, most sincerely yours,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

' Mrs. Bethune was killed in a carriage accident in July, 1898.

CHAPTER XXI

LETTERS TO DRS. RITZEMA BOS, SCHOYEN, REUTER AND
LOUNSBURY AND MR. FULLER

Eel-worms — Ladybirds — Wheat midges — Resignation from the Royal Agri-
cultural Society — Wasps — Study of Norwegian and Swedish — Gall mites
— Boot beetles — Experience of publishing.

Representative letters to five foreign and colonial scientific
entomologists have been gathered into this chapter, among
other reasons to show the diversity of Miss Ormerod's
work, carried on in close touch and in the most agreeable
relations, with the highest wide-world authorities on various
specialised branches of her subject.

To Professor J. Ritzema Bos, Amsterdam,

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

July 27, 1893.

Dear Dr. Ritzema Bos, — I have not written to you for
a long time, partly because I had nothing of sufficient
importance to allow me to submit it to you, but also because
both my sister and myself had rather severe illnesses.

Enclosed I beg to send you some pieces of potato,
which I think it is just possible may be infested by (or at
least have now) some slight presence of Tylenchus devasta-
trix (eel-worm, fig. 47). I received several tubers this
morning from near Helensburgh, in Dumbartonshire, Scot-
land. Mr. Robert Howie, the sender, writes me that a large
field recently dug up by him was very much damaged by
being badly ^^ scabbed" in the same way as the samples sent.
But, when I came to examine the so-called *^ scabbed" parts
after washing, the surface for the most part looked to me
more as if it had been gnawed by some larvae, than if it were
a diseased state of coat. The skin of the potato is often

left overhanging. I was going to suggest to Mr. Howie that

232

1893.

EEL-WORMS AND COCKCHAFER

233

he should search iovAgrotis larvae, or Melolontha (Cockchafer),
grubs, but examining further at the end of one or two
tubers, where the skin was still in its natural state, excepting
small patches of what was as yet only a slight discoloured
roughness, I found a few eel-worms. They were so few
that they evaded me when using the higher power, but in
one instance I thought I detected a bulb near the head end.
I am afraid I may be taking up your time with what is of
no importance; still I thought I should like to send you
some pieces, and if the attack is one of any interest I would
gladly forward more. The eel-worms I have seen are all
anguilliform, the largest was about as long or longer than the
largest T, devastatrix I have seen, the others were smaller.
Mr. Rochford has been carrying on with great care and pre-
cision his experiments as to poisoning Heterodera radicicola
(root-knott eel- worms, fig. 49). He has tried about forty

Larva, pupa, and antenna of male c? and female ? .

FIG. 58.— COCKCHAFER, MELOLONTHA VULGARIS, FAB.

different applications — noting the amount given and the effect
on the eel-worms and the plants. I certainly hope that a few
will show successful results, but he is very careful, and is now
going over his series of experiments a second time, that he
may be quite certain before coming forward with statements
of effects. As soon as I know anything of interest I shall
be very glad to be allowed to tell you ; Mr. Rochford
has given me permission. I do not know as yet whether
he will bring forward his results himself, or leave it to me to
do. Pray believe me, with best thanks for all the kind
assistance you give me.

September 7, 1893.
As I think that you have either returned home, or will
soon be returning, I now (with your kind permission) send

234

LETTERS TO DR. RITZEMA BOS [Chap. xxi.

a few more of the ^^ scabbed " potatoes, which it seemed
possible might be infested by Tylenchus devastatrix. If it
should be convenient to you at your best leisure to make
any examination, and to let me know results, I am sure I
need not say how acceptable your information would be,
not only to myself, but to many interested in the cause of
this external deformity. I send the potatoes in a little
tin box by parcel post. Recently I have had rather an
interesting observation of the little black, somewhat pubes-
cent, ^'ladybird" beetle, Sc^'mnws minimus, as a feeder on
Red-spider, Tetranychiis telarius. I have not been able to
find any account of its life history, so I have had great
pleasure in watching its progress from larval to imago state.
It seems to me to be greedily carnivorous ; after a few

I, Cluster of eggs ; 2, egg, magnified ; 3, grub, magnified ; 4, line
showing natural length ; 5 and 6, pupae ; 7 and 8, 2-spotted lady-bird,
Coccinella bipunctata, L. (= disfar), and dark variety ; 9, 7-spottcd lady-
bird, C. septcmpmictata, L., like in form but much larger than the black
lady-bird.

FIG. 59. — LADY-BIRDS, COCCINELLJDM.

hours' want of food during their journey to me, the larvae
set to work to feed on what they could pick up on the back
of a leaf infested by red spider, as eagerly as sheep on fresh
grass ; and as I found one day only a single larva remaining
of three or four confined together, I suspect it was this
survivor who had reduced his brethren to the small remains
which were all I found. The final changes were rapid, for
the above happened on August 28th, and shortly after it had
pupated, and yesterday I found the little black ladybird
in most active condition.

I have heard nothing further at present from Mr. Roch-
ford about his Heterodera experiments. I think I must
remind him soon that he kindly promised me a report.

894/

LADY-BIRDS AND CENTIPEDES

235

May 14, 1894.
I have been quite sorry for a long time that I have had
no specimens which would be of interest to you. I was
afraid you might think I was not attending to these subjects,
but now I have received a cucumber root quite beset with
galls, of which I forward you a portion. It is from a
nursery gardener at Rhyl, in Flintshire, North Wales, where
they are much troubled by cucumber and tomato plants
dying, some of both kinds having the ^' roots covered with
galls but some have not." Messrs. Maxwell and Dalgliesh
sent me some of the roots without galls, from plants that
were nearly dead, but I could not discover the cause of the
failure of these. On such inefficient examination as I
make, I find in the soft pulpy centre of the larger galls
some anguilliform nematodes, which I conjecture to be

I, Geophilus longicornis ; 2, LWiohius forficatus, " thirty-foot
3, head of Lithobius forficatus, magnified,

FIG. 60.— LONG-HORNED CENTIPEDES.

males, or larvae, of the H, radicicola, but so far as I searched
I did not find females ; there were a fair number of eggs.
On cutting the pieces of plant into fragments for packing I
find the stem just about the ground-level much beset with
diseased growth. I have not, however, delayed to try to
examine this, for I might be only wasting specimens.
Messrs. M. and D. have five houses fifty yards long each,
so the infestation is a serious trouble to them. They tell
me that they clear out all the soil each year, and bring
fresh soil in. It '^is rich alluvial soil." They have tried
lime, soot, and nitrate of soda without effect, and I should
certainly say that something requires alteration for the exter-
mination even of an infestation much more easily dealt with ;
for they are troubled by millepedes (fig. 27), and also there

236 LETTERS TO DR. RITZEMA BOS [Chap. xxi.

are such great numbers of Geophilus (centipedes), that there
must, I think, be something amiss whether these Hve chiefly
on vegetable matter or on small animal vermin.

Some inquiry about H. radicicola has been sent to me
from Glen St. Mary, Florida, U.S.A., but no new information.

On Saturday, Professor Ainsworth-Davis wrote to ask me
to write a preface to his translation of your "Zoologie,"
and it will gratify me very much indeed to prepare such a
one as I hope may please you. Your book will be a very
valuable addition to our educational series, and I shall like
very much to be permitted thus to appear in colleagueship.

October 3, 1894.

This matter of the ? Tylenchus devastatrix in the cortex
seems to me most perplexingly curious. I cannot venture
to form an opinion ; I have not the knowledge requisite, but
looking at these Tylenchi being smaller than T, devastatrix is
customarily known to be, and also their occurring in a
locality where devastatrix is not known, the idea just floats
in my mind whether they may be <^ (males) or, alternatively,
larval Heterodera schachtii {^' Beet-root" eel-worm).

But perhaps I am almost wrong in taking up your time
with a mere idea, as you work on definite proof, and
though the shape of those I mentioned to you much
resembled your larval H. schachtii, I had not sufticiently
high powers to be sure of the species. I have been trying
to make out whether there is ever a definitely formed
opening for the exit of the contents of the $ (female)
schachtii. In examining one specimen I found a circular
orifice with what appeared to me a regularly formed edge —
not a merely torn one. On putting this in glycerine under
a thin cover-glass, and very lightly pressing it, there first
came out a number of little eel-worms, without disturbing
the condition of the orifice. I was, however, so desirous
that my sister should see the interesting sight that I called
her, and when I looked again perhaps in a couple of
minutes, the regularity was gone ; the outer skin — the skin
rather of the female — was cracking irregularly from the
aperture and giving exit to a mixed collection of eggs and
wormlets. I have tried to find another instance but with-
out success. Very many thanks to you for also sparing
time to explain to me the meaning of the word
^^ schaumerde." ^ Now I quite understand and am very

* " SchaGmerde," is a product of the fabrication of sugar, which con-
tains the mineral parts, the salts, of the sugar beet. Therefore it is
good for manuring this crop. (J. R. B.)

1892.] EEL-WORMS AND ROVE-BEETLES 237

glad to know about it. Thank you also for your kind per-
mission to use some of your figures of schachtii.

I should very much like to have some specimens of the
hop-growth called '' nettle-headed," but I have only
received a very few leaves, in which I did not see anything
amiss.

I received a specimen (though I suppose this is not rare)
of the large Coccinella ocellata (Eyed lady-bird). What a
pretty creature it is ! I had never seen it before.

Also from a North British correspondent I received a
number of what I do not think could be other than larvae
of one of the Staphylinidcc, w^hich were doing mischief by
feeding in turnips or their flower stems or leafstalks. They
looked grey to the unassisted eye ; magnified, they were
whitish with grey patches along the back, and they much
resembled the fig. by Professor Westwood (see p. 167 of
vol. i. of his ^'Classification of Insects"), of which I give a

H.K
Natural size and magnified,

FIG. 61.— EYED LADY-BIRD, COCCINELLA OCELLATA.

rough tracing of the magnified larva and line showing
natural size. Professor Westwood found numbers of these
larvae feeding on turnips, but, unfortunately, he does not
give even the generic name. They are obviously very
destructive, that is, those sent me.

I have been most carefully studying your observations on
schachtii in oats with great pleasure and profit. With kind
regards and ever with many thanks, believe me.
Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Dr. IV. M. Schoyen, State Entomologist, Christiania.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

August 23, 1892.
Dear Sir, — I have long been in your debt for grateful
acknowledgment of your kind thought in sending me from

238 LETTERS TO DR. SCHOYEN [Chap. xxi.

time to time copies of your valuable pamphlets, and also of
your portrait, which I have much pleasure in adding to my
collection of portraits of the leading entomologists of the
world. But I trust you will forgive my long silence
because for a long time (that is, since last autumn) until
about three weeks ago, I have been a great sufferer, and it
has been with difficulty I have been able to keep up to work.

May I ask your kind acceptance of my fifteenth Report (ac-
companying by book post), and a little brochure I recently
arranged by special request ; also with them may I place a
copy of my portrait, recently taken, in your hands ? I value
your pamphlets which you kindly send me, much ; but,
unfortunately, I have never been able to master your
language — so when I have read the title, if it be a subject
bearing specially on my own work, I get help from a
linguist to enable me to benefit. Trusting that for the
reasons given you will pardon my long silence.

October 25, 1893.

I thank you very much for being so good as to tell me of
the appearance of the Cecidomyia destructor (Hessian fly, fig.
15) in Norway. This observation of the further spread of this
troublesome barley pest is very interesting to me, and I am
also greatly obliged to you for letting me have the charac-
teristic specimens of puparia. There is no doubt that these
are the chrysalis cases (the ^' flax-seeds," as we call them
here) of the Hessian fly. I at once wrote to two friends to
endeavour to procure the specimens you name, and it
would have been a great pleasure to me to send them at
once, but I much doubt whether I shall be able to procure
any of the Wheat midge, C. tritici ; I have not got any my-
self, nor have my two colleagues so far as they see.

About the Hessian fly, I have been more successful. I
have secured some specimens well put up for the micros-
cope. It is too late this evening to repack them properly,
but I hope to send you three slides to-morrow in a
registered letter, of which, with very great pleasure, I beg
your kind acceptance. Should they not reach you in
proper condition, you will oblige me by letting me know,
that I may try to replace them. I should hope that the
thoroughly well-advised treatment which you are
endeavouring to get carried out in the infested district
will be successful. I have great confidence in the efficacy
of destroying the puparia in the screenings or siftings ; and
ploughing so as to turn down the "flax-seeds" also quite
certainly answers well.

1893-]

HESSIAN FLY AND WHEAT MIDGE

239

One special insect trouble during the past season in this
country has been an unusual prevalence of wasps, Vespidce,
of various species. They caused much injury and loss by
destroying fruit, and also were very troublesome by attack-
ing horses ploughing, if their nests were turned up. I hear
that they were also troublesome in Holland, and in the
Hartz districts of Germany. Should you write to me, I
should be very much interested to know whether they were
also unusually plentiful in Norway.

I, 6, infested floret ; 2, 3, larvae ; 4, 5, cased larva or pupa, natural
size and magnified ; 7, 8, part of horns, magnified ; 9, 10, wheat midge ;
and 11-14, ichneumon parasites, natural size and magnified.

FIG. 62. — WHEAT MIDGE, CECIDOMYIA TRITICI.

November 7, 1893.

I beg to offer you my best thanks for your very acceptable
letter of the 31st of October. Indeed, I am greatly obliged to
you for not only kindly giving me your own information
as to amount of wasp presence observed in the past season,
but also the translation into English of the account of their
great appearance at Tromso in 1883-4. This is exceedingly
interesting, and also very entertaining. I have enjoyed
reading this spirited account uncommonly, and I shall like
very much to add it (of course duly acknowledged) to my
paper on wasps in my next Annual Report.

[The translation appeared as follows : —

'^ In the years 1883-1884, there was an unusual prevalence

240 LETTER TO MR. CONNOLD [Chap. xxi.

of them in the Arctic Norway, especially at Tromsd and
other islands in the vicinity. Mr. ]. S. Schneider, Conserva-
tor at Tromso Museum, writes in the Swedish ^Entomologisk
Tidskrift,' 1885, pp. 148, 149, about this matter as follows : —
* Who can tell all the tears which these wicked animals have
squeezed from the poor children, or the swearings which
the mowers have thrown out, the half-shut eyes, and the
swollen hands and cheeks which have shown forth in the
autumn months of these two years ? Perhaps this may
appear an exaggeration, but it comes, however, pretty near
the truth. They built their nests everywhere, in the earth,
in stone walls, behind the wainscottings of the houses, under
garden benches, on the trees ; it swarmed with wasps on all
the flowers and bushes, the windows were filled with them,
they crawled on the plates of the dining-tables, licked of the
dishes with preserves, crawled under the clothings, and in
the hair, and did not at all spare the ladies ! When one was
going in the woods, a humming warbling was heard, which
is still sounding in my ears ; wasps everywhere, it was
almost a despair,' &c.

'^ I have not seen anywhere in the southern districts of
our country the wasps so exceedingly numerous as they
must have been in Tromso in the said years. The species
occurring here are : Vespa crabro, media, saxonica, and var.
norvegicay holsatica, vulgaris, germanica, rufa, and Pseiido-
vespa austriaca." (W. M. S.).]

November 7, 1893 {continued).

Now I have much pleasure in begging your acceptance
of a few pamphlets sent accompanying by book post — three
on Hessian fly and one on Paris-green. Tw^o of the
Hessian fly pamphlets were condensed notes regarding its
first appearance here, the other a report in full of the com-
munications of my correspondents. I wished very much
to send you a similar detailed report of the first year's
observations of this Cecidomyia destructor (fig. 15) in Britain,
but as yet I have not been able to find one remaining.
Every year since the first appearance of this infestation
amongst us, I have received some amount of information
as to its greater or less presence, and I have given, so far as
I could, my best attention to it. If it should happen that
there is any point on which you would wish a reply to any
inquiries, I would with pleasure do my best to answer fully,
and would think myself honoured, as well as be very much
pleased to be in communication with you on the above sub-
ject, or any other point of injurious insect presence.

1894.]

SOCIAL WASPS

^41

[On the subject of wasps, Miss Ormerod wrote to Mr.
Edward Connold on January 15, 1894: —

^' I am very glad that you were able to procure my late
brother's book on '^ Social Wasps " and that its perusal
gave you pleasure. You ask me how the combs were
removed from the nests. I do not know how my
brother managed it, but I found the matter very easy,

After sketch from original specimen by E. A, O, Dimensions,
8 in. across by 7^ in. deep.

FIG. 63.— NEST OF TREE WASP, VESPA SYLVESTRIS.

as long as the nests had been so recently taken from out-
of-door localities, that the paper had not become too dry
to be operated on. Indeed, the damp condition induced
by the first stages of the very nasty state that combs with
dead grubs get into, rather facilitated work than otherwise.

17

H^ LETTERS TO DR. SCHOYEN [Chap. xxl.

The first thing in working on a nest of any size was to get a
pair of scissors, long in the blades, thin, and also very sharp.
Then carefully make a clean vertical cut through the paper-
case of the nest from the entrance below nearly to the top.
Through this great gash I had no difficulty in removing the
combs — so to say (although it is a disagreeable word)
"eviscerating" the nest. I began with the smallest and
lowest comb. Inserting my scissors horizontally I snipped
through the little paper pillars by which it was connected
with the comb above and withdrew it in a very convenient
way, with fingers or forceps (or very likely by help of the
scissors) through the opening. Continuing this process I
do not remember that I ever failed to clear out the comb
successfully. It did not always require to be entirely removed,
if I recollect rightl3^ I think sometimes the upper comb
did not require removal. When all was cleared out, I filled
the empty paper case with cotton w^ool, and applying plenty
of gum to this below the slit, I very gently pressed the
paper back to its former position, and if the work had been
dexterously done, the injury did not show much. If the
paper had been broken of course the damage showed, and
it was requisite to be careful that the gum or adhesive mix-
ture used for keeping the cut edges in their places did not
run about. Sometimes where circumstances permitted, I
cut a little aside from the straight line in places so as to
secure an uninjured piece of a layer to hide part of the slit.
In this way very pretty specimens could be arranged, show-
ing both nest and comb. I have been preparing a long
paper on the wasp attack of last year for my next Annual
Report. I have had very good contributions, and hope it
may be liked.

" It will give me great pleasure to attend to any inquiry
the Hon. Sec. of the Museum may care to send me as to
starting a collection of pests to agriculture, and I think I
might be able to help with suggestions where specimens
are procurable.

" Many thanks for your suggestion as to membership, but
I do not care to belong to more Societies than I can
possibly help, so I hope you will forgive my not accepting
your kind offer."]

March lo, 1898.

Dear Dr. Schoyen, — In reply to your inquiry whether
any measures are being taken in this country to prevent the
introduction of the San Jose Scale, Aspidiottisperniciosus, I am
not aware of any such measures being in contemplation. I

1898.] SAN JOSE SCALE 243

have not heard of anything of the kind being proposed, nor
have I seen any mention in our newspapers of preventive
measures being contemplated in regard to imports. My
own impression is that we are not hkely to suffer from it.
With our island climate (as a general thing, and as especially
observed by Dr. C. V. Riley) the injurious insects of the
Continent of America rarely establish themselves here,
although ours adapt themselves to the American Continental
circumstances, and this Scale appears to be remarkably
susceptible to damp and cold. The Bulletin by Dr. John
B. Smith, Entomologist of the New Jersey Experimental
Station, published November 27, 1897, says, p. 6, *^The
Scale does best with us in dry, warm weather. It does
not like dampness, nor shade, and will die out in a cold,
moist locality. Large trees with dense foliage are therefore
least troubled, and a dense mass of vegetation shading the
ground completely will be infested only towards the tips of
the twigs or branches nearer the surface, where sunlight
and air are most abundant." I greatly hope, therefore, that
even if this injurious attack should come, that it will not
establish itself to a serious extent, as shade is a characteristic
of many of our orchards.

Our chief trouble at present is an attack of eel-worms,
Tylenchits devastatriXy on red clover, Trifolium pratense,
causing what we call ^'Clover-stem sickness." I never
knew the attack so widely prevalent before. But I hope
that with the measures which I draw attention to in my
recent Annual Report we may do some good.

March 11, 1898.

Relatively to the San Jose Scale, I find, from some infor-
mation received this morning, that Mr. R. Newstead, Curator
of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, has lately attended by
request at the Board of Agriculture, and stated that this
infestation had not established itself in any way in this
country. Also that he had not heard of, nor had he seen
any instances of its presence, although he had made diligent
search for it at Liverpool, &c. He thinks the matter is a
"scare," and that the insect is not likely to establish itself
here. In this opinion (the document before me states) he
is supported by our Entomological Society. Mr. Newstead
is, I believe, excellently qualified to form an opinion on the
subject, as he is a practical Economic Entomologist, and he
has also made the Coccidcv a subject of minute investigation.
This I should say was more important than the views of a
meeting of our Entomological Society, of whom few, if any

244 LETTERS TO DR. ENZIO REUTER [Chap. xxi.

(excepting Mr. Douglas), have, so far as I am aware, studied
Coccidce to an extent approaching Mr. Newstead's observa-
tions, and have no special bias towards applied Entomology.
The above will perhaps be of some interest to you as the
nearest approach I am able to make to a reply to your
inquiry, and I beg you to believe me.

Yours truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Dr. Enzio ReiiteVy Helsingfors, Finland,

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

October 15, 1894.

Sir, — In acknowledging receipt of your obliging letter of
the 8th of October, received here on the 12th, permit me to
say that I think it not only a pleasure, but an honour, to be
in communication with the leading Entomologists who, like
yourself, are working for the good of their countries. I
thank you much for your letter.

First, about the Cecidomyia (Wheat midge), larvae (fig. 62)
on the Alopecurus pratensis^ (Foxtail grass), I cannot remem-
ber that any further observations were sent me about it, nor
have I noticed anything in publications which come to my
hands. My correspondents often send me specimens and
details of some infestation which has caught their attention,
but it is with the greatest difficulty in many instances that I
can induce them to continue their observations for succes-
sive seasons, and the development of the imagines of the
Cecidomyice from the early condition is much more trouble
than they care to take.

By book post accompanying this letter I forward to your
kind acceptance a copy of my seventeenth Report. In the
pages of the Report I have placed copies of various leaflets.
These, you will see at a glance, are not at all scientific,
but intended quite for popular use by our farmers, therefore
I have used the very simplest words I could.

You are good enough to offer to send me copies of some
of your future reports in connection with Economic Ento-
mology. If you can spare them I should value them very
much. For although I am not able to understand more
than a word here and there, yet with the help of the
dictionary I can make out enough to see whether your
information is applicable to the conditions here, and I can

* This species described by me later under the name Oligotrophus
alopecuri, n. sp. (Zwei neue Cecidomyinen, Acta Soc. pro Fauna et
Flora Fennica xi., No. 8, 1895, p. 3-9, Taf. i., Fig. 1-9) (E.R.).

1895.] REPORTS ON ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 245

get a good translation made for me. I can read German and
French, but I am sorry not to be able to write with ease in
either language.

November 21, 1894.

Dear Sir, — I had much pleasure in receiving your kind
letter yesterday, and also beg you to receive my very hearty
thanks for your kind and valuable gift of so many of your
writings received on the day before. But now I am going
to ask you a further favour. At your leisure would you
oblige me with the name of a dictionary which would help
me to understand them ? I do not understand Norwegian,
but, with the help of the Dano-Norwegian dictionary of
Mons. A. Larsen, I can manage to make out what I especially
need from Dr. Schoyen's writings, which he is so good as
to send me. But now I have been trying to translate your
few lines on Charceas graminis (Antler moth) (chap. XIII.),
and either from my own ignorance, which I much regret,
or from not having the right dictionary, I have not been
able to read them.

P.S. — It pleases me very much to hear from you that you
approve of my reports, and it is kind of you to mention it.

December 11, 1894.

I thank you most heartily for sending me this useful
dictionary. It is just what I was needing. With this help
I can already make out short pieces of your reports and
publications, which is a great pleasure and profit to me.
It really was quite a vexation to see what I wanted so much
to study and yet could hardly make out any connected
meaning. I only just write now to say that both for your
kind and helpful gift and your letter accompanying I thank
you most heartily.

March 5, 1895.

I did not at once acknowledge your Report on Injurious
Insects which you have sent me because I thought very
likely you would send me a few lines about mine, and now
I beg to acknowledge your note with many thanks. What
a vast sum it is that you mention as the loss [about 5,000,000
Finn. Marks=ca. ;^2oo,ooo, in the years 1889-1891] caused
by Charceas graminis, Antler moth (fig. 4) ! I am so sorry
that I am not able to read your reports, which, from the
little bits I can pick out here and there, are, I see, so
valuable and would help me so much. But please not to
think that they are wasted on me, for I learn a great deal
that helps me, and when there is something that I particularly
wish to know I get the passages translated,

246 LETTERS TO DR. ENZIO REUTER [Chap. xxi.

April 8, 1895.

I beg that you will never for one minute think of taking
up your valuable time in writing to me at length about my
reports. If you can at any time (as you have so nicely done
in your letter received to-day) tell me that you think them
serviceable, this is a most pleasant encouragement, for
which I am grateful, but I know well what a tax it would
be to write letters, so to say, merely for compliment. Pray
believe me, I should indeed be sorry thus to trouble you. I
value your writings that you are good enough to send me
very much, and I got a serviceable Swedish grammar and
studied it when I could get time, so I can make out a little
now ; at least so much that I can see where what I wish
particularly to understand is, and get it properly translated.
Accompanying I have much pleasure in sending two copies
of my little brochure on Paris-green. I thought perhaps
M., your brother professor, Odo M. Reuter, whose pamphlet
on C. graminis I have studied with much benefit, might care
to have one.

August 21, 1895.

Many thanks for kindly giving me a copy of your work
on the " Zwei neue Cecidomyinen," which I am very glad
to possess. Your minute description will be a most valu-
able assistance in identification. This year I have only had
one report of presence of C. destructor, but there has been a
great deal of insect presence, and sometimes of kinds not
often observed here.

But the chief point of general interest, I think, has been
what to do about the Hippohosca equina (Forest fly, iig. 18),
relative to some of our military manoeuvres in the New
Forest, which is its especial English locality. I do not
know whether you have the infestation so far north as your
country ? It is very troublesome at times here.

December 18, 1899.
I should be very glad to help you if I could by reference
to publications on '^ Silver-top " or " White-eared " wheat,
but I am not aware of anything having been written
on it in this country excepting my own short and
meagre notes in my twelfth Annual Report, for 1888
Specimens are sent me occasionally, but — as by the time
that the top of the wheat (or grass) has faded so as to draw
attention to the injury, the insect, if insect was there, has
gone — I have never been able to identify the cause of the
mischief with any approach to certainty. I conjecture the
cause to be the presence of some species of thrips. The

1893.] SILVER-TOP WHEAT 247

American observations point to this, but these you probably
are well acquainted with (and, indeed, it is not these you
are inquiring about). In my notes I mention the peculiar
manner in which the injured upper part of the stem can be
withdrawn, the stem having been apparently severed about
three or four inches above the uppermost knot. In the
only instance I have seen in which the attack was still in pro-
gress (that is, the stem was not already parted, although it
■ cracked asunder on being pulled), I found that at the point
of fracture the straw tube had within an irregular swollen
growth, what might be described as a granulated growth,
filling up the tube ; also the cross-section showed small
open cells which had been cracked across in severing the
stem. I had specimens of the attack also on barley, and at
the time I was inclined, from the absence of all insect appear-
ance, to ascribe it to some vegetable disease, but in the
years that have elapsed since then it has appeared to me
more likely to be attributable to thrips.

I am afraid that there is not anything worth your study in
the page and a few lines of my remarks, but if you would
care to see it, I would gladly direct a copy of my twelfth
Annual Report to be sent for your acceptance. I would do
so now, but I have not an unbound copy by me. Many
thanks for your own publications which you have kindly
sent me. I have read with great interest your remarks on
the Argyresthia conjiigella, Zell.^ We have an apple attack
here occasionally noticeable which agrees well with the
characteristics of this infestation, but I have never been
fortunate enough to identify the cause.

Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Professor Dr, Alfred Nalepa, Gnmnden, Vienna,

TORRINGTON HoUSE, ST. AlBANS, ENGLAND,

August 3, 1893.
Monsieur, — I am very greatly indebted to your kindness
and courtesy in taking the trouble to give me all the very
valuable and helpful information which you favoured me
with in your letter of the 28th July. I also thank you much
for your permission to make some extracts in my Annual
Report from the information which you have placed in my

' The larvae of this species infested badly the apple fruits in the
whole of Finland in the summer of 1898. (Cfr. "Ent. Rec," xi., No. 2,
1899, pp. 37-39, and "Can. Ent.," xxxi., 1899, pp. 12-14).— E. R-

248 LETTERS TO DR. NALEPA [Chap. xxi.

hands. This is a very great favour, and you may rest
assured that I will most fully acknowledge my debt to your-
self. From the study of the pamphlet which you were good
enough to send me I have already benefited largely. But I
earnestly pray you, do not let me intrude on your kind
liberality for any work that I might be able (if you were
good enough to give me the name) to purchase. My
London booksellers are accustomed to procuring Conti-
nental publications for me, and I am feeling myself so
greatly indebted to you for valuable information that I am
quite uneasy at not being able to reciprocate as I much
wish. I have delayed writing in the hope of being able to
procure some specimens, but as yet I have only the enclosed
(Pear-leaf blister galls, ? of Phytoptus pyri) to send to you
from trees in my own garden, and these I am afraid will be
of little interest. Your valuable list of infestations has shown
me that there are very many kinds of Phytoptus attack that
I had no idea of the existence of, and I will indeed try to
be of some service to you.

By book post accompanying I beg your kind acceptance
of the current number of my Annual Report, in which are
some remarks on a species of Entedon (or Entedoriidce, para-
sites of Dipterous leaf-miners especially) which we found in
currant buds in watching for what we hoped might prove a
parasite on the Phytoptus. I fear my report will be of little
interest to you, but I just beg you to accept to show the
kind of publication.

August 16, 1893.

I postponed replying to your kind letter of the 7th in the
hope that I might have something of interest to send you,
but I have only been able to procure the enclosed Prunus
galls. They are from Toddington, Gloucestershire. I
rather fear they will wither on the journey, but I forward
them because the twigs have something amiss with them,
which just possibly may be owing to Phytoptus presence.
Thank you much for giving me the name of the Phytoptus
pyri, which I have noted at p. 296 in your *^ Katalog," which
you were good enough to send me, and which is of truly
valuable assistance. My booksellers will, I hope, before
long procure me five or six of your publications either in
separate impressions or in the parts or volumes in which
they were published, and then I shall hope to have the
information that I am much wishing for, without troubling
you personally. But should the special attack, which 1
desire to understand better, not be specifically described,

1893.]

BLISTER MITES

249

then I should indeed be very thankful to avail myself of
your kind permission to ask for further information, and
a sketch would be a most valuable aid. I have too great
a respect for the time and work of scientific men to intrude
if I can possibly help it, and I am very grateful for the
important help which you have already given me.

I, female (natural length circa 0*2 mm.) ; 2a, left leg of the first pair
of Phytoptus tristriatus, and 26, of Phytoptus tristriattis var. carinea,
magnified 550 times— all after Dr. Nalepa. 3, infested pear leaf.

FIG. 64.— PEAR LEAF BLISTER MITE, PHYTOPTUS PYRI.

November 2, 1893.
I am greatly obliged for your kind letter received two
days ago, and it is so very good of you to have taken the
trouble of writing the names of the various portions of the
Phytoptus on your plate accompanying so clearly for me
that I hardly know how to express my thanks sufficiently.

250 LETTERS TO DR. NALEPA [Chap. xxi.

This is indeed a most acceptable help, for there were some
of the quite minutely technical terms that I had failed to
make out the meaning of, and now you have most excel-
lently got over my difficulties for me, and I thank you very
much for the same. Since I wrote to you at Gmiinden I
have had great pleasure and benefit in procuring some of
your valuable publications, so full of excellent descriptions
and figures. One of these is the separate impression of
your paper, read on January 24, 1889, with 9 plates, in-
cluding p. II, of which you have now sent me this valuably
explained copy.

Another — the separate impression for February 13th —
contains description, p. 11, and figure, plate iv., of Phytoptus
pyri, and I have also a copy of your ^' Genera und Species
der Familie Phytoptidae," 1891. Now I think, thanks to
study of your clear descriptions, I have a fair knowledge of
the characteristics of a Phytoptus, and of the divisions of
the Family Phytoptidae. When I publish my next Annual
Report I should very much wish to give my readers some
better information than I have hitherto been able to do, and
to point to them from what source I obtained it, and how
they may obtain it for themselves. I think I have your
kind permission to use one of your figures. I am therefore
having a very careful copy executed of your P.pyri (plate iv.,
fig. i), of the two claws (in your Genera and Species,
plate ii., 9a and 6), together with an attacked leaf from life
(Fig. 64).

Your part would be a most soundly valuable aid to
readers here, for really and truly I doubt if more than very
few among us are aware (say) that the legs of the Phytoptus
are made up of claw, tarsus, tibia, and so on, much less that
the claw is of this peculiar shape. I confess to you I was
ignorant of this myself. I should like to give a part of your
description of the P. pyri to show what a description ought
to be ; also to allude to the species which you were so good
as to name for me, and to your principle of classification
(p. 317 of "Katalog"). Should any of this not be accord-
ing to your pleasure, I beg of you kindly to tell me. I
should indeed be ungrateful if, after all your kind help, I
trespassed on your information against your w4sh. Should
you allow it, you may depend on me to quote accurately, so
that my quotations will send readers to your works, not
enable them to use my report as a robbery of you ; also I
would fully and honestly acknowledge the source of my
information, and be truly grateful. I wish I could send you

i893.]

GALL MITES

251

specimens. Would you care to have some galls of the
Phytoptns rib is from black currant in their (I think) very
unusually advanced condition for this time of year ? If so,
I think I could procure some from Kent.

It is with regret that I read in your letter that you are not
in strong health. But if you could work less severely might
not you hope to have benefit ? The excessively minute work

I, Mite, greatly magnified — natural length of female 0-23 millimetres ;
2, head and fore parts, still more magnified (by permission, after
Dr. A. Nalepa) ; 3, mite-galls of unusually large size, with one withered
and open.

FIG. 65. — CURRANT GALL MITE, PHYTOPTUS RIBIS, NALEPA.

of your elaborate investigations must be exceedingly wear-
ing. In my own observations (which, indeed, are not to be
compared with yours) I always find they tell very much on
my health if I have at once to overwork my sight with the
microscope and my mind in the record of my observations.

252 LETTERS TO MR. LOUNSBURY [Chap. xxi.

But I have not robust health, so that I can sympathise.
With renewed thanks for the welcome contents of yours
lately received.

March 12, 1894.

I am greatly obliged to you for your kind present of your
" Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Phyllocoptiden/' with its first-
rate descriptions and magnificent figures. It is a very great
advantage to me to be in possession of your noble work on
these creatures, and I feel myself very much indebted for
all the great help you have given me.

About the Phytoptus ribis. I delayed replying because I
thought that if any thoroughly complete description of this
Phytoptus had been published by Professor Westwood it
would be sure to be known of by Mr. W. Hatchett Jackson,
of Keble College, Oxford, who was Professor Westwood's
chief assistant. But he tells me that " under the generic
name of Acarellus I can find nothing but a brief paragraph
without figure in the accounts of the meetings of the Entom.
Soc." Mr. Jackson adds, " I remember the occasion very
well, and making sHdes for him from specimens in our own
garden. I shall search for those slides in the Hope
Museum." — W. H. J.

After some search here I found the enclosed, and as I
think you would desire to see the fullest account which I
believe Professor Westwood published, I have detached the
page. If he were still with us I know how he would have
delighted in your splendid unravelling of what was then a
mystery. At your best convenience, when you have quite
certainly no further use for the page, perhaps you would
kindly let me have it back.

In my own early observations of the habits of the Currant
Phytoptus I noted it as P. ribis, Westwood, on the authority,
or rather after the example, of Mr. Andrew Murray (see
** Aptera," p. 355), for we had not in those days any more
trustworthy and accepted guidance, but as to comparing
these with such a work as yours, no one with the least atom
of knowledge would think for a minute of such a thing.
Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To C. P. Lounsbury, Esq., Government Entomologist,
Cape Town,

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. AlBANS,

September 17, 1895.
Dear Mr. Lounsbury, — It gave me great pleasure to

1895.] BREAD OR BOOT BEETLE 253

receive your letter this morning, in all excepting that I find
I might possibly have seen yourself and Mrs. Lounsbury.
I am really very sorry not to have done this, for there are
many things so difficult to enter on in writing, which yet (as
now you are on our British staff) I should like you to
know, relative to entomological matters, and also, though
1 should have said this first, it would have been a pleasure
to my sister and myself to become personally acquainted
with you. How fortunate you are in having such
a skilled colleague [his wife] ; it must be a real comfort
to you to have an entomological alter ego, and yet such
a charming companion.

I do not know whether you have my little book on
" South African Insects," so I beg your acceptance of a copy
sent by this post.

You will have made acquaintance with your colleagues,

I, Beetle ; 2, larva ; 3, pupa, magnified (from Bulletin No. 4, New
Series, U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, p. 124).

FIG. 66. — BREAD, PASTE OR BOOT BEETLE, DRUG STORE BEETLE (U.S.A.),

ANOBIUM PANICEUM { = SITODREPA PANICEA) LINN.

and you will, I conjecture, find Mr. Bairstow useful if he be
still attending to insect matters. He collected a great deal
of information for me when I was compiling my little
S.A. book. But now I am chiefly writing to indicate the
pleasure it will give me to be in communication with you
as occasion may occur, and with good wishes both for your
success and comfort to yourself and Mrs. Lounsbury, &c.

November ^, 1895.
I had great pleasure in receiving your letter of the 12th
of October, and first of all I will try to reply so far as
I am able about the Boot beetle, Anohium paniceum. The
English manufacturers did what is so very inconvenient —
though one is not surprised at it — they begged that their

^54

LETTERS TO MR LOUNSBURY [Chap. xxi.

names and localities might not be mentioned. But with
regard to the use of a deterrent paste (or mixture in the
paste), it was quite plain that they did not mean to do any-
thing. They spoke of difficulties to the workers, &c., and
as to using Paris-green ! — really, there would have been
a disturbance indeed, if I had ventured to suggest such a
thing. The subject appeared to be making no headway, and
my suggestions as to the all-importance of cleanliness in
the workshop, so that the beetles might have no harbouring
places, did not meet their views. So I strongly advised in
order to make sure whether the infestation took possession
in this country or at the Cape, that some boots should be

FIG. 67. — UPPER OF A BOOT INJURED BY MAGGOT OF PASTE BEETLE,
ANOBIUM PANICEUM.

packed up and properly secured against all possibilities of
external infestation, and sent to South Africa, and on arrival
there, sent back to the exporters here unopened. Thus we
should have learned on examination, if they were infested,
that the mischief was started in this country. But not one
word on the subject have I had from them since. Perhaps
the result put the locality of the origin of evil being in this
country beyond doubt. I have kept a quantity of the
letters on the subject laid away, but now I think 1 cannot
use them to better purpose than by forwarding them to
you. Please do not return them. I have not re-read them,
but it is impossible there can be anything confidential in
them, excepting the names of the firms which the writers

1896.] THREAD WORMS AND REPORTS 255

did not wish published, and it is just possible (in case you
can spare time to run them through) that there may be
points of interest.

What you say of inertness is just what is such a drag on
the advance of work here. Instead of getting information,
and acting on it, they (or many) propose to write to the
Board of Agriculture or possibly to another quarter, and
sometimes they follow advice, sometimes they do not.

Just now I had an application about Strongylus filaria
(thread worms which produce husk or hoose) which is
doing great damage in one district. They thought of
writing to the Board of Agriculture. I suggested the
excellent account in your Dr. Curtice's book on ^' Sheep
Diseases," but it did not appear to have occurred to them
to teach themselves.

June 24, 1896.

It was with great pleasure that I received your first
Report about two days ago, and I must both very sincerely
and heartily congratulate you on this good work. It
seems to me quite an example of what a report should be.
Clear wording that all can understand, and a short sound
life history, with all requisite means of prevention of the
specially detailed " pest " attacks, with a deal of excellent
reading besides. Indeed, I congratulate you greatly on
taking your place so firmly, and I consider the Colony is
much to be congratulated also on securing your help. I am
glad to see that the Government gives you good paper and
printing. There is only one thing which I should much
like to see added, and that is pictorial illustrations. Could
not you have at least some figures ? I believe they are
available in the Government Stores. Sometime after the
publication of my little book on the ^Mnjurious Insects of
South Africa," a request was made to me for a number of
figures, which with much pleasure I presented. If you
would like, besides those which could be looked up at
the office of the "Agricultural Journal," electros of some of
the figures which are my own, which I use in my own
publications, I would gladly send you out, say a dozen or
a dozen and a half, if the Agent General would (as I feel
pretty sure he would) kindly allow me to send them out
to you in the Government box. It would give me real
pleasure if I could be of any help to you in your good work.

August 17, 1896.
I have this morning had great pleasure in receiving your
letter, and I shall be very glad to send you electrotypes of

256 LETTERS TO MR. LOUNSBURY [Chap. xxr.

the blocks of which you will let me have a list, — that is to
say, of such as are quite my own. Those that I have from
Messrs. Blackie and Son, Stanhope Street, Glasgow, I have
only permission to use in my own publications. I think
very likely, though, that, if you were inclined to purchase
electrotypes from them, they would be quite willing to let
you have them at the same price which they charge me,
that is eighteenpence the square inch. About my own, I
have no difBculties, as my wood figures and electrotypes are
all in charge of my printers. There would be no charge for
carriage, and I would charge you just the cost price of the
electros. But there is one point, please, that I am sure you
will forgive me insisting on as a condition of use of my
electrotypes, namely, that they may be used in any publica-
tion of the Department of Agriculture of Cape Colony, or
in any publication of your own, but nowhere else without
my consent.

July 28, 1899.

I have, I am afraid, been owing you for a long time,
more than one letter in reciprocation of your kind letters to
me, but I have hoped you would forgive me, for you know
how I am situated with a deal of application and no staff.
I am wanting now to say that I hope you have not been
vexed with me for having had a hand in robbing you of an
efficient member of your staff (Mr. Fuller), which I am
afraid must for the present be an inconvenience, but it
surely will be an immense benefit to Natal, to have
a trustworthy Entomologist.

I am trying to work up Piophila casei (Cheese and
Bacon fly), which Miss Murtfeldt took up so well. I incline
to think that it is more present than is supposed, only of
course, " cured meat " dealers do not like to own to it. I
have got a nice little family reared from bacon for observa-
tion under a glass, and some of their brothers and sisters
loose about the room, which I see little or nothing of until
the cheese is brought in twice a day, when they come, and
so give me an opportunity of watching egg-laying.

August 9, 1899.

What a frightful thing this prospect of war is ! I have not
an idea what may be politically right, but it distresses me
intensely to think of the sorrow, and so far as in me lay
I have had a hand in getting poor Mr. Fuller right into the
thick of the trouble. ^ You have assuredly been having

' Miss Ormerod had recommended Mr. Fuller for the appointment
he secured in Natal.

1898.] GENERAL MATTERS 257

trouble enough, with fire, water, and ^^ sausages " ! I am
truly glad that your books and insects were not very much
damaged. But I hope you will not peril your valuable
health by turning yourself into a pasturage ground as you
say, for these very detestable ticks. Much better try the
convict ! His nervous system will not be so delicate. ^

July 5, 1900.

I learn with great pleasure that you and Mrs. Lounsbury
are coming back through England, and I hope you will be
able to give me the great pleasure of your looking in here.
I should be so glad to see you, and you and I could have
some delightful entomological talk. On Saturday next, I
hope to see Dr. John B. Smith, State Entomologist of New
Jersey.

What a business you must have in transporting your
parasites from America to Cape Colony, but I hope you
will have good success in obtaining the specimens you are
needing. Yours sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

To Claude Fuller y Esq.f Entomologist Department of Agriculture,
Pietermaritzhurgy Natal.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. AlBANS,

November s, 1898.

Dear Mr. Fuller, — I would very gladly in reply to
your request, offer you any suggestion in my power, but
I scarcely know whether my ideas would be serviceable.
Judging by my own experiences in purchase by farmers
or fruit-growers of books which they certainly need and
wish to have the information contained in, I should not
expect any publisher to take any MS. of mine as a specula-
tion. The good folks wish for the books, but they do not,
at least only a very small proportion of them (I am speaking
of agriculturists) wish to buy. My work is done at a great
money loss, and my publishers do not take my books as a
speculation, but act in fact as my agents. Could you not get
your MS. published in a serial, with a stipulation, that you
held copyright, and so your valuable information would be
brought forward without cost to yourself.

There is another point. The differences in species, even
in genera, are terribly difficult to be sure of amongst many
of the Scale insects, and many of the Aphides, and unless

' This note refers to a fire in Mr. Lounsbury' s department and to the
investigation of red water fever in cattle produced by ticks.

i8

258 LETTER TO MR. FULLER [Chap. xxi.

fruit-growers have magnifiers and knowledge how to use
them, I should not expect them to identify to any trust-
worthy purpose. If you brought out a strictly scientific
work this of course would be very valuable as a book of
reference, and Prevention and Remedies added would
make it very useful indeed ; but if you look forward to
purchase by the public, I am afraid you will not find it
happen.

Please excuse rather a hurried letter to catch the evening
post, and believe me. Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XXII

LETTERS TO MR. JANSON AND MR. MEDD

Deer Forest fly — Flour moths — Weevils — Grouse and Cheese flies — Beetles —
Agricultural Education Committee — The Water-baby Leaflet — Paper on
Wasps.

Mr. Janson, addressed in the opening letters of this chapter,
occupied the position of technical expert, to whom Miss
Ormerod referred her generally accurate identifications of
insects for confirmation. The cases of flour infestation
referred to we have learned of in Chapter X., " Legal
Experiences." The language employed is more technical
than in any other part of her correspondence — the words
of an expert addressing herself to another expert in the
language of their common subject. Mr. Medd's name has
been more associated with education than entomology,
especially in relation to the comparatively new branch of
"Nature Study."

To Mr. 0. E. Jansoiiy Technical Expert in Entomology^
44, Great Russell Street, IV.C.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. AlBAN'S,

February 13, 1897.

Dear Mr. Janson, — I hope that in a very few days you
will receive your copy of my twentieth Report, in which you
helped me so especially about the Forest flies.

I am hoping you may be good enough to help me about
the enclosed, or kindly put me in the right path, for I greatly
hope that this may prove to be the long-needed observation
about amount of wings of the 2 (female) Deer Forest fly,
the Lipoptera cervi (fig. 23). I received a day or two ago a
good number, many still alive, or fresh on a little piece of
Roe-deer's hide, which was infested with them even to being

259

26o LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

in clusters (from Strathconan forest, Ross-shire). On
examining, I found on each side, at the hinder edge of the
thorax, a Httle membranous kind of structure with a scal-
loped edge, and on very carefully raising it I found it was
fixed to the thorax by a joint, and was, I think, quite
certainly an abortive wing. I saw veins traversing the
structure longitudinally, and though the scalloped and
notched extremity was irregular in shape, it did not at all
have the appearance (to my thinking at least) of being torn.
Enclosed 1 send you half a dozen specimens, one of which
has the structure very plain ; the others I picked out at
random, and what I am very much wishing you would help
me about is whether these are females. They have the dis-
tinguishing dark brown colour (not the faint yellow
colour of the male), and I should say they had the
shape of the female, but I am not anatomist enough to be
certain. If you cannot with complete convenience tell me
yourself could you oblige by getting me a trustworthy
opinion. I would most gladly give a most liberal considera-
tion to any one you would get to investigate, for if these
are females, we have here the long-wanted observation, and
proof that they have abortive wings. I have plenty more
specimens if you would care for some more ; also I have two
puparia.

February 23, 1897.
I am greatly obliged to you for helping me in this matter
of the L. cenri. You will remember that you kindly helped
me to a sight of a good number of German publications,
from which I made large extracts, and, turning to these, I
find notes of the male and of the female L. cervi, being
found together in the hair of the deer all the winter through,
and pairing there and the female depositing puparia. But
the matter is much involved by the following statement
regarding two varieties in the form of the males by Professor
Stein, or Hartmann quoted by Stein : '^ The first are pale
yellow, and the abdomen is slender and shrivels considerably
after death; the latter are more yellow brown, their abdomen
is wider and firmer, and the external organs of propagation
clearly observable." There is a deal about abortive or shed
wings, but the writers are under uncertainty. My belief is
that our only hope towards clearing up the matter is our
own observation, and if these creatures are really females,
we have got the information that was being sought after.
But do not let me tax your very great good nature too much.
If you could give a specimen or two to Mr. Verrall and to

1897] ENTOMOLOGICAL CONSULTATION 261

Mr. Austen I should like it, and you would hear what they
say, and I would replace them to you. I have two puparia
which I suppose are not likely to develop till towards the
end of summer.

April 16, 1897.

I have been so fortunate as to find a puparium of a Deer
Forest fly lately sent me in a consignment from Strathconan,
and this gave me an opportunity of communicating with
Professor Jos. Mik, Vienna, and he pronounces the specimens
I sent accompanying to be females. He writes me (and I
think it very kind of him to take the trouble) an exceedingly
long letter, full of information and references, extending
in a very small handwriting over five and a half large pages
of note-paper, and, as he justly remarks, I have some
difficulty in reading it !

1 think of getting Mr. Pillischer to make some preparations
of the L. cewi ? and their abortive wings so that we may
have material for a good figure. Professor Mik is fearfully
particular.

May 12, 1897.

Professor Mik identified my L. cervi as certainly well-
developed females. I think he was a good deal pleased to
have a mature puparium which I sent him and to dissect
out an immature one. He says that he has himself ?
of L. cetvi, with abortive wings, so my work will not be a
discovery as I hoped, still I think it will be of interest to
illustrate.

May 24, 1897.

Your description of L. minor (lesser earwig) has helped
me enormously, and I have translated as much as I think is
likely to be needed of the technical part to help Mr. Knight
to make a characteristic drawing (fig. 43).

I should like ^ ov ^ and forceps of both, and I have
material for this, but I should very much like a wing. I
tried to unfold one or two and wasted my materials. Would
your microscopist set one for me do you think ? I should
much like it; for I fancy (I have not been able to make sure)
that there is a longer band of dark colour along the front
edge than in our common earwig. But, any way, if I could
have the wing set I should very much like to have a good
figure of it.

October 5, 1897.

If you can spare time to help me in the present inquiry, I
should be much obliged ; it is quite a trade business matter.
I am consulted by a London firm dealing in flour, as to

262

LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

infestation in their barrels, but as I gather it may be both
from the Eastern and the Western world, and also may be
infested by insect pests from whatever may be lying on the
wharves, I want to be very sure of my identifications.

The presence of Ephestia kuhniella{¥\ouv moth) was quite
plain, so this I need not trouble you about. But about the
•' Weevils." I think those of which I enclose specimens in
the bottle stoppered with cotton-wool, are the common
Calandra (= Sitophilns granarins). I am quite sure C. oryzcv
was present, but 1 do not think I have enclosed any. Messrs.
Henderson write me to-day that they are quite sure their
barrels took the infestation from oil-cakes which were
swarming with S. granarins. To the best of my belief and

6, 7, Granary weevil ; 2, 3, chrysalis^ natural size, and magnified ;
8, 9, rice weevil, natural size, and magnified ; 1,4, infested grains,
also magnified.

FIG. 68. — GTRANARY WEEVIL, SITOPHJLUS GRANARIUS, AND RICE WEEVIL,
SITOPHILUS ORYZM.

search, Calandra only lives on grain, so I fancy that its con-
nection with the oil-cakes must be only as a shelter. I know
Calandra will resort to remains of bread and milk or ripe
apricots near a granary, but I supposed this was in search of
moisture. But, nevertheless, as one weevil is so like another,
it would be an important help if you would kindly verify my
identification for me.

In the same little bottle are two small not-far-from-globose
pubescent beetles, which I thought might be Niphis holo-
lencuSy but when they came clean I saw they had not the
beautiful bright yellow pubescence, nor were they so globose.
I do not know them ; you probably will at a glance, and your

1897.] CONSULTATION CONTINUED 263

kind help would save me long search. Amongst the larvae
I found one answering to that of Cticujus testaceus (as given
in Curtis) = Lcemophloeus ferrugitieiis — and in the flour there
were numbers of the minute rusty little beetles of which I
enclose some in a corked bottle. Will these be Cucujus
ferrugineus ? I do not think I have any types, and as this
is such a decided business inquiry, I feel sure you will
allow me to ask you to keep me right about it, at your con-
venience. The flour or barrels or something must have
been (to my thinking) in a very neglected state.

October 11, 1897.
I am greatly obliged to you for your kind help about the
flour coleoptera. I was puzzled about the granarius, as there
was a slightly dififerent look about it, from the specimens
which I usually have, and I had no series for comparison.
I have never had Lcemophloeus in this quantity before, — they
run in all directions out of the flour. I cannot find another
Ptinus, but the information you have given me is quite
enough, I am sure, for my flour people. The really impor-
tant attack that they have got is E, kiihniella (Flour moth)
but as the flour is in barrels perhaps it will not trouble them

I have kept my X. saxeseni (Shot-borer beetles), in a good-
sized glass-topped box, where the larvae are still throwing out
dust and the beetles come out and die, but I do not see any
more, and I think that instead of giving you more trouble
about them I had better get Mr. Knight to copy one of the
U.S.A. imagos and add larvae, pupae, and strange "cleft"
like cell from life. If the specimens you have are of interest
to you pray oblige me by keeping them. I think I have
material for a really interesting paper. Do you happen to know
what has become of my very much valued correspondent.
Dr. Karl Lindeman [the Russian Entomologist] ? 1 have
not heard from him for a year and a half, and I do not find
his name in the U.S.A. Scientists' Guide. He was truly
friendly and very punctilious in writing, but if he were dead
I think I should have seen his obituary. I wonder whether
he was so useful to the people that he has had to take a trip
to Siberia !

October 26, 1897.

What work Hylurgus piniperda (Pine beetle),^ continues to
make in some of the great Pine woods in Scotland, conse-
quent on the damage by high winds some years ago. I had

^ With one possible exception the most destructive beetle of British
forestry.

264 LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

an application a little while ago from the forester on one of
the great properties near Aberdeen, who reports great mis-
chief on 1,000 acres. This afternoon I have a report of the
woods at Craighlaw, Kirkcowan, Wigtonshire, being in most
dismal condition.

I really wonder whether it will ever occur to our Board
of Agriculture that there ought to be a Government Ento-
mologist. It is only a short time since I had an application
connected with the Austrian Embassy about a beetle attack
that was eating the oats at Constantinople, but I suggested
that Vienna was unsurpassed for its scientific men !

August 18, 1899.

I am thinking (though I have not mentioned the matter
beyond just beginning at present) of (if I can find it) taking
a comfortable villa and good garden at or in the outskirts of
Brighton. I much wish to be nearer relations, for living so
much alone is at times a very dreary kind of thing. Also
there are many points in which Brighton would, I think,
suit me better for my work, and possibly be more con-
veniently easy of access for entomological friends living
on the South London lines. I know the place very well,
and it has always suited my health excellently.

September 19, 1899.

I have a Hippoboscid this afternoon from Mr. Wheler, which
was found on a lamb. He thinks it is a Grouse fly (or
Spider fly, a near relative of the Forest fly). Surely oddly
located ! But so far as I see I think it must be so. Shall I
not send it you ? In any case it might be of interest, and I
should very much like, at your convenience, to be made sure
of what it is. If it be Ornithomyia aviciilaria (Grouse fly), I
conjecture that it straggled into the nearest shelter when it
developed. It is in beautiful order, but so lively that I have
not been able to get a good look at the claws. [This identi-
fication was confirmed by Mr. Janson.]

September 22, 1899.

I am much obliged to you for all the points of interesting
information in your letter. There is no hurry about figur-
ing the Grouse fly, so that if Mr. Norman would kindly let
me have the slide as soon as he thinks it would be safe to
use it, I should feel very much obliged. I now enclose the
specimen from a lamb. I quieted its very superabundant
antics by slipping a little lump of cotton wool down the
tube, about a third of the way, and it accepted the soft
material moderately. It died afterwards, and I enclose it
with some spirits in the tube. I should (if not inconvenient

i899.]

REFERENCE WORK

265

to you to ask), very much like this specimen also set by Mr.
Norman, with the wings as they are at present — at rest, but
showing the fore-nerves very nicely. I incline to think
that if this be certainly 0. avlcnlaria, that it would suit better
for figuring than the previous specimen as being in the same
position as my H. equina and L. cervi, both ^ and $ in
previous Annual Reports. If you could oblige me with the
two slides together I could make what personal observations
I want ; have which ever seems best figured, and afterwards,
if one or both are of interest to you, I would very gladly beg
your acceptance. I daresay you will be good enough to let

I, Grouse fly, magnified, with line showing natural length ; 2, pupa-
rium, magnified and natural size ; 3, end view, magnified ; 4, claw,
magnified.

FIG. 69. — GROUSE FLY, ORNITHOMYIA AVICULARIA, LINN.

me use your interesting short note about finding the speci-
men of avicidaria alive in the box with the Horned owl.

I am working now on Piophila easel, Linn. (Cheese and
Bacon fly, fig. 12), and hope to make a good paper, with
some original observations of my own. Is it not a note-
worthy circumstance that besides undoubtedly breeding in
myriads in stores of cheese and bacon, that also they come
in through the windows in such numbers that wire gauze, or
equivalent, is a recognised protective measure ? I think this
points to there being some home of P. caset that wants look-
ing up.

266 LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

I did think Brighton might suit me better, but I found
there was no suitable house, so I am staying here. I
am very glad that you had a pleasant rest, and a bene-
ficial one.

October 21, 1899.

Messrs. Forshaw and Hawkins, of Liverpool, have written
me regarding beetle and maggot presence in flour and meal
in two compartments of *' Telesford," from New Orleans to
Glasgow. They send me ** a deal of " ^ report and two tubes
with beetles, larvae and flour. I believe these beetles
(and larvae) to be Triboliiim ferrugineuin (Rust-red flour
beetle), and 1 enclose four beetles and six maggots. Will
you be so very good as to let me know if I am right, and I
enclose a telegraph form filled in, which would put me at
ease for the present if you would be good enough to send it
to me. The reason I am troubling you now is that the small

2

I, Beetle ; 2, larva; 3, pupa — magnified, and with lines showing natural
length ; 4, head with antennae, much magnified.

FIG. 70. — RUST-RED FLOUR BEETLE, TRJBOLIUM FERRUGINEUM, FAB.

amount of flour in the little tubes has the characteristic
(mentioned in Mr. Chittenden's paper in " Household
Insects," &c., in a Bulletin of U.S.A.) of being greyish. See
top of p. 113 as to ^' Flour Beetles."

This is quite different from the state of Messrs. Smyth and
Co.'s flour, and if you are so good as to confirm my identifi-
cation I might perhaps be allowed to use the information on
our side on Tuesday, when Mr. Blyth comes down about
depositions. The Glasgow case has every appearance of
being on the road to a lawsuit, but now (after Friday's
experience) I should not be so afraid of giving evidence,
if you would make me sure.

' A favourite West Country expression of Miss Ormerod.

1899.] CONFIRMATION OF IDENTIFICATION 267

November i, 1899.

I received the Grouse fly slide in perfect safety, beauti-
fully put up ; many thanks to you for procuring the same.
If at your very best convenience you would settle my debt
to Mr. Norman for his help, I should be greatly obliged. I
am getting into your debt assuredly also, but whilst I am
troubling you, thanks to these infested cargo people, I think
I had better let this stand over. It is very weary work
getting up information in this minute way, and as matter
of choice I had rather be without a visit[ation] from six
professional gentlemen and a shorthand writer all at once 1

I have had a beautiful specimen of workings in willow of
Cryptorhynchus lapathi beetle.

i:CK

Beetle, natural size and magnified ; willow stem, tunnelled by larvae.

FIG. 71. — MOTTLED WILLOW WEEVIL, '* ALDER-KILLER " (GERMAN),
CRYPTORHYNCHUS LAPATHI^ L.

December 29, 1899.
Many thanks for a sight of Mr. Fuller's letter (returned
enclosed). I have enjoyed reading it very much ; it is so
interesting to have a real letter about the war, not made up
"for press." I worked myself nearly stupid in running up
the habits of the Calandra mentioned in '' Insect Life," and
there was some such roguery somewhere or other about the
mate's report, which he stated afterwards was written under
intimidation, that I felt a little uneasy about having anything
to do with the matter.

268

LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

January 12, 1900.
I have lately had an application about " White Ants "
being destructive to young Cocoa trees in Ceylon. I do
not know much about the great hill-building Termites as
plant eaters, but I thought that probably exposing just the
couple of inches or so subject to be gnawed, to the light
might be useful.

September 16, igcx).
I am very much obliged to you for all the trouble you

Caterpillar (not full grown) and chrysalis.

)

FIG. 72. — GOAT MOTH, COSSUS LIGNIPERDA.

have kindly taken in identifying the BnicJil for me, but on
running the matter up there does not seem to be the least
reason to suppose that these creatures had more to do with
the barley than that they had strayed into it from beans, of
which I find on special inquiry that the steamer carried also
a consignment '' in the same hold." I wrote to the impor-
ters (or rather my applicants wrote to them on my part) and
I received a small consignment of the very identical beans

1900.]

GOAT MOTH AND WEEVILS

269

from them (from Hull), and most of these I now enclose to
you, as I thought you might care to see if anything of
interest would develop. The specimens in the little bottle,
including one or two hymenopterous parasites, are also from
the beans.

In a little box with the beans is a fine specimen of the
Goat moth, Cossns ligniperda, larva, which is very diligently
spinning.^ I have been much interested in watching the
way it thickens its beginning of lacework web. I believe

Bntcliiis hrachialis. Bvuchus tristis. Bruchiis rufipes.

Bniclnis pisoniin=pisi. Bntchiis rufimanns.
Magnified, with lines showing natural length.

FIG. 73.— PEA AND BEAN WTEEVILS, BRUCHI.

(unless the top specimen has eaten it !) that there is another
larva at the bottom.

September 2.'}^^ 19CX).
I am very much obliged to you for these nicely set Bruchiy
and I do not think it would be at all out of place, although
two of the species are not British, to give figures of the three
kinds {hrachialiSy rufipes, and tristis) as found in a cargo in-
cluding beans and wild peas from Smyrna, together with

' The caterpillars of the Goat moth feed in poplar, willow, elm, oak,
lime, and beech, as well as in apple, pear, walnut, and other trees.
(E. A. O.)

270

LETTERS TO MR. JANSON [Chap. xxii.

barley. (The consignees were very much puzzled about
them.) I also found nifimamis in one of the beans which
I was opening, a lovely specimen, so perfect in its marking.
But now, if you please, I very much wish for a little further
help. I cannot find any reference to bracliialis or tristis in
any book I possess, excepting just the names in Calwer's
" Kaferbuch."

I have been not a little disappointed about ScolyUis prtini,
I found nice larvae in a piece of plum bark with this infesta-
tion, and had a good figure taken, but I kept on watching
the small number of specimens to be fairly certain of species.

.^^-^

I and 2, Bi'uchus rufimanus^ natural size and magnified ; 3, infested
bean split open, showing cell ; 4 and 5, larvae, natural size and magni-
fied ; 6 and 7, pupae, natural size and magnified ; 8, bean, injured by
beetle, vegetating ; 9 and 10, Brnchns pisi, natural size and magnified ;
II, injured pea.

FIG. 74. — BEAN BEETLES.

and to my vexation on development out came one as rugu-
losus I

With many thanks for your welcome and valuable help.

October^, 1900.

I am very much obliged to you for lending me the two

vols, of ^^ Deutsche Ent. Zeit.," which will help me very

much about those Bruchidce — and more particularly with the

specific distinctions which you have been good enough to

I900.] BEAN BEETLES 271

give me. I will try not to keep the books over-long, and
will return them carefully packed.

November i, 1900.

Is it of interest to you (in case that you have not heard) to
know of the decease, on the 13th of October, of Professor
Josef Mik, of Vienna, after a short illness ? I shall miss
him, for he was a friendly colleague, and was good enough
to send me a little collection of types of Tahanidce which
have been a great help.

I was rather perplexed how to name these three newly-
imported species of Bruchus, but for want of a better I
thought that sad-coloured bean-seed weevil, B. tristis ; red-
footed bean-seed weevil, B. rufipes; and red-horned • bean-
seed weevil, B. ruficornis [ = brachialis'] would do fairly.

Yours very truly.

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

EC.K.

Beetle and wing, magnified ; line showing natural length of beetle.

FIG. 75. — "splint," ok sap-wood BEETLE, SCOLYTUS PRUNI, RATZ.

To J. C. Meddy Esq,y Strattotiy Cirencester,

TORRINGTON HOUSE, St. AlBANS,

March 12, 1900.
Dear Mr. Medd, — I am much obliged by the packet of
publications regarding the work of the '^Agricultural Educa-
tion Committee,"^ and I note excellent names in your list of
members, and some excellently true observations in your
four-page leaflet, "Agricultural Instruction in the Elemen-
tary School." But it is with great difficulty that I am able
to keep my own work in hand, and I have been quite unable
to find time to study the other pamphlets which you have
been good enough to send me, although, from their titles,

' The Agricultural Education Committee, 10, Queen Anne's Gate,
Westminster, S.W., was formed in the autumn of 1899, with Sir W.
Hart-Dyke, Bart., M.P., as Chairman, and the Rt. Hon. Henry
Hobhouse, M.P., as Hon, Secretary. (J. C. M.)

2^2 LETTERS TO MR. MEDD [Chap. xxii.

I make no doubt that they contain both valuable information
and suggestion.

Although I am sure that plain and interesting information
on subjects of their daily surroundings would be gladly
received by the boys, I do not in the least see my way to
complying with your flattering suggestion of my pen being
useful in the matter. You know how I am situated ? There
is a constant stream of applications sent me for advice
regarding prevention of insect pests, which though chiefly
about British troubles, involves much correspondence both
with the Entomologists of our Colonies, the Continent and
the U.S.A. — and to meet which I have no staff. I could not
find time to write papers such as you desire ; but if you wish
I would send you copies of such leaflets as I have in which
some of the ordinary crop pests are treated of very plainly ;
and from these I make no doubt that you could get passages
arranged for your readers which the boys would like to read.

July 9, 1900.

It gratifies me very much that you should think my leaflets
and ^* Manual " likely to be of use ; and you have only to
express the wish, for me to send another hundred of the
^' Manuals " as soon as they could be bound. I have been
reading and much appreciating your observations in " Our
Programme," ^ of which you have kindly given me a copy,
and it has occurred to me whether, now that I understand
the scope of your work better, I might arrange a very simple
paper on our commonest Live Stock attacks. I enclose a few
pages as a sample of what is in my mind, just giving what
could be taken in (and I think is needed) with addition of a
little more life history, and the exceedingly simple methods
of prevention. I have quantities of first-rate illustrations,
but now I just submit the enclosed to you, hoping you will
be kind enough to let me know at your convenience what
you think of my idea.

July 14, 1900.

I am personally truly grateful for your letter of this morn-
ing, for I was very uneasy lest I should be, to put it shortly,
giving sad offence. I certainly think the '^Water-baby" 2
leaflet is a great mistake, but, as you judiciously remark, if it
is to be issued we must make the best of it.

I will think over to the best of my power what appears

' One of the leaflets issued by the Agricultural Education Committee.
= Another leaflet of the series issued by the Agricultural Education
Committee, but one which Miss Ormerod did not appreciate.

I900.] AGRIC. EDUCATION COMMITTEE 273

likely to be of use agriculturally on the subject of fly-attacks
on farm-stock. Whilst I am preparing the papers themselves
perhaps a good heading such as I may presently submit for
approval will suggest itself. I should much like to have the
primary heading '' Agricultural Education Committee," for —
with a footnote that the papers were prepared at the desire
of the Agricultural Education Committee to give informa-
tion — this would throw a shield over me, in writing on Cattle
and Stock attacks. The ones selected do not infringe on
what might be called *' Veterinary " — things that involve dis-
cussion unbecoming in a lady writer, and those I propose
to write on are what I have long had application about.
There need be no difficulty about publishing if I do it in
my usual way.

August 2, 1900.

After your visit, so pleasant as well as profitable to myself
yesterday, I sat down as soon as I could to see what I could
write about ^' Wasps," and I enclose the results. It is mostly
an abstract of records of much personal observation of my
own. If you like I would gladly lend electros of the figures.^
If you care to accept the enclosed for any use to our Agri-
cultural Education Committee that you may think it may
be suited, I should be really pleased, only begging that it
may not on any account whatever appear as part of the
'^Water-baby" series— that really I do not think I could
bear.

August 8, 1900.

I thank you very heartily for your courteous reception
of my letter about resignation. It is very good of you to
write so kindly on the subject. I enclose you a copy of the
letter which I have sent to the Secretary, which I have
endeavoured to express with the friendlmess which I feel.
But, much as I regret leaving, I find that, independently of
the considerations which I told to you, when I come to the
real working my health does not allow it. If I am over-
pressed it brings on (without being unduly explicit) troubles
both of health and sight, and I am very thankful that,
beyond your exceedingly kind expressions, you do not
press my remaining too hardly on me.

November 26, 1900.
Many thanks to you for Mr. Bathurst's paper on

' The paper on " Wasps " was lent by Mr. Medd to Mr. Chas.
Roundell who incorporated it in his unique little volume, the Rural
Reader, Horace Marshall & Co. (Ed.).

19

274 LETTERS TO MR. MEDD [Chap. xxii.

*' Orchards ; " ^ there is some excellent advice in it, parti-
cularly about sawing beneath the limb, trimming smooth,
and not planting deep. But I think that as the piece of
cloth to be tied round the tree is to " act as a trap," a little
addition is needed (see my " Insects Injurious to Orchard
and Bush Fruit," pp. 12, 13), viz., that the trap should be
examined and the caterpillars cleared out every few days,
or say every fortnight. If this be not done the sacking is
very likely to make a nice little house for them. Please
excuse my giving my views thus vigorously, and uncalled
for. Yours very truly,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

' Issued by the Agricultural Education Committee.

CHAPTER XXIII

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR ROBERT WALLACE BEFORE 19OO

Washing Wheat — Text-book on Insects — Grease-banding Trees — Steven
Lecturer on Agricultural Entomology — Australian agriculture — Examiner
in Agricultural Entomology — Insect cases presented to the University —
Death of Miss G. E. Ormerod.

The four remaining chapters, consisting chiefly of letters
addressed to the editor, are of a more general, less technical
nature than those that go before. They deal more with
University and personal matters, and with efforts being
made to advance the cause of Economic Entomology than
with the structural details and habits of insects.

To Professor Robert Wallace^ University of Edinburgh.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, St. ALBANS,

August 20, 1888.

Dear Professor Wallace, — I have delayed for a short
time thanking you for your very kind present of your
beautiful as well as valuable boQk on '^ Indian Agriculture," ^
as I wished to make a little acquaintance with it before
writing. Now I see what a great amount of serviceable
information you have collected, and I am greatly obliged
for such an addition to my library. I note what you wisely
say about not substituting our implements hastily for native
kinds better fitted to the land, but just now your explicit
account of 'Svheat cleaning," beginning at p. 227, interests
me exceedingly. I should be so glad if, when you have
leisure, you would tell me a little more about this. You
mention Messrs. Dell and Son, of London, as the firm that
specially gave you information. I have been in communi-
cation about cleaning wheat with some of the Hull millers,
one of the large corn brokers in Liverpool, and some other

' India in iSSj. Published by Oliver and Boyd.

275

276 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

places, and had not heard of the washing, and this point, to
me at least, seems a very important one. When I have
gone carefully into the subject, and had the different kinds
of screening sent in bags they do not seem to me to have
been wetted. If they can wash at one mill they can at
another, and we might have a chance of getting these pest-
bearing extras neutralised as to evil qualities. I should
greatly like to show you my set of screenings from Hull,
labelled with their uses.

Do you happen to be aware of its being a regular business
to supply weed seed, &c., &c., to deteriorate imports — that
is of course exports of Russia, &c. ? I had an interview
with one of a firm who used to take orders for this at
Samara ! I believe these foul screenings most likely
brought Hessian fly, and I rather think from a larva I saw
in the spring Meromyza is come too.

It appears to me a deplorable thing that everything should
be so absolutely arranged to import these nasty pests amongst
us. If you will come I will show you my " pieces demon-
stratives." I have not a book like yours to reciprocate your
kind thought, but will you give the enclosed •' Manual of
Injurious Insects" a place in your collection. With kind
remembrances from my sister.

November 12, 1889.

About a text-book on Injurious Insects — it is not well to
recommend one's own work, but I most earnestly wish that
I knew of any better English book for plain work than my
own ^^ Manual." I formed it because there was no other book
that met the everyday needs of Agricultural Entomology,
excepting my own Annual Reports, and the Reports of
the Department of Agriculture, which are formed in great
part from my work and revised by myself. I do not know
of any work on Agricultural Entomology which I can
recommend.

If you want something very good about the lower crea-
tures up to date I suppose you could not mend '' Text Book
of Zoology," by Dr. Glaus, translated by Adam Sedgwick.
This is a grand book, but I would not put it in my students'
hands without a strong observation that I consider Dar-
winianism, &c., of this nature perfectly unproved and
baseless. I certainly think that presently this view w^ill
follow ^' spontaneous generation." ^ But to go on, Curtis'
*' Farm Insects" is an excellent book up to date of publica-

' Miss Ormerod did not latterly oppose Darwinianism, but we are not
aware that she ever accepted it. (Ed.).

1889.] TEXT BOOKS ON ENTOMOLOGY 277

tion, but that is long ago now, and the second edition is an
issue of the original sheets with a new preface — also £1 is.
is a great deal for students to give. If you want a book for
your own study, ^' Die Praktische Insektenkunde," by
Dr. Taschenberg is to my thinking unrivalled for practice
and science — price circa £1 4s.

Now about your Australian larvae. The longer and
larger is a lepidopterous caterpillar ; as far as I see nearly
allied to our Turnip caterpillar, that is to say, of much the
same nature as what we call Surface caterpillar here, and
Cut-worms in America. This would probably turn to a good-
sized moth. The larvae in the two other bottles appear to me
to be beetle grubs, of the Lainellicornes — you will notice the
three pairs of well-developed legs, and the peculiar swollen
form of the caudal extremity. I should suppose that like
our Cockchafer (figs. 58) (or some other Chafer) maggots,
that they fed at the roots of grass or other plants, but I
should not like to commit myself to giving even a generic
name to exotic pests in lar.val state. Would not a letter to
Mr. Frazer Crawford, Adelaide, be the best way to gain
information about prevention ? And about figuring, if you
sent specimens to Messrs. West, Newman & Co., 54, Hatton
Garden, London, E.C., they would get them well figured —
but still as the grubs and caterpillar have been so long in
spirit the exact shape could not be conveyed.

I am delighted to hear that you are making progress
about attention to insect pests in your University. When
Professor Harker^ was here lately, he told us something
about these matters, and I cordially wished him the post
of lecturer.

November 25, 1889.

I drew attention carefully in my first ofBcial report at
the Royal Agricultural Society of England (when the
Committee began again in November) to the need of
caution [in connection with Codlin moth prevention] as to
the adulteration that there might be in so-called cart-grease,
and also to the success of the plan of before greasing
putting paper round the trees. On the first glance it might
seem doubtful whether papering was not one of the "study"
applications which there are too many of, but it answers so
well, that at the great Toddington Fruit Grounds the
managers told me they were treating 120,000 trees in this
way. The paper is what is used by grocers as "grease
proof." It is passed in a broad band round the tree, and

' See note ante p. 79.

278 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

the overlapping ends fastened by paste and a band of bass
mat or anything of that kind tied round to make sure of all
being firm, and on this the " grease " is spread with a thin
bit of wood — a sort of paper knife in fact. This kind of
paper would, I should conjecture, be more certain to
prevent the grease, &c., soaking into the tree than cloth.
I have lately received copies of analyses of two or three
kinds of cart grease which prove (in one case) to consist of
grease and tar oils mixed with water and sulphate of lime.
This did harm. Another consisted mainly of rosin oil, &c.,
mixed with a little carbonate of lime. This, I believe,
answered quite well. I do not know how better to guard
against mishaps than by starting the very earliest intelligence
of important points round the newspapers as soon as ever 1
can ; but you will believe me it is difficult to meet all sides.
A Kentish correspondent wrote me that he was preparing
his trees for dressing by cutting all the old bark off and then
was going to tar on the fresh surface ! If you would
mention to your correspondent that my report of this month
is in the ^^Agricultural Gazette "for November i8th, and that
he would find some special cautions about grease banding at
p. 501, column I, I think he might be interested, but if he
cares to write to me on the subject I would gladly reply, or
I would with pleasure explain any point to you that you
would care to have details of.

In the second edition of my Manual, which I am doing
all I properly can to get time to start through press, I hope
to give the very valuable practical teaching of the last two
years about orchard insect pest prevention, and I hope to
be able to add good results of a special (very cheap and
very nasty) kind of fumigation we are going to try next
spring.

P.S. — Do you see how the '' I.L.N. Almanac has been
helping itself to John Curtis' figures and mine — and then
giving the credit to Mr. Jabez Hogg ? I have had a little
representation to make to the editor, and an erratum slip is
to be added to all unissued copies.

January 21, 1890.

We expect Professor Harker here at the end of the week.
Most likely he will come on here after his lecture at the
Royal Veterinary College, at 4 p.m. on Friday next, and
stay till Saturday, so we can bestow our best attention on
affairs. I wish I saw a more hopeful state of things in (or
for) the various matters [connected with entomological
appointments].

1890.] STEVEN LECTURES ON ENTOMOLOGY 279

Your letter came a few minutes after Professor Fream's
arrival, and we said nothing about the lectures on Ento-
mology in Edinburgh, but I told him how affairs were
standing about the Board of Agriculture, and that I had
recommended Professor Barker in case an entomologist
was wanted. He was very pleasant. I have known him so
long I always like a talk with him, and amongst other
points we went over some special work about students'
entomological examinations, and he left the impression on
my mind that he would convey the requisite kind of infor-
mation for your proposed lectures very satisfactorily to the
hearers.

February 14, i8go.

Some time ago, before I knew that your University
Entomological Lectureship [Steven course] was in a sort
of way private, I mentioned something about it to Mr.
James Fletcher (Dominion entomologist), and he is de-
lighted with the hoped-for advance. He says how very
much, if circumstances had allowed, he should have liked
to give the course. You would, indeed, have had '' a
feather in your cap " if you could have secured him.

What a sad loss we all have in Professor Little.

April 18, 1890.

I return your two lists marked. ^ What you want is a set
of cases with models and figures such as Mr. Mosley arranged
for Kew. I told him he ought not to sell at as low a rate
as he at first proposed, but I think that if strong card boxes
were substituted for the nicely-finished mahogany ones,
he could certainly let you have the cases at 7s. 6d. If you
do not wish to open the cases (excepting for very special
work), the board on which the exhibits are fixed might be
fastened from below, and thus the cost of the beautiful work
of one half sliding perfectly into the other half of the box
saved.

J^uly 21, 1890.

I was lately down for a few days at Oxford, and took the
opportunity of asking Professor Westwood whether, if you
arranged to have a course of entomological lectures, and
asked him to deliver them, there was any chance of his
granting such a favour ? I thought it was too much to
hope for, but I gained his permission that you might write
to him on the subject, and I really think that if it were so

' Of Mosley's Insect cases with a view to suiting the Agriculture
Department, Edinburgh University.

28o LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

early that there was no fear of cold setting in, he would
very likely undertake the set. Professor Westwood is, as
Professor Riley well says, the ^^ Prince of entomologists." I
do not suppose any one living has such knowledge extend-
ing over all branches of entomology as he has. He is the
Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford, so constantly in
practice of lecturing on his own special subject, and very
fond of making things clear to young people. He has
attended greatly to the economic aspect, and if you could
secure him, his lectures as the commencement of the
Agriculture Entomological course would give an eclat to
the series that nothing else in the whole world would.
To say he is Life President of the Entomological Society
shows the respect he is held in on all hands. But you
would have to be very careful of the good old man, for
he never thinks of his 82 or 83 years, and he is not
strong, though much more full of spirit than many a
younger man. His address is : Professor J. O. Westwood,
Walton Manor, Woodstock-road, Oxford. If you write to
him he will think it over and tell you his views.

July 7, 1891.

It is very kind of you to give me the copy (received this
morning) of your beautiful and so very useful book.
[^'Agriculture and Rural Economy of Australia and New
Zealand."] I have been turning over a good many pages so
as to have some idea of the contents before writing to thank
you, and I cannot think how you could manage to collect
all this very serviceable information there, or find time to
condense it into this clear, readable form here. It is a very
valuable addition to my library, and I value it much for its
own worth, as well as your kind gift. How very honestly
indeed you have acknowledged my little Cockchafer block ;
it is quite a pleasure to me to have it in your grand book.

I hope you have escaped the influenza, or had it favour-
ably. It has been a serious visitation to us. My sister
and I, and our housekeeper. Miss Hartw^ell, who acts as
my amanuensis, were all seriously laid up in our beds at
once ! Such a time of misery, and inconvenience ! I
should like to write you about sundry matters of interest,
but as very likely you are on the other side of the world, I
had better postpone them.

Somewhat Private.

August 18, i8q2.
I am very sorry to hear of your trouble in the loss of

1895] AN ENTOMOLOGICAL EXPERT 281

your brother/ and with your grief, and also the effects of
the long hard run of work, you must be greatly needing
a rest.

I hope and greatly desire to continue all my work, Home,
Colonial, and publishing ; also to act as referee to our
Agricultural Journals just as before, but it is much more
comfortable working up important points, to having ever-
lastingly to be going over a routine often keeping one from
attending to what may be of importance. Who will they
get to take my place [at the Royal] ? It seems to me a
great pity that there is not a properly paid and competent
officer for the Board of Agriculture and R.A.S.E. I am
safe in saying this, for I never intend to take office again,
not for any amount of money that could be offered, neither
do I mean to do the work of Government or Society under
the polite name of '' kindly co-operating ! "

The only person 1 know who appears to me to be quali-
fied to take the post at the Royal Agricultural Society is Dr.
Fream, and I conjecture that his hands are much too full to
allow it. Still I should be glad if it were so. Professor
Harker has great knowledge of beetles, and indeed, I believe,
of insect ways and customs generally, but I should scarcely
think his tastes would lead him to this sort of work.
However I have nottheleast idea what the R.A.S.E. proposes
to do.

March 15, 1895.

As the time of your African trip is drawing near, I am
just venturing to remind you, with what pleasure (if con-
sistent with your own convenience) we would see you
before you go. There appears to me to be a Gordian knot,
and a few words (spoken not written) sometimes are in-
valuable on these occasions. I am pulling well with the
European centres, but there are places where, much as I
regret it, co-operation is not going on, and I think I might
very likely get, as on a previous occasion, some most useful
advice from yourself.

April 9, 1895.

I am very sorry and disappointed to say that I am ailing
and so I do not know whether in your own hardly run
time, you would care (or could at all spare the while) to
run down for an hour or two on Thursday. The special
trouble is that lately a very small bit of glass jerked up
from something I was doing at my right eye. I thought it

' Quintin MacAdam Wallace, M.A., a Graduate (ist Class Honours)
in Medicine and Surgery of Edinburgh University.

282 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

only hit the eye, but nearly a week after I found injury
resulted from the bit having embedded itself in the upper
part of the eyeball and formed a small abscess. Of course
it had to be operated on and I hope put all right, but the
very long, weary operation and the cocaine, &c., &c., have
so tired everything concerned that 1 have not got over it all
yet. So I thought I ought to tell you. What I want to say
as distinguished from writing is more in detail.

March 19, 1896.
I make no doubt that I shall hear from our good friend
Dr. Fream very shortly, or at least as soon as his much
occupied time permits, but meanwhile I do not like to delay
thanking you for kindly letting me know that the University
Court had paid me the very gratifying compliment of ap-
pointing me co-examiner with Dr. Fream ^ in Agricultural
Entomology. I think myself much honoured and much
pleased also by their selection. If I might ask you to take
the trouble, and it should be admissible, I should much like
you to express to the University Court my grateful apprecia-
tion and assurance that I will endeavour to do whatever
may be required in the office to the best of my ability.

March 27, 1896.

I am really very greatly obliged to you for the clear and
full explanation you have spared time to give me, in your
letter received this afternoon, of the arrangement of my co-
examinership. It does please me very much to have even
this little post, for I look on it as a mark of approval of your
grand old University; also I am very glad that you approved
of my letter to the Secretary.

I never knew the injurious insects so active as they have
been this winter, in air, earth, and water — in the latter to the
great damage of watercress (chap. XVI.). I had yesterday,
some good specimens of great mischief from clover-stem
sickness and for the first time found a nice way of col-
lecting quantities of the Aiiguillulidce (eel- worms) for obser-
vation. Generally they hide up in the rubbish, but I found
that by teazing it out very finely in water on the slide and
then carefully lifting it all away until the slide looked bare,
that still such numbers of the eel-worms remained that they
could be thoroughly examined.

' Dr. Fream had been, as a result of the recommendation of Miss
Ormerod, appointed Steven Lecturer on Agricultural Entomology in
Edinburgh University.

1896.] INSECT CASES 283

April 4, 1896.
I am now writing to you on a point on which I think that
you — ex officio — are the first I should consult, and I should
greatly like your opinion ; and next (if, as I hope, you
approve of my sister's and my own proposed presentation),
that you will kindly tell me to whom to apply in requisite
form. We have, by request of the Council of the Bath and
West Society, been preparing an exhibit of Economic
Entomology for their approaching Show here. My sister's
part consists of twenty coloured diagrams, nineteen injurious
insects and their works, and one finger and toe — these are
very beautifully executed and 'fitted with loops all ready for
hanging; size 26 ins. long by 21 wide. My part is seventeen
cases — of which the enclosed slips, to be affixed on light
slanting strips of wood at end or side of the cases, give
just a general idea for observers without a catalogue (Ap-
pendix C). I have tried, you will see, to give just a few
illustrations of the main sorts of attack. Scientific names
are used of course, but it is essentially an Agricultural
Entomological exhibition made to help the plainest under-
standing, so I have not taken up space with mere scientific
details, and I have spared neither trouble nor cost in pro-
curing specimens, especially of the various CEstridcc (bot-flies).
Also that there might be no possible doubt as to accuracy
of nomenclature I got Mr. O. E. Janson to spend two or
three hours in rigid investigation, and the only error in
naming he found was in the name, or synonym, of a
decayed wood-eating wireworm-beetle which I removed
to make all sure. Fifteen of the cases are white pine,
with what I call ^' detection " fittings outside. The glass
is laid on the top but is kept in place by a handsome
narrow brass band. Thus the inside of the case is at
once accessible for any authorised purpose ; but those not
know^ing the arrangements would cause such a clatter and
disturbance that their misdoings would be very public. The
cases are all as nearly as may be 1 2 ins. by 8 by 2 J. Two of
them completing the seventeen are '' Live Boxes " of polished
mahogany, same size, but of different make to prevent escape.
Now, I much want you to tell us whether you think that
after exhibition here the collection, including my sister's
diagrams, would be acceptable as a presentation to the
museum of your Edinburgh University. It is not for me
to speak of my own work, but I think it would be of use
both in your work and Dr. Fream's, so I am writing to you
first of all. If approved and we can arrange comfortably, I

284 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

contemplate sending it (at my own cost) in charge of an
expert who could repair damage. I shall wait your reply
with great interest.

April 16, 1896.

Indeed, I thank you heartily for your kind letter of the
13th. It is a very great pleasure both to my sister and
myself that you think our collection likely to be of use.
I thought perhaps you had started on your long tour, so I
wrote to Dr. Taylor, and yesterday we had a letter from him
which pleased us exceedingly, with the kindly expressed
acceptance of the University Court ; and Sir W. Muir also
was good enough to write, which we took to be very kind
of him. I shall hope now, all being well, to collect, and
(with permission) add as occasion allows. You would
notice that some of the great attacks, Tipnla (Daddy long-
legs), leather-jacket grubs, for instance, and Chanvas gra-
minis (Antler moth), were not represented, for they were
not about in the winter, but I shall hope to go on now. I
should like you to see the cases, and we should much like
a chat before you go ; it is long since we met, and as the
collection will not be free to go down till a little after the
beginning of June, I suppose you will be far away then ?
I do not know the difference between the University Court
and the Senatus. Very ridiculous you will think this ; but
I should like to understand about it.

May 30, 1896.

Many thanks for your letter received this afternoon, with
address of Sir Robert Murdoch Smith [the curator]. From
this I understand that the collection is to be placed in the
*' Museum of Science and Art," Chambers Street, as the pro-
perty of the University Court of Edinburgh University ?
You will think me tedious, but I was under an impression
that there was a ^^ University Museum " ptir et simple. I
should not be easy at all in sending the exhibit down ex-
cepting in skilled hands. I had the great pleasure yesterday
of showing them to the Prince and Princess (p. 123), and
to-day I hear there is such a crowd that even our own
people could only get a sight of two cases.

October 22, 1896.
I was very much pleased to see this morning that you had
returned safe from your long journey to Australia, and I
hope that besides the immense quantity of useful work
which I make no doubt you have done, that you have come
back in better health. You will have heard that my dear

PLATE XXVII.

Miss Georgiana Elizabeth Ohmerod.

Photo by Elliott tO Fry.
{j>p. 16, 30, 37, 88, 90, 123.)

To face i^. 284.

1899] DIAGRAMS AND EXAMINERSHIP 285

sister has gone from me ; and for her I can be very happy,
but I do miss her exceedingly.

But I am now writing to you about a Httle bit of business.
When her failing health allowed, her great pleasure after
you saw her was to execute some more diagrams, beauti-
fully done, and I am sure there is no situation where she
would have been more gratified for them to be placed than
in Edinburgh University — and yesterday evening I had a
truly kind letter from Sir Wm. Muir, telling me of the
acceptance of my offer of them by the Senatus and
University Court. But at present I am not able to lay
my hand on her list of what was formerly sent. Would
you mind the trouble of letting me have just the shortest
possible notes of the subjects — a couple of words to each as
Hessian fly, Wireworm, &c., would be quite enough — and
then without fear of repetition I can present all the others
to the University (excepting two or three which I should
like to keep for her dear sake) ; and will you kindly further
help me by letting me know at your convenience to whom
I should address the package.

But though my dear sister did not work technically on
my reports any more than I did on her beautiful drawings,
I greatly miss her sympathy and coUeagueship.

November 24, 1897.

I cannot say that I am well. The worry and hard extra
work and my bad fall on the stone steps were not good for
me, and I am painfully lame, and have got the gout, my
doctor said a day or two ago, everywhere.

However, I am getting better, and hope to be much as
usual soon. To-day I am looking up '* Pine beetle." I
think a trustworthy record of a thousand acres of Pine
without (so far as seen) a tree not infested is a grand obser-
vation. This is a consequence of the 1893 and 1894 gales.

January 30, 1899.
I take it very kind indeed of you to write to tell me of
the University arrangements about the Examinership.^ I
consider it a great honour to have held the office, and it has
been a most thorough pleasure also thus to be associated in
work with such a kind friend as yourself, as well as with
Dr. Eream. But still, though not now one of the staff, I
can work in coUeagueship, and I have never forgotten the

' After a full term of three years, by ordinance, an examiner is not
immediately eligible for re-appointment.

286 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap, xxiii.

important help that you gave me some years ago. I shall
look forward very much to a visit from you presently;
besides the pleasure, it would help me, to have a good talk.
I am intending to make an alteration about my yearly
reports. It seems to me that it would be the best course "to
bring the present series to a close with this number, giving
with it a collective index of the whole series up to date. I
should like the twenty-two years' work to stand complete,
and not be liable to detraction, gradually, as to regret about
Miss Ormerod not being this, that, and the other, which
with advancing years is likely. I think, too, that I need a
little consultation as to some slight alteration of plan. I do
not like so much repetition as I see elsewhere. I have
difficulty in avoiding it, and I am trying that my present
Twenty-second Annual Report should be as fresh as I can
make it. Kind regards from, yours sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

CHAPTER XXIV

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE ON THE LL.D. OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Announcement of the Honorary LL.D. to be conferred— Preliminary personal
arrangements— Miss Ormerod's feelings of appreciation and of anxiety —
Letters of congratulation.

This chapter is unlike any of the foregoing chapters of
correspondence in its purely personal character. Interested
readers will not fail to recognise in it the genuine feminine
feeling of anxiety at the approach of a trying public ordeal
to one so unaccustomed as Miss Ormerod to the pageantry
of academic functions. Nor will they fail to appreciate the
resolution with which she bore the physical strain put upon
one whose strength had been well-nigh spent in the cause
of science under a load of years and bodily infirmities.

To Miss E. A. Ormerod,

University of Edinburgh,

February 24, 1900.
Dear Miss Ormerod, — I hasten to announce to you
without a moment's delay that the Senatus of this University
have only a minute ago agreed to do our University the
distinguished honour of asking you to accept the honorary
degree of LL.D. of the University. I may tell you without
breaking any confidence that you are not only the first lady
who has ever been asked to accept the degree, but it was in
view of the necessity of recognising the great and dis-
tinguished labours which you have done for Science that
regulations were made by which it became possible for us
to confer the degree upon a lady. Any little share I had in
this matter is more than rewarded by the great gratification

which I feel in connection with this proposed act of the

287

288 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxiv.

Senatus, of which I beHeve you will most probably hear by
the same post from the Principal. Should the announce-
ment come a day later this will serve as a private intimation
to yourself. It will be a still further triumph if you feel
physically able to come to receive the degree in the presence
of an assembly of about 3,000 people — the number who
usually attend our graduations. If you are not able to come,
of course the degree will be conferred all the same, but
personally I would rejoice, if it can be without your running
a serious risk, to see you among us and to get your name
enrolled among the many distinguished men — all men but
yourself — who have distinguished themselves in Science
and Literature, and been pleased to accept our degree. —
I am, dear Miss Ormerod, yours very sincerely,

Robert Wallace.

Dr. Fream, ^^ Steven" lecturer on Agricultural Entomology
in Edinburgh University, wrote as follows : —

DowNTON, February 26, 1900.
My dear Miss Ormerod - As I have to catch a train
I have only time to write you my very warmest congratula-
tions on the LL.D. It was really settled a month ago, but
had to be confirmed on Friday. Of course the secret
" burnt" a little, but I was pledged to say nothing about it !
It will appear in the University Intelligence shortly. The
honour was never better w;on, and long may you enjoy it
is the earnest wish of, in haste, — Yours very sincerely,

W. Fream.

To Professor Robert Wallacey University y Edinburgh.

TORRINGTON HoUSE, ST. AlBANS,

February 25, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — I feel wholly unable to
express my respectful and sincere gratitude to the Senatus
for such a high honour, and to yourself I am greatly in-
debted for your kind friendship and also letting me hear so
soon. I value the honour exceedingly— the seal of approval
of this highly scientific body. When the letter arrives which
you tell me is coming I will endeavour to express myself to
some degree adequately. To yourself just quietly I may
say it is a pleasure, and such an unexampled honour that I
am delighted. But still I feel that the great point of my
work always is utilising the exceedingly kind help which is
so cordially given me by my good, kind, scientific friends.

I900.] THE LL.D. OF EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 289

and the practical observations to sift into shape that are
given me as the foundation. If you were here I should
like to say so much, but I do not know how to write more
at present than that I am deeply grateful.

P.S. — I wish very much indeed to come, as you kindly
suggest, but my very great and painful difficulty in walking
movement from arthritis makes me fear that the risk would
be too great, but anyway I am going to ask my doctor.

February 27, 1900.

Your exceedingly kind letter and the subject of it were
such a surprise to me that in all the ideas suddenly arising
I hardly know how to reply coherently. Now at least I can
say I am deeply, respectfully grateful for such an honour to
be granted me. I have written in reply to the formal noti-
fication from the Senatus what I hope may be a proper
reply. I also mentioned that I trusted to be able to attend
in person to receive this great honour. But now I hope
you will be so good as to allow me to ask your help in
arrangements. [Here followed a list of queries which are
not of general interest.] Of course on such, to me, very
great occasion I do not in the least mind expense.

The other matter is. Will you please tell me am I to wear
Doctor of Laws' dress ? and if so, will you kindly say to
whom I should write to order it ? When I come I am
hoping you will instruct me in what to do, for unless you
are good enough to help me with a little (or a great deal) of
instruction I am afraid I am likely to be quite out of order.
Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

University, Edinburgh,

March i, 1900.

Dear Miss Ormerod, — I am delighted to see from your
letter received this morning that you are going to be able to
come to the graduation function, and that you have arranged
to be well cared for on the way up. . I shall take full respon-
sibility for all necessary arrangements at this end. I should
have done a lot to-day and reported progress to you, but
unfortunately I have to go out of town to give a lecture on
South Africa at Cauvin's Hospital, but I may tell you that I
can easily secure the accommodation you mention for your-
self. Miss Hartwell, and the doctor. You will wear a black
cloak or graduation gown thrown over your ordinary dress
very much like a Minister's robe. This is hired for a few
shillings from a man who supplies them regularly to

20

2i)o LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxiv.

Honorary Graduates, and I shall arrange all about that. A
silk hood goes round the neck and hangs down the back.
It is put on by the head Servitor after you have been
officially capped by the Principal. It is part of the public
function. You must not feel the least anxious about the
event, as you will be surrounded by a host of people to
whom your name is a household word, who know well the
value which your work has been to this country, and who
appreciate you accordingly. I shall be only too pleased to
answer any question of detail you may write and help you
in every way. Yours very sincerely, Robert Wallace.

March 2, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — I am very glad to know
some part of what the form is on this great occasion. I
hope that by following whatever directions you give me
quite exactly that all will be right, i.e., that I may do all I
ought to do ! But I cannot help being a little nervous ; I
feel the honour so very great indeed, and also the kindness
I am receiving. Your account of the ceremony itself has
made my mind much clearer. Walking upstairs is a great
difficulty to me, but on flat ground, with my light ebony
stick, I do not think my lameness is more than a very
little observable. I am as near as possible 5 feet 6 inches.
This is relative to the graduation gown. My head really is
so full of this unprecedented distinction I am afraid I
trouble you too much.

March 7, 1900.

I am very much obliged to you indeed for all the care
that you have been so kindly taking for me, and for making
everything so clear to me — amongst other points, your little
note about convenience of cheques. I think you have
arranged everything as nicely as possible for me. All
matters for the journey I expect my doctor will look after
nicely. But when you write again, — I suppose on the great
occasion, as the cap is to be put on, that I appear without a
bonnet ? I have now read your letter over again that I may
be quite sure that I thoroughly understand everything.

P.S. — There is yet one more inquiry I am venturing to
trouble you with. My doctor [Dr. Eustace Lipscomb] is an
M.B. (Cambridge) ; on such a special occasion, should he
wear his hood ?

March 3, 1900.

I shall be very much obliged if you would secure me
rooms at the Balmoral Hotel, as you mention. Namely, a

1900.] ARRANGEMENTS FOR GRADUATION 291

sitting-room and two bedrooms with doors opening one
from the other, on the first floor to the front, for Miss
Hartvvell [Private Secretary] and myself, likewise a room
for the doctor — from the evening (8 p.m.) on Wednesday
the nth until about nine on the following Sunday evening.
I should like to be at the Balmoral ; I have heard of it
as such a good hotel. I can manage, though the operation
is painful, to walk up just a few steps with the help of my
stick (I have been trying five at my door), if somebody be
by me in case I should slip, without, I think, attracting
attention ; and if I were too lame after the long journey to
manage nicely, then I must be humble, and be thankful to
be carried in a chair.

I feel greatly obliged to Sir Ludovic Grant for his kind
intention of asking me to stay at his house. It would have
been very pleasant, for thus, also, I should have doubtless
seen many kind friends ; but besides the great difficulty of
the stairs, I am obliged to lie down a little each day, and I
think after the long journey I had best keep quiet to fit me
for the great day on Saturday.

But if the thing be possible without intruding on valuable
time, might I not hope to see some of my kind friends at
the hotel — yourself, of course, and I shall also be delighted
to see Dr. MacDougall. Could you arrange some time ? I
should not myself see anything wrong in seeing friends on
the afternoon of Good Friday, but pray do not let me do
anything that might be thought not right. You and I will
have a good deal to say at your best convenience.

P.S. — I was greatly gratified to learn that my letter to
Sir L. Grant met with his approval. It was a matter of no
small anxiety to me to try at least to express my appreciation
rightly.

March 14, 1900.

I got a friend here to let me try on the square college
cap ** mortar board," and it fitted so nicely over my bow
that I do not think I should be at all troubled by ideas of
anything unusual being on my head ; and I can take it off
without trouble. Through your kind help I think all these
arrangements are in perfect order, and I am looking forward
much (preliminarily) to our meeting at Balmoral Hotel.

March 27, 1900.

1 should have liked to beg a ticket besides the two which

you kindly mention for my nephew, Arthur Ormerod, who

has just taken his M.D., so I wired off to him at Oxford,

but, to his great regret, he cannot come. I hope the weather

2()2 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxiv.

will be better, but we have a good bright sunshine between
the occasional light snow showers, and both Miss Hartwell
and myself have good furred mantles, and with the snug
small carriage all our own way, I think we shall do very
well.

What a sight the hall will be ! also your small flock of
aspirant doctors ; may be as anxious in their minds as
some one I know of. But I am really not alarmed. I am
sure you will keep me right. What time of day does the
ceremony begin ? And what happens after ? — do we retire
respectively like rabbits to our own burrows ?

March 29, 1900.

The pamphlet on the McEwan Hall [the number of the
"Student" describing the opening of the Hall] is a great
boon to me, and what a noble building !

While in Edinburgh my idea is to have lunch at one
o'clock, my usual time, and a sort of miscellaneous meal at
6.30, and rest in the evening after it, and I shall think it a
great compliment and a very great pleasure if friends may
do me the favour to look in after, say, about two o'clock.
It will be much safer for me, under present circumstances
of wanting to keep fresh and strong for the day, not to go
out, so I should be on the spot. Sir Wm. Muir and his
daughter, Mrs. Arbuthnot, kindly wrote that they meant to
look in, but it would be only a pleasure to me to see any
friends. Please to consider me as quite under your
guidance for this, to me, so very great occasion, and wholly
thankful so to be, excepting in the feeling of the great
trouble that you are kindly taking. Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

P.S. — Dr. E. L. thought it would be best for me to return
by the Sunday night sleeping train, and the Midland manager
has given permission for it to stop here on Monday morning.

Professor Wallace to MissE. A. Ormerod.

University of Edinburgh,

March 29, 1900.

Dear Miss Ormerod, — The box containing your most
valuable contribution to the library arrived safely from
Wesley & Son, and the ten volumes, [of her own works]
all in excellent order, are standing on the Senate Hall table
so that they may be seen. The Principal, Sir Wm. Muir,
and the Secretary, Sir L. Grant, were the first, along with
Professor Patrick and me, to inspect them in their present

I900.] PRELIMINARIES TO GRADUATION 293

position, and all the others excepting myself were astounded
at the magnitude of your work. I carried the books first
into the library and had them entered in the catalogue
before they went to the Senate Hall. They will have a
shelf for themselves, so that they can be kept together as
the ''Ormerod Collection," or rather ^^presentation." I sent
you a ^'Student" giving details of the Hall in which you
will be capped. The capping is at 10 a.m., and after that,
if you feel able, you will go on to St. Giles' Cathedral. I
enclose one of the ordinary tickets to give you an idea as
to how the general public are admitted. — (R. W.)

March 30, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — What can I say ? I am
very much used to work just quietly in the hope of being
of some service, but this kind commendation from those
whose opinions I hold in such respect as those of the chiefs,
whether the high officials or professors in your great
University, is indeed a gratification, a comfort for troubles
sometimes not light, and an encouragement which I grate-
fully and deeply appreciate.

I should like, of all things, if you will take charge of me,
to attend the Commemoration Service after the capping.
It will delight me to be there, and if I am tired I can rest
after. [The graduation ceremonial was found to be quite
enough- for Miss Ormerod's strength, and no attempt was
made to go to St. Giles' Cathedral to the service.] I usually
breakfast at 8.15, so that I should be all ready at 10 o'clock.
It seems to me that if the ^' low-hung carriage " which you
have kindly secured use of for me were in attendance to
convey us to the McEwan Hall, and when wanted at inter-
vals onward, this would be exceedingly comfortable for me.
But in everything of the arrangements I am hoping that all
I have to do is to quite precisely obey as well as benefit by
most thankfully all that you are good enough to arrange for
me, and will instruct me about presently.

Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh,

April 12, 1900.
I earnestly hope that Dr. E. Lipscomb will find you
better. It is a real grief to me that you should be going
through such a painful illness [an influenza cold which
developed at a most inopportune moment]. And, second-
arily, not having all your kind advice and help and your
companionship in all, does take away much of the pleasure
of my honour.

294 LETTER FROM DR. MACDOUGALL [Chap. xxiv.

We find the gown, hood, and trencher cap fit very nicely.
This cap suits me much better than the soft velvet one,
and 1 am sure that I should much prefer the black gown to
the amazing splendours of scarlet faced with blue. I think
on formal occasions, if desirable, I could get up my courage
to wearing the quiet black gown, but I should be terrified
about the brilliant garment. Dr. Lipscomb is going to tell
you that, as matters have progressed, I do not feel as if it
were at all necessary for me to have the convenience of a
room in the Hall you kindly procured for me, and if it were
permissible for me to '^robe" here, and drive robed to the
McEwan Hall, it would save me a world of anxiety. I might,
I think, carry my cap in my hand until time for capping
came. It is so exceptional a case that I do not see any
impropriety in being bare-headed for a while. But I am
truly anxious that I should appear before all the august
body preliminarily under your wing, or, if there was risk
for you, under the care of some other member of the
University (if they will adopt me).

[The graduation ceremonial (p. 95) passed off with-
out a hitch of any kind, and the students gave the first
honorary woman graduate a magnificent reception.]

ToRRiXGTOx House, St. Albans,

April 17, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — I really do not know how
to begin my letter. There is so very much I want to say
and to thank you most heartily for. But first I should
exceedingly like to know that you are recovering, and
were not seriously the worse for your kindness in really
and truly coming from your bed to look after me. It
would have taken greatly from my downright pleasure if
you had not been there. I was much impressed by the
ceremonial. I had not connected an idea of the perfect
order, and in some respects solemnity, with the function
of graduation. It is an impression never to be forgotten,
any more than the exceeding kindness with which I was
received. '^ Dr. Ormerod " also begs her best thanks for
the most liberal supply of ^^ Edinburgh Evening Dispatch"
and ''Scotsman" received this morning [containing ac-
counts of the University function]. I am putting your
letter, the very first with address of " Doctorate," carefully
away amongst the special treasures of my Academic honour.
I am trying to get, so to say, " into harness " again amongst
the consignments of boxes waiting.

iQoo.] CONGRATULATION ON LL.D. 295

Now I hope you will not think me absolutely carried
away by the feeling of the importance of the honour to
myself, but amongst letters of congratulation I have one
from Dr. L. O. Howard, the Entomologist of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, which pleases me very much.
He says : —

Dating Washington, D.C, April 7, 1900.

*^ The receipt of your letter of 21st March and of your
admirable twenty-third Annual Report reminds me that I
have been remiss in fulfiUing a strong intention to write
you at my earliest convenience and congratulate you most
warmly on the well-deserved honour which you are to
receive from the University of Edinburgh. You are right ;
not only is it an honour to yourself, but it is an honour to
Economic Entomology, the force of which cannot be over-
estimated. I congratulate you very warmly. An LL.D.
from Edinburgh has always seemed to me to be one of the
highest honours which an Englishman (or woman now)
could gain." L. O. Howard.

Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall wrote :—

Scottish Liberal Club, Edinburgh, Saturday.

A telegram received in the morning made it impossible
for me to get to the McEwan Hall in time for my seat on
the platform. Among the audience, however, I had an
excellent opportunity of getting acquainted with *' popular "
opinion, and I only wished you could have heard all the
kind things that were said about you. Somebody has said,
*^ Beware when all men (and all women) speak well of you."
Really I know no one so exposed to this temptation (if
temptation it be) as yourself. The honouring of our various
distinguished men naturally appeals most strongly to different
groups, but there is in addition about this latest honour
to yourself something which has touched the general
imagination.

May you be long spared to wear the honour worthily.

I hope that on your return you will find yourself none
the worse for your plucky journey north and all the atten-
dant fatigue.

R. Stewart MacDougall.

• Dr. Ritzema Bos wrote : —

Amsterdam, March 16, 1900.
Dear Miss Ormerod, — I was very much enjoyed lo
read in your kind letter of 12th March that the Senatus of

296 LETTER OF LORD GRIMTHORPE. [Chap. xxiv.

the Edinburgh University will confer on you the Honorary
Degree of Doctor of Laws, as an acknowledgment of the great
merits you have for the advancement of Economic Ento-
mology. I am glad to hear that the important work you
have done since so long years for Science and for Agricul-
ture will be recompensed in this way. I hope that you
may remain still for many years, what you have been
already for so long time, the first Economic Entomologist
of your country and one of the most famous Economic
Entomologists of the world. My wife asks me to offer also
her kind congratulations to you. December 19, 1899, it
was twenty-five years since I received the Degree of Doctor
of Natural Philosophy. On this day a deputation of repre-
sentatives of our Dutch Agriculture and Horticulture came
to me and offered me a statue of bronze — the genius of
Science, with the subscription, ^'Ad lumen." It was pre-
sented to me in the name of many agriculturists and horti-
culturists in Holland and in Dutch India. The General
Director of Agriculture came also to me, and told me that
H.M. our Queen offered me the grade of Knight of the
Dutch Lion (Kidder in de Orde von den Nederlandsche
Leeuwen). It was a beautiful day for us indeed. With many
kind regards, believe me, yours very truly,

RiTZEMA Bos.

Lord Grimthorpe wrote : —

St. Albans, Ash Wednesday, 1900.

Dear Miss Ormerod, — ^M lose not a moment" (as the
story is) in congratulating you, or myself, on the honour of
our becoming a brother and sister in Laws, as one of my
nieces points out in a newspaper. The Princess of Wales
has only the inferior position of a sister in Music, and those
in Medicine are quite common now. I am sorry that we,
neither of us, dare venture to go out and pay our duty in
person in this weather — as unique as your new position —
and I was sorry to miss you the last time you came here.
My dear wife, who has been worse than I am though more
capable of recovery, is slowly doing so. She was in an
alarming state for some time under the abominable
influence of the general pest, influenza.

Though I write badly and with difficulty, I am better in
general strength, but shall never be well. However, I am
thankful to be no worse, and to have a nice series of
benevolent relations of two generations here, and to be here
instead of London or Bath. Tea generally goes on at 4J

I900.] CONGRATULATIONS ON LL.D. 297

now, and we shall hope not to be disappointed if you look
in again, wearing your red hood when you have acquired it.
With very kind regards and rejoicings from all our ladies

I am, yours ever,

Grimthorpe.

N.B.— I hope you are duly elated at the prospect of a
Dean and Chapter here. I defied the late Archdeacon Grant
who agitated for it, to tell us definitely any single practical
bit of good it could do, and he declined to try.

Mr. L. O. Howard wrote again on : —

May 10, 1900.

My dear Miss Ormerod, — I am greatly pleased to
receive your letter of April 30th with, the newspaper clip-
pings. I had read substantially the same account in
American newspapers, but did not know, of course, of your
pleasant meeting with Mr. Choate. He is a man who is
highly esteemed on this side of the Atlantic, not only for his
legal ability but for his tact and other good qualities. 1 do
not know him personally, but he is a national character.
His name is known from one end of the country to the
other, and his clever sayings are repeated from Seattle to
Key West, and from Portland to San Diego. In March I
attended the annual banquet of the trustees of the Shaw
Botanic Gardens in St. Louis, and responded to the toast of
Henry Shaw. The man who sat at my right, a distinguished
college president, told me many Choate stories, and suc-
ceeded in filling my mind so full of Mr. Choate that when 1
was called upon to speak I had almost forgotten what I had
intended to say. We are all of us here delighted about
your doctorate. Entomology and Economic Entomology
have been steadily assuming a higher place in the minds of
the people during the past twenty years, and this honour
which has come to you is the culmination of our advance
up to the present time. Wishing you many more years of
work and happiness (work must mean happiness to you),
believe me, my dear Miss Ormerod, sincerely yours,

L. O. Howard.

April 21, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — It is a bright day when I
see your handwriting outside the envelope, and I am truly
glad your cold is better ; it was no slight matter that wanted
mending. My journey was not so successful as I hoped.
The wind was very cold on St. Albans' platform and I got a

298 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxiv.

chill, but I was up again yesterday, and hope to be just as
usual in a day or two. I shall be so very glad to see you.
Please fix your own time, and if you would tell me a little
beforehand, I would try to get General and Mrs. Bigge to
come to lunch. He I think knew Sir Wm. Muir in India,
when he (General Bigge) was in military command. He
would of all things enjoy a talk with you about horses.

One day (if you please that is) we would drive over to
Batch Wood to tea, and Lord Grimthorpe will certainly
come in and have a chat if he be well enough. In a
parenthesis, would you care to drive over to Rothamsted ?
I know Sir Henry and Lady Gilbert and Mr. Warington.

I shall so like to be able to have a good quiet talk with
you about various of my plans. I feel (may I be forgiven
if I am too presumptuous) that now I have a real scientific
home, and though I would not for the world intrude, I may
I think ask my good colleague's advice. As you will be
here so soon I think I had best not write to Sir W. Muir, as
he kindly gave me leave to do, about my father's set of
volumes of drawings. When you come you will guide my
views as to whether they would be what might be liked for
acceptance.

April 23, 1900.

I am doing just as you bid me, and after a little look at
Mr. Garton's paper,i which I am sure must contain a deal
of solidly valuable information, I have laid it aside to wait
your helpful guidance. I have a letter just now from Dr.
Fream saying he would like very much to come to meet
you (as I begged him), but cannot manage it. I am looking
forward exceedingly to much useful and pleasant talk. I
generally go to church at St. Michael's (where Lord Bacon
is buried) in the morning, but there is much good music at
the Abbey close by, and you would do everything I hope
just exactly as you like best. Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

' " On the Production of New Breeds of Crop Plants by Multiple
Cross-fertilisation."

CHAPTER XXV

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE AFTER THE GRADUATION

London Farmers' Club Notice — Volumes of George Ormerod's drawings and
a painting of Miss Ormerod presented to the University — Handbook of
"Forest Insects" — "Recollections of Changing Times" — Papers on
" Stock Flies."

The letters in this chapter, written between the end of
April and the middle of November, 1900, cover a period of
extraordinary literary activity. Encouraged by the gratify-
ing manner in which her academic distinction had been
acknowledged by friends and public bodies, Miss Ormerod
began with renewed vigour, and with something almost akin
to prophetic instinct of what was to come in the not-far-
distant future, to produce and to arrange for the production
of, the literature that was needed to complete her life-work
and to be a record of it. Another conspicuous feature of
this chapter is the practical means she adopted to
immediately show gratitude to the University for the per-
spicacity shown by conferring its degree, which was
treasured by her above all things as the highest possible
recognition of her scientific labours.

To Professor Robert Wallace, University Edinburgh.

April 29, 1900.
Dear Professor Wallace, — I have been reading parts
of the ^' advance " proof of your paper [to be read before
the London Farmers' Club in April, 1900], and it seems to
me capital, and to meet the needs plainly and practically. I
wish you much success. I can speak from personal know-
ledge as to want of dipping being excellent for increase of
Melophagus ovimis [so called sheep tick] (fig. 25).

300 LETTER FROM SIR WM. MUIR [Chap. xxv.

Mr. Druce [Secretary of the Club], writes me kindly that
he intends to propose a vote of congratulation to me to-
morrow on the honour conferred on me by the Edinburgh
University, and this would be a great pleasure to me, for
I feel it a very great honour indeed. From many good
quarters I am receiving letters on this point, also on the
benefit to agriculture which the approval of Edinburgh
will give,

April 30, iQcx).

I am arranging with Elliott and Fry, the photographers,
55, Baker Street, that they should send down a '^ repre-
sentative " on Monday with proofs of photos, the bearer to
be here by train arriving at about half-past ten a.m. But the
truth is, that if you think I might ask acceptance, just as
their first Hon. Lady LL.D., I should very much like to
offer to the University one of Elliott and Fry's life-size
chalk or oil portraits executed in their best way as a
remembrance of the 14th of April. Do you think I might ?

I am glad to know they* spoke kindly of me at the
Farmers' Club. I am sure I have some good friends there,
and I thought it very kind of them to send me their vote of
congratulation on my great honour.

[The London Farmers' Club, at its April meeting, 1900,
passed with acclamation the following resolution : —
^'That the hearty congratulations of the Club are hereby
offered to its Honorary Lady Member, Miss Eleanor A.
Ormerod, upon the distinguished dignity of LL.D. recently
conferred upon her honoris causa by the University of
Edinburgh." A copy of the resolution was transmitted
by the Secretary to the Senatus of the University of
Edinburgh.]

May II, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — I had the books very care-
fully packed and sent off to-day, by luggage train, as they
made rather a heavy consignment. [Volumes of her father's
drawings, and copies of the "Manual of Injurious Insects"
for free distribution.]

You will see I put a little note into the copies of the
Manual, at " Red Spider," just in some degree to bring
the matter of position of the spinning glands up to date ;
I do not know of any other point that needs correcting.

I enjoyed your visit exceedingly, and not only that, but
you would hardly believe what a great amount of useful
information you conveyed to me in the course of our
conversations, as to many matters at Edinburgh. All these

1

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/^.

4 I r: "^

3 ?

on ,o

w I

o S

I i

-f

A

I900.] THANKS FOR SKETCHES 301

I have carefully noted, for though I do not really hold any
post among you, yet I like to think myself now not wholly
separate, and I should be entirely thankful should need
occur at any time to avail myself of your permission to
apply to you for advice. My friends greatly enjoyed all
you said at lunch, and I shall hope you will come again
presently.

I have written to Sir Wm. Muir about my father's books
of sketches, but in real truth I feel such a fear of intruding
on his high official position that I only just said what I
thought was quite needed, but I entered a little more on the
matter to Mrs. Arbuthnot.

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

The Librarian wrote : —

Library, University of Edinburgh,

May 16, 1900.

Dear Madam, — I really do not know how to thank you
for the honour you have done our University Library by
making it the custodian in perpetultatan of the delightful
collection of sketches and water colours, the arrival of
which has made the 15th of May a red-letter day for the
Librarian at least. You will, I hope, be pleased to know
that the priceless volumes have been placed in a room
already rendered a sanctum by relics of such notable
names as Shakespeare and Burns, Hus and Knox, Queen
Mary of Scotland, King James VI., Queen Elizabeth, &c.,
not to mention Halliwell-Phillipps and David Laing, both of
whom, I doubt not. Dr. George Ormerod would have
recognised as his colleagues and peers. Professor Wallace
has duly received his volumes. The drawings have been
shown to Sir William Muir, who, I believe, is to thank you
personally and who will lay them on the table at the next
meeting of the Universitv Court.

H. A. Webster.

Sir William Muir wrote : —

University of Edinburgh,

'June 29, 1900.

Dear Miss Ormerod, — Your six volumes of drawings
were yesterday shown to the University Court (as they
already had been to the Senatus), and were well received
and valued by them. And I was asked to communicate
their obligations to you for them. They will be placed in
the Library, and will be remembered as the gift of our
First Lady Graduate, LL.D.

W. Muir.

302 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

May 24, 1900.

Dear Professor Wallace, — Will you kindly accept
the enclosed photograph. It does not seem to be
quite me, but " me " does not quite know myself yet
in cap and gown. At least it may remind you some-
times of most hearty gratitude for all your kind care
which enabled me to come to personally receive the great
honour symbolised.

Dr. MacDougall was good enough to send me some
splendid specimens of bark infested by Hylesinus creiiaUis
(Greater ash-bark beetle), which have enabled me to figure
this attack. I should like very much indeed to form a
*' Handbook of Insects Injurious to Forest Trees," and I
have a mass of material in my Annual Reports bringing the
subject, I think, up to date, and a beautiful supply of figures,
but there is such a run of application and correspondence
that I do not see my way to doing it myself — and yet it
seems a pity for the information to be lying compara-
tively idle.

May 29, 1900.

Now I must say that you wrote exactly what I was wish-
ing about my proposed book, '^ Insects Injurious to Forest
Trees." ^ In case Dr. MacDougall would not think me taking
a liberty in suggesting the plan, I should very much indeed
like to have the benefit of his skilled help in preparing the
book, that is bringing it out in collaboration with him, and
with our names on the title-page. Would you kindly take
the trouble when you see him to lay the matter before him,
for I scarcely like to come upon him suddenly without, so to
say, a " sponsor." My idea is that the forest attacks would
work out much like the papers in my" Handbook," of which
of course I would gladly send a copy for his acceptance as well
as material, /.6'., Annual Reports or sometimes, if more con-
venient, extracted papers and a copy of ** General Index."
I would undertake all expenses, i.e., printing, publishing,
furnishing figures, and the like. I think I have of my own
nearly as many of good up-to-date illustrations as we should
need to illustrate every attack, but where additions are
needed I propose (as I am doing now from one of Dr.
MacDougall's specimens) to have them figured from life
by Mr. Knight.^ I fancy the book would be about two-

' A suggestion that Dr. MacDougall should collaborate with Miss
Ormerod in bringing out the book.

^ Messrs. Knight, one or other, have been my artists for many years.
I should like the printing to be, as usual, in the hands of Messrs. West,
Newman & Co. Mr. T. P. Newman has superintended my printing for
so many years. (E. A. O.)

I900.] FOREST INSECT TEXT-BOOK 303

thirds as long as my ** Handbook of Orchard Fruits," but
being intended at first for University services, possibly the
plan would be different. This he, you, and possibly Colonel
Bailey [lecturer on Forestry in Edinburgh University] might
have a word to say about. I should like very much to hear
from you on the subject, and perhaps from Dr. MacDougall.

June 5, 1900.

You will tell me presently when you can come, but would
not Mr. John Garton [of Newton-le- Willows, Lancashire, the
originator of the scientific system of producing new breeds
of crop plants by multiple-crossing] come too ? I should
like it very much if it were agreeable to 'him, as there are so
.many points of interest we three could go over together.
You could assure him that he can be as quiet as ever he
likes, and rest in his own room, just as he pleases. Will you
both come on Saturday for Sunday ? When you come we
can have a good talk about the *' Forestry Insect Text Book."
I am very glad to have it from you that Dr. MacDougall likes
the idea of colleagueship. I have had a very nice letter from
him with promise of one of details to follow, but when I
found that he had been collecting notes for some years, I
felt so very uneasy lest he should think me intruding on his
projects (in fact very presumptuous) that I wrote him
specially on this head. I shall be delighted to put every
morsel of observations, and blocks, and all I can to help at
his service, but it is to his skill that I look to form the book
into what he knows, much better than I, will suit University
needs.

The weather surely needs a little putting to rights. It
caught me rather sharply, and I have had to spend some
days in bed, but I am up again now, and getting some
good observations.

P.S. — I have some such nice letters from Edinburgh about
my photo. A very charming one from Sir Ludovic Grant,
also from Professor Seth. ^ I mean to keep them as great
treasures.

June 14, 1900.

I am in receipt of a long letter from Dr. MacDougall
about the text-book of ^^ Forest Insects," and it seems
to me that his plan is excellent. For my good folks, who
want the plainest facts fairly driven into their heads in the
very plainest words, I think it would be too scientific in the

' Professor James Seth delivered the address to student graduates
at the ceremonial at which Miss Qrmerod received the LL.D.

304 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

possession of special entomological chapters, but I quite
think in the present case these are needed, and my only fear
is lest he should wish me to collaborate in these. All the
rest I think I should be quite at home in^ and I am going to
write him about it, as I should very much like the joint
work.

I am writing down bits (long or short as they come into
my head) of " Recollections," on pages with appropriate
headings in my letter book, which usually lies on the table
most of the day, so is at hand ; and most miscellaneous
reminiscences go in which I feel sure I should not have
courage to think of giving excepting on our plan. I
rather think they might be interesting, and I mean to see in
good time about the shorthand writer. The head reporter
of our best local paper can take down well a report from
my dictation. Do not you think that if we can get the
^'Recollections" (how would " Recollections of Changing
Times " do for a title ?) into shape that — instead of publish-
ing as I usually do with any amount of trouble and little
return for the expense — it would be a good plan to offer
the MS. to some publisher, who might, I think, take it off
my hands on terms to be agreed upon ? But when next we
meet I hope we shall go into all these matters comfortably,
as you say, '^ after dinner."

P.S. — The French medal (plate xxii.) appeared to-day in
a registered letter. I wonder whether Professor Ewart has
got his ? I have information of the worst attacks of eel-
worms in broad beans that I ever saw, after oats in the
spring of 1898 and of 1899.

July 18, 1900.

I feel sure, wherever you are, that you are so much occu-
pied that you have not a morsel of spare time, but if you
could presently give me a little advice it would be of great
value to me. I was urged to let my name be put on the
Agricultural Education Committee, and agreed, and by way
of something solid I suggested that I should form a set of
papers on '' Common Fly attacks to Farm Stock," and I set
to work. But as I go on I really think that they are more
fitted for regular agricultural work, and I should value a few
words of guidance from you very much. The subjects I am
thinking of taking as what I know personally are : Sheep —
Nostril fly, with note of ''Gad" as different, and "Spider"
fly ; Horse— Bot fly, Forest fly ; Cattle— Warbles, Gad fly,
and anything else that might occur.

Nostril fly and Horse Bot fly shape (as I think you

1900.

FLIES INJURIOUS TO STOCK

305

also would consider) nicely, brought up to date ; and in
G. equi (Horse Bot fly, fig. 10) I have really handled the only
bit of the subject that was not pleasant, so that I do not
think anybody could object. The two above-mentioned
papers are about ready for press. But what I wish very
much is that you would kindly let me know your view of
it. Would it be better to print the subjects in my usual
way, as leaflets, or make them into a little pamphlet ?
G. eqni would fit nicely into a four-page leaflet. QL. ovisy
(Sheep Nostril fly), I think would be shorter ; and the
short papers which would go nicely along with their more
important brethren in a pamphlet rather puzzle me how to
deal with if in leaflets. I have excellent figures, and in an
idea (possibly erroneous) of bringing the sequence out for
the Agricultural Education Committee, I wrote a sort of little
"' fresh " preface on the creatures collectively. As I am sure

I, Fly, magnified, line showing natural length ; 2, maggot ; 3, mouth
hooks of maggot ; and 4, tail segment, showing spiracles, and lobes,
acting as organs of progression — all magnified. (After Brauer.)

FIG. 76. — sheep's nostril FLY, OESTRUS OVIS, LINN.

you will allow me the pleasure of thinking myself in some
degree a colleague of yours (and if I drive well at work I
should hope to have it ready for your winter session), I
should be exceedingly obliged if you would tell me whether
you think pamphlet or leaflet would be best. [The pam-
phlet form was ultimately adopted, and it was published as
*^ Flies Injurious to Stock," &c., price sixpence.]

August 2, 1900.
I am very glad that Dr. Fream gave a good notice in the
*' Times," of your intended series of lectures on Colonial
and Indian Agriculture — it will be a noble work, and I am
glad you are enjoying the preparation.

" Reminiscences " are lying in a drawer, for there is such
a quantity of work there is no spare time. When I have got

21

3o6 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

the first sheet of " Flies Injurious to Stock," I should like to
send one to you, please ; not to trouble you, but just that
you may see how it is getting on.

August 25, 1900.

Mr. EUiott tells me that ^^ the oil painting " is to be quite
ready on (or about) the fourteenth September, and I have
ordered one of their best *^ rich " gilt frames in which it is to
come down here. I hope much that I may somehow or
other, be able either before completion or here, to secure the
saving of anxiety to my mind by your seeing it. But I have
not as yet written to submit my suggestion of acceptance to
Dr. Taylor, for may be I had better see what I look like first.

Enclosed are two sheets of my progressing little pamphlet.
Please do not trouble yourself by readin gthem, but, if at
any time you care to glance over them, I hope you will like
them. I had no idea till I set regularly to work what need
there was of bringing the matters up-to-date. I think the
brochure seems likely to run to about three and a half
sheets, with Index. When you come you shall tell me,
please, whether you will let me offer some for your class.
1 should very much like to — and you will tell me too,
about Manuals.^

September ^, 1900.

It was a great pleasure to me to receive both your letters,
but I was afraid of intruding too much on your time, so
I put off thanking you for them till I received the enclosed
proof this morning. It is a real comfort to me that you can
approve of my little pamphlet, for I have been very anxious
over it, and I hope you will think sheet ^^ D " right. I am
delighted to be allowed to send it to you.

At page 33 you will see I have utilised the colouring of
the eyes of the Tahanidce (Gad flies), specially for identifica-
tion. I do not think this point is much brought forward, and
I found it very useful. Many thanks for your two pam-
phlets and suggestion re dips. I have been studying your
S.S.,2 and mean to try to get a little bit into my paper as
an addendum. Also I want to study your '* Nature Know-
ledge" [opening lecture to a class of teachers.] I don't
seem to understand this subject yet, and your address, I feel
sure, will help me very much.

^ One hundred copies of Miss Ormerod's Manual of Injurious
Insects, were distributed gratuitously to persons specially selected
by us as likely to be interested in the subject matter and capable
of spreading a knowledge of it (Ed.).

"" Lecture at the London Farmers' Club on Sheep Scab.

i9oa] DR. MACDOUGALL AND CHINESE MINISTER 307

Yesterday I had a long letter from Mr. E. P. Stebbing,
Chittagong, Bengal^ accompanying a large pamphlet on
'^ Injurious Insects of Indian Forests," published by the
Indian Government. He wrote that he was taking up the
subject of Injurious Insects (agricultural as well as forest),
and that the Indian Government having ^* put him on
special duties for two years to tackle the question," he
wanted me to advise him on a number of points. I am
sure I do not feel competent. However, I wrote him as well
as I could, and had to look up the shorthand writer we have
talked about, and get him to put it in typewritten form —
so I helped myself, at least. When I get the copies I
propose just to put one in an envelope for you to see what
I have been suggesting. But I only send it because you
are so very importantly engaged in Indian, &c., work. I
should like you to be able to look at it, if you like, but only
if you like. Pray put it in the rubbish basket if it is the
least trouble.

Septemhei 25, 1900.

Here is ^' Prevention and Remedies," and the other odds
and ends for " Stock Flies."

" The picture " has come, and I think that as Mr. Elliott
said, it is really a ^^ great success." I hardly know how to
comment on my own appearance, but if you should be
writing to Dr. MacDougall he would tell you about it. I
almost think I shall be glad when it goes on, it is such
a curious feeling to have my own eyes looking at ttie
so steadily. I suppose when we get into the next month
I may write in form to Dr. Taylor, to inquire if I may be
permitted to ask acceptance.

I very much enjoyed Dr. MacDougall's visit. We
talked Entomology most pleasantly, and I think arranged
very satisfactorily all necessary preliminaries for our proposed
Forest Insect book. The little visits which have been
given me this summer have helped me very much, as well
as being a great enjoyment — though none so much as
yours — and it is a fact, as you mention, that if the ladies
come too, it perplexes the talk very much ! I want to learn
all I can in the time.

September 27, 1900
I was very much surprised yesterday to receive about six
dozen large Plant bugs,^ with a communication from the
Chinese Minister Plenipotentiary (in London), over his own

' Tcssaroioni a fapilJosa, Dravy. (O.E.J.)

3o8 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

signature, begging for information as to how to prevent
their ravages in the lee-chee orchards in China. It seems
very odd (in the present state of affairs especially) that the
Chinese Government should consult me.^ However, the
treatment wanted was plain, so I hope I did not do wrong
in replying as he wished.

October i6, 1900.

Lord Grimthorpe is very much interested about your
Indian Famine lecture, and he would very much like to
have a copy.2 I think he will do what he can to study it,
likewise expect me to give him so much commentary as I
can ; not much this, I am afraid.

I assure you your little visit was a great pleasure to
me. These excellent talks freshen me up delightfully for
dry work. I shall look forward to some more in due time.

October 21, 1900.

I do not know how to thank you for this kind gift.3 I
know how to value such a literary treasure, and to me it is
of exceeding interest also ; but as your gift to me I treasure
it much, and gratefully thank you for your kind thought.
The twelve copies of " Indian Famine " preceded it an hour
or two yesterday afternoon, and I am reading it carefully
and slowly (that I may thoroughly appreciate it), and with
great admiration ; indeed, I think such a clear condensation
of the mass of information to be dealt with is splendid. I
have sent copies to Lord Grimthorpe, the Bishop of St.
Albans, &c.

With my very kind regards and grateful thanks for all the
help you give me, which is a great deal more than probably
you have any idea of.

October 26, 1900.

I am delighted to read both the letters you send, but what
an especial pleasure it must be to you to have the nice
courteous message of acceptance sent by our good Queen.
[In acknowledgment of a copy of the address on *' Famine

' We were at the time actually at war with China, although nominally
the united Powers of Europe were fighting the Boxers.

^ A digest of the Indian Famine Commission Reports down to
October, 1898, read as the Inaugural Address on the opening of the
course of " Garton Lectures" on Colonial and Indian Agriculture.
PubHshed by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.

3 A copy of Quasi Cursores, portraits of the high officials and
professors of the University of Edinburgh and its Tercentenary Festival.
Drawn and etched by William Hole, A.R.S.A. David Douglas, Edin-
burgh, 1884.

I900.] INDIAN FAMINE LECTURE 309

in India."] I congratulate you exceedingly. How much
you must treasure it ! Thank you very much for letting me
see it, and also that from the Chancellor [of the University,
the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour].

My people have been much pleased to receive the copies
you kindly let me give them, and Dr. Lipscomb has asked
me to thank you for him. But I do not know that any one
has been more interested than Mr. T. P. Newman. He, as
one of the *' Friends," has been working in their society to
help, and I find they collected ^^27,000. [The Friends'
Foreign Mission Association collected this sum to use in
relief of the famine of 1900].

October 29, 1900.

I have, with much pleasure, written to Messrs. West,
Newman & Co., to send you (to University, Edinburgh) one
hundred copies of each of the two pamphlets. Please write
when some more (or Manuals) would be at all acceptable.

I am placing your Famine pamphlet carefully, so I have
some still on hand, but I will not fail to ask you if more could
go out well, via my presentation. I have been studying it
to the best of my power. I am not able to condense such
a mass of information fully, but this is what I think 1 have
learnt. These famines originate meteorologically, the crops
consequently failing for want of moisture. The only places
(three districts if 1 remember rightly) exempt from them,
are so, consequent on climatic circumstances or irriga-
tion. The chief preventive measure, being irrigation, is not
always easy of application, as, for instance, the possibility
of a canal raising the height of the water-table too much.
I follow to some degree the difficulty of bringing relief
arrangements to bear on special bodies of men, as the
weavers, for instance. It is also very interesting to read of
the method of dealing with the ^'Wild Tribes," their power
of finding wild food, and of bringing in wild forest pro-
ducts adapted for sale. Some information as to details of
kinds of food and preparation, also of the sums of money
represented by Indian names, must surely remain adherent
to one's mind, but one special thing is the splendidly
arranged work of our Government, which is a comfort to
think of. I inflict the above on you, that you may see I
have really been trying to benefit by your grand work, and
I do congratulate you on the result of your heavy labour.

November 8, 1900.
I should be very thankful if you would tell me where

310 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

Professor Jablonowski might safely apply for sulphate of
copper at ^^an acceptable price" ! I could, I suppose, look
him up some sort of an address, but I should not feel sure
it was trustworthy, and he is such a centre of work, also an
old correspondent, I should much like to help. I should be
very much obliged if you could conveniently tell me, or
him — he is director of the Government Entomological
Station, Budapest — where he could get a price list and a
supply.

I have been ailing with some sort of slight feverish and
gout attack, but nothing serious, and I am up again.

To-day Mr. Newstead is come to see what the experi-
mental black currants are doing [in the garden]. I gather
that even soaking the cut-down plants, roots and all, in
methylated spirit has not proved a wholly certain means of
prevention of Gall mite (fig. 65). If so, I incline to think
that I had best make an end of my black currant hospital,
there is no use in simply bringing in infestation.

November 9, 1900.

I shall be delighted to see you at next week's end, Satur-
day to Monday, 17th to 19th, as you mention. Many
thanks to you for helping me to an answer to the Budapest
professor about the sulphate of copper. I fancy *^the
picture" would arrive this morning at the University. I
hope it will give satisfaction, and I make no doubt that it
will have great honour done to it in the hanging. Perhaps
some day I may see it !

" Reminiscences " had not been getting on, on paper, but
when your letter arrived I took up a pen and wrote like a
very whirlwind some points that were in my mind regarding
the beginning of my insect studies. I wonder what you will
think of them. I hope to have some progress to show you.
I am having twenty feet accommodation for books put up
in my dining-room. I think this will look well and be very
convenient.

Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

The Rev. Professor Taylor, Secretary of the University
Court, wrote : —

November 10, 1900.
Dear Miss Ormerod, — The portrait has arrived unin-
jured. It is an excellent likeness, and with gown, hood and

I900.] OIL PAINTING OF MISS ORMEROD 311

cap, vividly recalls what is in reality an event of historical
importance as well as a most interesting graduation
ceremonial. I propose to have it placed so that it may be
on view, so to speak, to the members of the University
Court on Monday at their meeting of that day, and to the
members of the Senatus Academicus when they next meet.
Thereafter it will no doubt find a permanent place on our
walls.

I would venture to tender anew the thanks and best
wishes of the University Court, and with the assurance of
my profound esteem, beg to remain, dear Miss Ormerod,

Sincerely yours,

M. C. Taylor.

November 14, 1900.
Dear Professor Wallace, — This is very kind of you ;
it is a great pleasure to me to know that I am allowed to
hold such an honourable place, and I thank you very much
for all the trouble that you have been taking. I really do
not know how to express what I feel about all the kindness
shown me, but you, knowing how I have been situated till
the University of Edinburgh showed me such honour and
kindness, will believe the heartfelt comfort and encourage-
ment it is to me to have their authoritative approval and
support. But this is private to you. ^^The Chancellor'
and Secretary might think I was tete montee if I wrote in
such a fashion. I have had some nice letters, two from Dr.
Taylor and a charming little letter last evening, delightfully
worded, from Sir Wm. Muir. I am going to look at the
picture of Lord Inglis again in your beautiful book
(^^ Quasi Cursores "), that I may see whom I am allowed to
sit next to in this very distinguished company, but I am
writing to catch the post now, so I only thank you also for
the papers which I have not yet had time to give my head
to. With most kind regards and hearty thanks.

November 15, 1900.
I feel I gave a very insufficient acknowledgment (writing
in a hurry last night) for all the kind care and, I feel sure,
no small trouble you have been taking about putting my
*^ representation " nicely on view. I have refreshed my
memory of Lord Inglis, and indeed I feel I have a right to
be proud that my portrait is allowed to be placed by such a
grand representation of such a distinguished man. I am
glad the '* Court " liked the picture in itself (I urged all
concerned to good execution), and indeed it is a pleasure to

312 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxv.

me to think that the memory of endeavours at least to work
of E. A. O. will be so markedly protected by the University.
Yours very sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

P.S. — My new arrangement of books is so convenient, it
helps me almost as much as an assistant ! (E. A. O.)

PLATE XXIX.

Eleanor Anne Ormerod, LL.D., F.E.Met.Soc.
First Woman Hon. Graduate of the University of Edinburgh,

1900.

From the oil paintiiuj {Acadonic costume) in the University Courtroom,
{p. 306.)

To face p. 312.

CHAPTER XXVI

LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE (concluded)

The " Reminiscences " and the last Annual Report — Warnings of serious
illness — Proposed pension — Gradual loss of strength — Death.

This closing chapter records the peaceful close of the
wonderful career of a remarkable gentlewoman who devoted
her life to work in the successful effort to benefit her fellow
men. The pages are replete with human nature and human
sympathy, and full of unselfish interest in the interests of
others whom she numbered among her sympathetic friends
and trusted confidants. The ^^ Reminiscences " on which
she did but desultory, yet interested, work, during the in-
tervals of temporary respite from the burden of disease and
increasing physical exhaustion, were as she feelingly ex-
pressed it " a perfect blessing." Her letters belonging to
this period are a noble record of fortitude and resignation
during a trying struggle for health and life, and the close is
touchingly pathetic.

To Professor Robert Wallace, University, Edinburgh,

November 19, 1900, Monday evening.

Dear Professor Wallace, — 1 return Sir W. Mac-
gregor's letter ^ with many thanks for letting me see it,
for it is very gratifying. It is a great pleasure to me to
see how those who understand appreciate your work. I
am very glad you are able to tell me that you enjoy your
visits to me, but next time I hope that our going to church
may be of a less airy sort. I hope that you did not get
serious harm ? 2

' From the Governor of Lagos arranging a personal interview.
^ This reference was made to a cold draught experienced in
church.

313

314 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Char xxvi.

I feel much pleasure (not to say relief) at results of our
*^ Reminiscence " work, and at all those papers being safely
lodged in your hands.

P.S. — I am working steadily on the twenty-fourth
Report, but if a bit [of ^^Reminiscences"] comes into my
head (the " awen," as the Welsh say), I mean to put down
the ideas.

December 5, 1900.

Here comes such a long story [here cut short] about the
^'Reminiscences." I hope it will not be quite too tedious,
but really I think we are thriving.

A messenger has just been down from London, and carried
off material for ten illustrations.

The materials for letterpress are appearing fairly out of
holes and corners also, the chief prize a book of Memoranda
for 1891, by my sister Georgiana, giving numbers of dates
of my letters, &c.

I was glad to see the "Creameries" ^ in the "Times," and
glad to see also that it was properly placed at the top of the
column. I thought you wrote very firmly and well.

P.S. — I have not sent [copies of the Manual] (though
you kindly said I might) to the Clubs. I have not the
courage ; so many of the members might not care for
Economic Entomology.

December 15, 1900.

I think I am being very good ! in seldom letting the
" Reminiscences " meddle really with work, but rest time
(wet afternoons) helps. One thing more, I remembered I
had a part given me by my mother of my father's " queue "
(Anglice, " pigtail ") cut off in the year of their marriage,
1808, and I think this might come in nicely.

December 21, 1900.
I quite forgot to thank you for your Indian Examination
questions,^ which was wrong of me, for I like very much to
have all the information they point to, though I am afraid
there are scarcely two I could answer.

January 18, 1901.
My account of myself is — I am fairly well all but rheu-
matism ; only, last Saturday the disaster happened of a
blood-vessel breaking in my left eye. These affairs seem

' A letter written to defend the position of the Board of Agriculture
for Ireland against an unwarranted attack of a Cork correspondent
of the London "Times" (Ed.)

^ The first examination paper set in connection with the " Garton "
course of lectures (Ed,).

I90T.] MISS ORMEROD'S REMINISCENCES 315

seldom of consequence, but this time my doctor told me
(after two or three days) that he did not remember excepting
from external circumstances that he ever knew such a great
breakage. So I was an absolute spectacle for some time,
but the sight is not at all injured, and the organ recovering
well, and I may write as much as I like. I now enclose six
more illustrations — I think in their way they are all nice.

January 27, 1901.

As you kindly say that even more than a good report of
'^Reminiscences" you would like to hear I am better, I am
truly thankful to say that I am quite as usual again, and my
eye recovered. There has been some sort of illness about
but I had it very lightly. I hope the very bad day for His
Majesty's Proclamation brought no serious harm to your-
self. An Edinburgh "inquirer" informed me that he
thought numbers of the spectators would catch their deaths
of cold. I was truly pleased to see that the King duly
promised to support ''The Church of Scotland," a matter
I have more at heart than on my tongue here ! You will
value Her Majesty's approval of your "Indian Famine"
lecture more than ever now. I certainly should have liked
myself to have a tiny bit even of approval.

" Reminiscences." — This is just for your best leisure
(and pleasure) to advise me on, but I very much need
a good " paper talk " with you to start me on a reasonable
plan. I quite believe that in a fortnight or sooner I may
begin regularly.

But now — publisher ! Messrs. A B wrote me

that the book would be so sound it would be sure to com-
mand public approval and they would like to publish. Mr.
Newman wrote he thought I had best go to the top of the
tree, and suggested John Murray. I answered that in real
truth the very idea of applying to such a leading man made
me quite uneasy — and yesterday he replied that as he
understood you were aiding me in the work, that my best
course would be to ask you whether when the time comes
you would act on my part with a publisher. I am sure he
is right — I am as ignorant as a reasonable person can be of
how to " approach " a publisher, but, if I am not asking too
much, it would indeed be a relief to my mind if you think
fit to give me this help.

If it is possible I certainly should much like to print with
Messrs. West, Newman & Co. Is it possible to have a part
of the book printed before beginning negotiations just to
show what it is like ?

3i6 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxvi.

February 4, 1901.

I feel sure you will be pleased to hear that this morning
I sent Messrs. West, Newman & Co. all that I believe is
needed for my present Annual Report, excepting for com-
pletion of Index; and I have really begun '^Reminiscences."
Will not my best way be to take any subjects that I think
I have enough material for, and work them up just as I
think they might go to press ? Thus you would see how
you like the writing and suggest improvements, and there
would be something, if you please, to show a publisher.
Turning to your letter — I think that if at your very best
leisure you would kindly let me have the parcel of MS.
which you were good enough to take for safe custody it
would help me now.

How dreary the past week has been with our national
sorrow and all the anxieties. I hope we may be more
cheerful now.

February 8, 1901.

Your beautifully secured parcel has arrived safely, and I
have locked it up carefully in my safe, with a very legible
inscription that the contents are the property of Prof.
Wallace, University of Edinburgh. There is nothing like
making sure, in case of as people say '' anything happen-
ing" ! I should like to think that this mass of documents^
which I have been accumulating should pass to your hands.

I hope the work for your lecture ^ on the twelfth prox. is
getting on quite to your liking. It is always a great pleasure
to me to hear your plans are prospering.

February 14, 1901.

It has been very much on my conscience that I did not
say a word in my hasty letter about your beautiful and
valuable present. ^ How very pretty it must be, and a very
great pleasure to yourself as a kindly acknowledgment.

About the ''Reminiscences" — what you suggest about
typewriting is just what I should like, but I did not care
to trust MS. here. Before parleying with the typewriters,
I should like very much mdeed to read to you all the
papers that I can get ready before the ninth. I feel a
little anxious about the new style of writing.

February 21, 1901.
I have made up a good bit on "birth, childhood, and

^ A paper on " Agriculture in South Africa," read before the Royal
Colonial Institute on 12th of March, 190T.

^ A silver tea service of Indian work presented in recognition of
a public service.

I90I.] PARTIAL RETIREMENT 31?

parentage " (chap. I.) not forgetting with "an action of
humility" ! Edward I., and Eleanor of Castille. At present
1 have ''Series of Annual Reports" (chap. IX.) on hand,
— very pleasant work.

But now I want you, please (and very much indeed), to
be kindly thinking of some advice about my entomological
work that I am sure you could help me greatly with when
we meet. The burthen has become so very great that it
seriously affects my health. I am in bed now with another
of these attacks ; the constant pressure of work to suit other
people's time and convenience, and maybe a tremendous
worry, brings on painful and exhausting illness. I hope to
be up again to-day, but the doctor is very anxious I should
— may I call it? — "Take in sail." My wish is that the
present Annual Report should be the last of the series
with an addendum slip of explanation inserted. There
is not the important information needed or forwarded
that there was twenty years ago, and working hard for
months over so much repetition is dreadful drudgery. I
heard lately from Dr. Fream, and he very strongly advises
me to drop it. If your opinion — which I thoroughly trust
— is the same, I should have no doubt. The difficult thing
is to moderate the applications, but I think I see my way to
that very nicely by having plenty of the addendum slip
printed and sending a copy to an unreasonable applicant.
I do not want to give up Entomology entirely.

How nice it must have been to have a good turn at
curling !

February 24, 1901.
In answer to your very kind letter I must tell you I am
much better. It was quite my fault that I got so out of
sorts ; I ought to have asked my doctor weeks ago what
was amiss, and then the difhculty of how I, " all of my own
head," was to get that "old man of the sea" — the Annual
Reports — off my shoulders, came on me like a brain shock.
However, now I hope things are getting quite nicely into
order again. Meanwhile I am trying to arrange what can
hardly fail to be a rather explosive announcement. When
I came to set to work it did not seem to me that an
addendum slip would do. It would have been on such
different lines to the statements in the Preface that folks
would have wondered what could have happened ! So I
mean to have a Cancel, and hope all will be nice.

One word which I forgot — I quite hope to pass on quietly
as much Economic Entomology as I possibly c^n to Dr.
MacDougall.

3i8 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxvi.

March i, 1901.

This is very kind of you, and if you are very much
shocked at my explicitness please consider yourself an
extra nephew, M.D. for the occasion, and put this in the
fire.

I have had a kidney attack. I believe something
^^ gouty" (?) has been wrong for weeks, but I had not
asked the doctor until such pain set in that there were no
two ways about it, I had to go to bed ; and he put me
on a ^^ course" (of alkalis, I believe) to get out the enemy.
Of course this was very weakening, but I was soon up —
and really absolutely, I believe that if it were not for a
nasty barking cough — very tiresome by day, and more
so by night — I should be much as usual. I should be
grievously disappointed if you did not come for any reason
connected with me. Speaking very selfishly, and besides
all the good the pleasure of one of your visits does me, I
do not feel as if I could settle comfortably until I have the
benefit of your sound and skilled advice about how to re-
arrange my entomological work.

" Reminiscences " are in enough trim to show you some-
thing of even now.^

March 2, 1901.

I am so sorry regarding what I am writing that I hardly
know how to put it, but I find to-day I am so much
pulled down that I am obliged to tell you. It would be a
sad disappointment to me if I did not see you, but my nights
are so bad from this cough that I cannot depend on not
having to ring to call Miss Hartwell to attend to me, and
this makes a great commotion. I believe, as I wrote you
yesterday, that the illness (as well as the pain) has gone,
but it is the cough which has been keeping me pulled down,
more than I knew.

March 4, 1901.

Indeed, you are quite too kind and good to me, and now
I want to say that my doctor says he does not see any
reason why I should not be able to enjoy your visit on
Sunday next without any difficulty or risk whatsoever. If
it was convenient to you, would the train suit that would
bring you to St. Albans about a quarter before 11 from St.

* On this date a note of instructions was left to Miss Ormerod's
trustees to deliver to us the " Reminiscences " papers, &c. The end of
the note is as follows : —

"And I request Professor Wallace, being a friend in whom I feel
complete confidence, to accept the above, and use or not use them for
the purpose precisely as in his good discretion he may think fit."

I90I.] SERIOUS ILLNESS 319

Pancras, and could you stop till the (I think) 8.30 train ? I
am truly sorry not to be looking forward this week to a
whole week-end, but I am still obliged to get up and go to bed
at unusual hours ; but, indeed, I am very much better — the
pain went, but one of the bad sort of cold or cough attacks
followed and I could not sleep properly for three nights
nor rest lying down. Now I can rest and sleep again.

March 7, 1901.

Please do not think that a good talk tires me or is any
strain. It is the want of conversation that I find so wearing,
and there is so very much that it will be quite a delight and
a rest for me to be allowed to go over with you.

I am writing this to-day so that you may know that (so
far as anything in this world is certain) there is no possible
reason why I should not look forward to the pleasure of
our meeting next Sunday. I am not able to give you my
doctor's verdict for the good reason that he did not think
I needed looking up yesterday.

March 12, 190 1.

You do not know how good and kind I think it of you to
let me rest on you for advice in this way, and it brings a
great brightness when you come and I can hope you are
making yourself at home. I am glad you like Mr. Newman.
I always feel that he is a quite true and well-judging friend,
very kindly, but at the same time so grave that I do not at
all times feel free to express all I am thinking about ! I
fancy that you "not being a lady" he would feel freer to
express what was uppermost.

Thank you for all you say about Mr. John Murray, and
very especially indeed for your good advice. I do really
mean, and am trying to act on it, but cannot you imagine
the difficulty in not working as hard as body and mind will
allow ?

However, I have made a thorough beginning ; amongst
various points, returning to Mr. Newman a great bundle of
proofs sent to be looked through, just think, unlooked at. I
also disposed of a regular onslaught with special letters from
Lady Warwick and Miss Edith Bradley, &c, I am minding
what you said [about curtailing work] very nicely.

I am thankful to say I am feeling better every day, and
I am looking forward very much to being a better kind of
hostess if you will kindly spare me a week-end by and by.

7 p.m. — You are, I conjecture, just beginning your lecture
[on "Agriculture in South Africa"]. I hope it will be
thoroughly pleasant and satisfactory and that you will have

320 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxvi.

a comfortable journey home. Please accept the enclosed
[the twenty-fourth and last Report]. I have only received a
parcel late to-day, but I want to send you a copy " from the
writer."

March i8, 190 1.

I am very glad your colonial lecture was successful.
It is no good my not telling you, for some way or other
you would have an idea, but I have not been thriving. Of
course there was a flood of letters about discontinuing the
Annual Reports, and, however kind (and some were very
kind indeed) yet not being in full working order, they were
rather too much, and I got feverish ** rigors" (though not
bad) with temperature 100°, and the doctor on Saturday
ordered me straight off to bed. Here I am still, but as far as
I know, now only as a matter of precaution. I would not
have said anything about it, but I was sure you would have
an idea.

Now about something much nicer. I wrote to Miss Ash-
worth (28, Victoria Street, London) and had a most pleasant
and businesslike reply. She told me that publishers pre-
ferred quarto size and typed a few lines to show the size of
type and style they like best ; and I sent up the *' Chartist
Outbreak" (chap. VII.) and asked her to type it for me
accordingly, and to let me have one copy and two carbon
copies. Thus there would be one for you, one for me, and
the third would be useful for the publisher. I should be very
much obliged if you would kindly tell me how to offer a
copy of my twenty-fourth Report to the University Library.
Would it be sufficient just to send a copy c/o The Librarian.
I do not want to give more trouble than I can help about
such a little thing.

P.S. — I assure you I mean to attend to your kind advice
of not making what might be a great pleasure into a toil.

March 20, 1901.
Here comes the first instalment of " Reminiscences " and I
hope to forward more to you in due course. The history of
^' Rise and Progress of Annual Reports" is in Miss Ashworth's
hands. Indeed, I am very thankful to you for helping me
about the typewriting. I had no idea of the helpful
difference it makes even to me. Please, I earnestly beg
of you, do not think that your delightful and helpful visit,
only too short, had anything to do with my having to caU
in the doctor again. I am sure he does not. But I am
sure, too, you will understand how very trying indeed,
though mostly very kind, the outbreak of newspaper and

I90I.] PARTS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY 321

private comment on what they call " my retirement " was.
So to get my cough really cured, and drive constitutional
coincidences out of the field I went to bed with the best
possible effects (really). I think the doctor will let me get
up to-morrow, but he wants me to keep safe from snow
chills.

March 24, 1901.

Here is another bit [of autobiography] begging your read-
ing when you are inclined, and now ** Birth, Parentage, &c.,"
is gone up to London. I should so very much like (if not too
much trouble) if you would make some sort of mark on the
margin of your copy, wherever you think some alteration is
needed, and then when I have the pleasure of seeing you
here we could go comfortably into it.

Now (as the fates permit) I am working on " The Severn
and the Wye " (chap. V.), and I think it will be interesting,
there is such a variety of fresh observation, " Fish, fishers,
and fisheries," some specialities in zoology and semi-marine
botany, and something of a good many sorts of things.

I am much mended and doctor says I may tell you I am
getting on all right, but the long illness has puU.ed me down
very much so that I am only allowed at present to be up in
my own room — such a little thing brings the cough back
and we have snow showers still — but as soon as ever I can
get about again I have no reason to doubt I should be
much as usual.

March 29, 1901.

I seem very unlucky this winter, but on Tuesday, when I
hoped I was pretty well again, a chill so bad and so
strangely sudden seized me, that breathing got hurried, I
could not speak with comfort, and an acute pain set in in
my right side. Doctor set to work and did not mention
that congestion of the lungs was present, but taking affairs
at once did great good, and the enemy was routed ; still, I
am a good deal pulled down, and do not mean risking
another chill at present. I had greatly hoped this time not
to tell you any long stories about my health, but it is no
good pretending, so please you must let your friendly
sympathy in my troubles be my excuse.

I wonder what you will think of the enclosed [^^ copy"].
I incline to think the subjects are rather nice, but that as
we get on bits of this may fit into future papers, or of future
papers here ? It seems to me best to write whatever I can
as well as I can manage, and sift by and by. " Am not I
'umble " (as Uriah Heap says) about Edward I. ? (page 13).

22

322 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxvi.

April I, 1901.

I know I shall always have your kind sympathy in these
unpleasant visitations, and I wish they did not come to
intrude so often. But this time I really and truly do hope,
unless some luckless draught gets hold of me, that I shall
pick up quickly, and not have such dreary stories to tell you.

Dr. Lipscomb says that it is just having let my health
run down that is the reason, and I mean to be very careful.
I am up in my room part of the day comfortably, and hope
to get downstairs to-morrow.

1 greatly look forward to a good talk by and by over
many matters, and I was very sorry that Dr. MacDougall
could not come this week, but further on I hope we shall
have a chat. You will doubtless (or very likely) have seen
flourishes in the papers about a testimonial ! to my unworthy
self — but to my horror yesterday I had a letter from Mr.

stating that he was trying to procure a pension for me ;

and the Member for H and (I understood Lord )

would most likely use their influence.

Just think what could possess him — what a to-do there
would have been. But I wrote earnestly representing how
misappropriate such a grant would be to a person so well
off as myself, and it being such a troublesome matter, I got
Dr. L. to read my letter. I hope I may have quite stopped
his operations (and politely), but assuredly I should feel
inexpressibly lowered if I accepted a "pension."

I have been collecting for " Reminiscences " very fairly
well, but I have been afraid to prepare whole papers lest
they should not be bright.

April 2, 1901.

I must write a line to give, I believe, a soundly good
report of myself in reply to your letter, which arrived 4.50 ;
it is very good of you to write so kindly. I have been down
to-day for about six hours, and I do hope now to steadily
regain my strength.

You will let me have your address, will you not ? And I
shall hope to write something more worth reading.

Mr. has on my urgent representation stopped his

applications as to a pension.

P.S. — The typewriting seems to me beautiful, and I hope
soon to have more work ready.

April 8, 1 90 1.

You will know from your own experience the deluges of
publications which come — what can I do with them ? They
might be measured by feet, if not by yards. Some valuable,
some 1

1

I90I.] PENSION PROPOSED, BETTER HEALTH 323

Would not it be my best way to keep them all until you
will, as I hope, come some day — and you could see if there
are any that you would like. Besides what are of no very
obvious use, there are quantities of amazingly learned
entomological treatises which, in case they do not float in
the way of our good friend Dr. MacDougall, he might at
least like to place on his shelves. You will tell me, will you
not, some time what you advise ? Meanwhile, with all
possible good wishes and kind regards, &c.

April 19, 1901.

I should like to give you a better account of myself, but
for weeks back I could not think why I got on so slowly,
with ^^ relapses," and it is only just lately that I have ex-
tracted out of my good doctor that the illness I had was
that horrid influenza, and I am going through the weeks
and weeks of '^ after effects " ! I am not allowed to go
down, but sit up a few hours in my room, and am certainly
better, but 1 am told I must not expect to be well for a long
time. One of my doctor nephews looked in yesterday, and
he told me that a characteristic of some of the influenzas
which have been about is that they do not seem much at
the time, but they leave those, detestable effects on the
system.

You will believe how very pleasant (as I get stronger) I
find looking up bits for ^'Reminiscences." Miss Hartwell
brings me books, and I can "rummage" and copy. Now
I enclose you some pages, of which I think some part is
right, but I did not feel as if I could put the whole paper
right until I had it typewritten.

I should very much like too if you would give a thought
to my "Scriptural Commentary" (page 21). I do not see
how the description I object to can be right. I hope you
will think the paper is hopeful. I am not up yet, therefore
please excuse this stupid scrawl, and with my very kind
regards and best wishes, &c.

May 2, 1 90 1.

How I long for the day to come when I may tell you that
I am well, and am going on as usual. But this disgusting,
tenacious remains of influenza seems to be always coming
back. I had got on to coming down on Friday last a little
after 9 a.m., and was full of hope and absolutely striving to
recover, but yesterday something went wrong, so I am on a
treatment of milk and seltzer-water and bed, but I felt I
must write you, and hope soon to send you a much better
letter.

324 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [Chap. xxvi.

" Reminiscences " are a perfect blessing, and I enclose
two portraits of my father received yesterday to show the
illustrations are getting on. Is not the one of him as a
little laddie of about five years old, charming ? (pi. xxx.)

May 15, 1901.

Many thanks for the additional copy of your lecture,
"Agriculture in South Africa." It is so interesting, I am
sure I can find a home where it will be welcome. I was
glad to find you were out in the country, and I hope the
bracing air will enable you to work on this load of papers
without killing yourself.

For myself, I really am afraid that, excepting hope, I have
a very indifferent account to give you. I was always getting
better off and on ! But the result was, that I got weaker
and weaker, until on Saturday Dr. Lipscomb wired for Sir
Dyce Duckworth. He was away, but my nephew. Dr.
]. Arderne Ormerod, who is taking Sir D. D.'s practice
at present, came down, and I think the change of treatment
that they arranged is really doing good. The trouble was
that, though there did not seem any reason why, what they
call the " after effects " of influenza should not move off
(the sort of gastric catarrh and its detestable allies), yet
they didn't, and my medical tormentors made up their
minds that it might be from " Liver." The plan has been
altered as to treatment, and at my urgent request I am
allowed to take one glass of port a day, and I do think
it is doing me a great deal of good. But excuse more
now, for sitting up at my writing-table tires me.

May 22, 1901.

I am very sorry to tell you in reply to your kind
letter that I am very ailing. I seem to get fairly well of the
influenza, and go down and sit for a few hours in the dining-
room in the easy chair by the fire. Then, as«sure as can be,
in a very few days I get a *' recurrence " of illness and have
to go to bed for days. I think I am now going through
about the fifteenth. Dr. Lipscomb says he does not know
the reason, but it is very like the recurrence of Indian fever.
I know that there may be scentless or other sewer gas, and

from what Mr. R F told me some time ago of the

recurrence of a very parallel attack to the Duchess of C

from gas under hef invalid sofa, I mean to have the matter
properly seen to. I know there may be reason close to
my do on

P.S. — Since the above was written Dr. Lipscomb has

PLATE XXX.

Miss Ormerod's Father, about five years old.

From a Miniature of 1790.

{p. 323.)

Miss Ormerod in childhood.
From a Silhouette, date 1835,

To Jace p. 324.

I90I.] FAREWELL AND DEATH 325

been called and thinks the present attack was caused by a
chill ; and with staying in bed a few days Miss Ormerod
hopes to be better. — A. Hartwell.

May 28, 1901.
I am afraid I have seemed very negligent, but my varying
illness made it very difficult to tell you, and now I do not
want to go away without telling you my deep gratitude for
all the great, helpful, affectionate kindness you have showed
me. And about the *^ Reminiscences," which I hoped would
be our pleasant joint work, I have a large collection of
material which I give to you for your own property to use
as you please — with the requisite paper [dated ist March]
with it. I believe myself the end may come any time now,
but I go in happy hope, and that it may please God to
bless you is the prayer of your affectionate friend.

J^tme 4, 1901.

I pencil a few Hnes to say what a delight your visit
yesterday was to me. I longed very much to see you
again, and also I was wanting to give you the various
documents about the ^' Reminiscences." To-day Miss Hart-
well has been rummaging out for me what I think must be
nearly all the material I have more, including the "Edin-
burgh book " [relating to the LL.D.], which please accept
from me as a keepsake. It was left you in my will, so will
not there be a hunt ? And now I should much like to
write more, but I feel too weak, and with every good wish.

P.S. — Please notice I give you all the contents of the box
sent to-day — as well as the documents we looked out
yesterday.

^une 8, 1901.

I was delighted with your letter — that you had a nice talk
with Mr. Newman — and besides such an interview with Mr.
Murray. This is a great pleasure. I am miserably weak,
but I am trying to do as the doctors tell me, and lie here
waiting for — what I am sure will be for the best.

My very kindest regards. Yours most sincerely,

Eleanor A. Ormerod.

[The Tunes of Saturday, July 20, 1901, published an
admirable record of her life and work in the sympathetic
obituary notice, from which we have made the following
brief extract : " We regret to announce the death of
the accomplished entomologist. Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod,
which took place at her residence, Torrington House, St.
Albans, after a severe illness. She had been gradually

326 OBITUARY NOTICES [Chap. xxvi.

sinkin^^ for the last six weeks from malignant disease of
the liver. Her loss is not to this country alone, but to the
whole civilised world, though the farmers of the United
Kingdom will feel in a special degree that a trusted friend
has been taken from them. Many people will feel that such
a magnificent record of unselfish work as she has left
behind ought to have received some official recognition of
a national character. Nevertheless, almost the last honour
bestowed upon her, that of the honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws in the University of Edinburgh, was peculiarly
grateful to her," &c., &c.

Having regard to the special interest which Miss Ormerod
took in the progress of Economic Entomology in Canada
and the United States, and the high appreciation in which
she was held by the enlightened exponents of the subject on
the other side of the Atlantic, we conclude with an extract
from the September number of the ^'Canadian Entomologist"
for 1 90 1 : —

"Entomology in England has suffered a great loss
through the death of this talented and estimable lady,
who died at her residence, Torrington House, St. Albans,
on Friday, July 19th. Practical entomologists throughout
the world are moved with profound regret that a career so
remarkable and so useful should be brought to a close, but
one could hardly hope that the aged lady would long be
able to sustain the burden of increasing infirmities and the
trials of a painful and protracted illness. Miss Ormerod
was one of the most remarkable women of the latter half of
the nineteenth century, and did more than any one else
in the British Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruit-
growers, and gardeners, by making known to them methods
for controlling and subduing their multiform insect pests.
Her labours were unwearied and unselfish ; she received no
remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended her
private means in carrying out her investigations and pub-
lishing their results. We know not now by whom in
England this work can be continued ; it is not likely
that any one can follow in the unique path laid out by
Miss Ormerod ; we may therefore cherish the hope that
the Government of the day will hold out a helping hand
and establish an entomological bureau for the lasting
benefit of the great agricultural interests of the country."]

APPENDICES

Appendix A (p. 37).

Salmon Fishery. — Both locally, and thence to the
country at large, the bay beneath the Beachley and the
Sedbury Cliffs was very important, as being one centre
of the Severn Salmon Fisheries. The following notes by
Mr. Frank Buckland,i Government Inspector of Salmon
Fishing for England and Wales, are interesting : "The
visitor will observe in the lower estuary stretching for a
considerable distance into the water from the muddy
banks, rude piers made entirely of wicker work, which
look like large eel-baskets ; these are called ' ranks * of
* putchers.' Each putcher is about 5 ft. 6 in. long, and
21 inches across the mouth. A framework is made by
driving stakes into the mud, and the putchers are then
fastened together in rows one above the other, often to the
height of 10 feet or more ; these great walls of baskets look
not unlike, as my friend the late John Keast Lord remarked,
' a gigantic wine rack filled with bottles, encased in wicker
work.' As the salmon come along with the tide in the thick
muddy Severn water, they run their noses into the open
mouths of the putchers, and speedily get jammed up at the
narrow end ; the poor things cannot turn, and the more
they struggle to get out, the firmer they become wedged in ;
as the tide recedes they are left high and dry. I have often
observed that wasps wait about till the tide goes down, and
then take first cut at the salmon. A great many first-class
Severn salmon are caught in these putchers and sent to the
London market."

' See Log Book of a Fisherman, &c., by Frank Buckland, M.A., pp
366, 367.

327

328 APPENDICES

With regard to another form of baskets used for catching
flat fish, &c., at p. 368, he says : —

*' Besides the putchers another kind of basket is used
which is called putts ; . . . . the wicker-work is much closer
in this instance than in the other. The putt in its most special
■form consists of three parts, the large part or mouth, called
the ^ putt ' ; the middle called the ' butt ' ; and the small end
or bag, called the ^ firwell.' . . . The diameter of the opening
is about 5 feet, and the length from 12 to 13 feet ; they are
used to catch flat fish, &c." The illustration (fig. A, page 36),
given by Mr. Buckland shows the putt, with the small end
or *' firwell " removed.

The above technical description of the arrangement,
measurement, &c., of the ^' putts " and " putchers," corre-
sponds in most points with the details of the long rows
(three or four in number) running out into the river
beneath the Sedbury cliffs (plate x.).

Appendix B (p. 67).

The following notice appeared in the *' Times " of
March 11, 1901 : —

" Miss Ormerod's Retirement from Entomological Work."

*' Widespread regret will be felt, both at home and
abroad, at the announcement which we are able to make,
that Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, after many years of unre-
mitting toil, has decided to discontinue the Annual Reports
on injurious insects and common farm pests, which she
has prepared for a period now extending to close upon a
quarter of a century. When in the year 1877 she issued
the first of these annual records, and thus placed at the
disposal of the public the fruits of her intimate ac-
quaintance with many departments of natural history, very
little systematic work had been done in the direction of
saving crops and live stock from the ravages of insect and
other pests. In this respect the position of the farmer and
the stock-keeper to-day, as compared with what it was in
the middle of the seventies, is vastly improved. It is

OBITUARY NOTICE 329

true that the farmer may still lose his turnip and swede
crops through the ravages of the active little beetle, which
is perversely termed the ' fly ' ; that fruit-growers may
bewail the loss of their apples and plums owing to the
abundant presence of the winter moth ; and that stock-
keepers may view with dismay the damage both direct and
consequential that their cattle incur through the activity of
the w^arble-fly. But these and similar losses are entirely
preventable, provided that there be no careless indifference,
and that time and trouble be devoted to the object it is
sought to attain. It is to Miss Ormerod's persevering
efforts that this change is due ; it is to her persistent enquiry
year after year into the causes of mischief and into the
means of removing them that the subject of agricultural
entomology, which so long had languished in this country,
gradually forced its way to the front, until it has become
recognised that some serviceable knowledge of it is indis-
pensable to the mental equipment, and cannot be omitted
from the technical training of the aspiring agriculturist.
Readily and gratuitously she has answered day after day all
inquirers, whilst for twenty-four consecutive years her pen
and pencil have been devoted to the preparation of the
annual reports, every one of which she has generously
published at a nominal price, which year after year involved
a substantial loss. ^ But the work was hard,' she now tells
us — and the simplicity of her words renders them eloquent —
* for many years for about five or six months all the time I
could give to the subject was devoted to arranging the
contributions of the season for the Annual Report of the
year.' In spite of indifferent health, at times accompanied
by much physical suffering. Miss Ormerod has carried on
her self-imposed task, and the result is that she has revo-
lutionised the subject of agricultural entomology, as it was
understood in this country twenty-five years ago. Not only
at home, not only throughout the British Empire, but in
all progressive countries Miss Ormerods name takes first
rank amongst the Economic Entomologists of the day, and
correspondence reaches her from beneath almost every
flag that flies. And, now that the time has come when this
talented lady feels it expedient to no longer work at the
high pressure which has so long been maintained, all who
have benefited by her disinterested labour — and they are
very many — will join in the hope that she may long live
to enjoy the comparative leisure to which she is looking
forward."

330 APPENDICES

APPENDIX C (p. 143).

Contents of Insect Cases Shown at the Bath and West of England
Show at St. Albans (May, 1896), now the Property of the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, kept along with Miss Georgiana Ornierod's
Diagrams in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh.

' Case I. — Weevil Attacks to Peas, Beans, axd Clover Seed, and
Leafage, i. Infestations of Pea-seed. 2. Infestations of Bean-
seed. 3. Clover-seed '* Pear-shaped " Weevils. 4. Leaf-eating
Weevils, and gnawed Leaves.

Case II. — Attacks to Corn Stems, i. "Gout Fly" attack to young
Barley, also to ear and stalk. 2. Hessian Fly attack, showing
Wheat-stems elbowed at point of feeding of Maggot.

Case III. — Infestations of Stored Corn and Meal. i. Granary
Weevils in Wheat. 2. Granary Moth in Wheat. 3. Meal and
Flour Beetle in Meal. 4. Mite in Granary Rubbish.

Case IV. — Stored Corn. Common Granary Weevil in Barley.

Case V. — Infestation of Wheat Mills and Stores. Mediterranean

Mill Moth, and Flour felted together by its Caterpillars. (A very

bad Mill Pest).

Case VI. — Waste Material Cleaned out of Imported Corn.
I and 2. *' Rubble." 3. " Hencorn." 4. Broken Bits, used for
bedding Pigs. 5 and 6. Uses not given ; supposed to be used for
Adulteration.

Case VII. — Infestations in Imported or Stored Fodder; also
Sparrow's Food. i. Locusts in Lucerne from Buenos Aires.
2. Hay-stack Moth from Clover or Sainfoin Stacks. Food from
Sparrow's Crop containing Corn.

Case VIII. — Field Crop and Grass-Root Infestations, i. "CHck
Beetles " and their Grubs, known as " Wireworms." 2. Turnip
"Flea" Beetles and Mustard Beetles. 3. Chafers and their Grubs.

Case IX. — Field Crops, Root, and Leaf Infestations, i. Cabbage
and Turnip Moths, and their " Surface " Root-feeding Caterpillars,
also Cabbage, and Pea-leaf Caterpillars. 2. "Mangold-leaf Fly"
Maggot attack. 3. Death's-head Moth Potato-leaf Infestation.

Case X. — Apple Infestations. i. American Blight. 2. Codlin
Moth. 3. Winter Moths, and their "Looper" Caterpillars, also
Cabbage and Pea-leaf Caterpillars. 4. Goat Moth, of which the
Caterpillars feed in Wood. 5. Lappet Moth, and its leaf-eating
Caterpillars.

Case XL— Pine Infestations, i. Pine-sheets distorted by Tortrix
Moth Caterpillar attack. 2. " Timberman " Beetle, with longest
horns of any European kind. 3. Pine-beetle infestation in bark
and shoots.

Case XII. — Elm and Ash-Bark Infestations, i. Attacks of "Com-
mon " Elm-bark Beetle, and of " Lesser " Elm-bark Beetle.
2. Attacks of "Ash-bark" Beetle.

INSECT CASES AND BEETLE INFESTATION 331

Case XIII. — Insect Injuries to Wood and Leather, i. Sirex
Tunnellings in live Silver Fir. 2. "Death-watch" Beetle's Borings
in Oak and Beech Timber. 3. Injuries of Maggots of another
kind of Death-watch Beetle to manufactured leather.

Case XIV. — Infestations Partly Bred in Ponds and Ditches.
I. Water Beetles injurious, in Beetle or Grub state, but chiefly in
both, to young Fish in Ponds. 2. Liver-fluke of Sheep, and
" Pond Snails," in which it lives in its early condition.

Case XV. — Fly Attacks, Injurious to Cattle, Horses and Sheep.
I. Forest Fly ; also Sheep Spider Fly (popularly known as "Sheep
Tick.") 2. Bot FHes, Common Horse Bot Fly, and Sheep-nostril
Bot Fly. 3. Gad or Breeze Flies.

Case XVI. — Ox and Deer Warble. r. Ox Warble Fly and Deer
Warble Fly, in different stages, with Maggots in spirit. 2. Piece
of young Red-deer's Skin, showing swellings caused by Warble
Maggots in the under-side.

Case XVII. — Injuries to Cattle Hide, from Ox Warble, r.
Pieces of Hide, showing swellings with Maggots within, from the
under-side ; also perforations in the outside, leading down to
the Maggot-cell ; also sections of Hide, showing Channel down
through the Hide, and Maggot-cell cut through. 2. Pieces of
Tanned Warbled Leather.

Appendix D (p. 182).

Injury by Xyleborus dispar in England.

Professor Riley, in '< Insect Life" (the U.S.A. Official Ento-
mological Journal), says : — '' Miss E. A. Ormerod wrote us on
September 23, 1889, as follows : * . . . The beetle which is
considered one of the rarest of the British Coleoptera, Xyleborus
dispar, Fab. (formerly known as " Bostrichus" or " Apate," Fig.
46) has appeared in such great numbers in plum-wood in the
fruit grounds at Toddington, near Cheltenham, as to be doing
very serious injury. I found, on anatomising the injured small
branches, that one of the galleries which the horde of beetles
(packed as closely as they can be) forms or enlarges, passes about
two-thirds round in the wood, more or less deeply beneath the
bark, whilst another of the tunnels, likewise occupied with its
closely packed procession of beetles, was in possession of about
two inches of pith, so that the rapid destruction of the tree w^as
fully accounted for. The attack appears, as far as I can see, to
disappear usually very rapidly, but I am advising owners to
make sure. This disappearance, I conjecture, may arise from
the excessive rarity of the small male of this species. Amongst
about sixty $ (female specimens) which I extracted from the
tunnels I only found one ^ (male).' "

332 APPENDICES

Appendix E (p. 223).

Professor Charles Valentine Riley was killed by a fall from
his bicycle in the streets of Washington. He was riding, as
usual, to his office in the morning, accompanied by his young
son. It was down-hill, and he was evidently going rather fast,
when his wheel struck a stone carelessly left in the roadway
after repairs. He was thrown violently, and died from the
effects of the fall a few hours afterwards.^

* Biologist, artist, editor, and pubhc official, the story of his
struggles and successes, tinged as it is with romance, is one full
of interest. Beginning life in America as a poor lad on an
Illinois farm, he rose by his own exertions to distinction. His
nature was a many-sided one, and his success in life was due to
sheer will-power, unusual executive force, critical judgment,
untiring industry, skill with pencil and pen, and a laudable
ambition, united with an intense love of nature and of science
for its own sake. This rare combination of varied qualities, of
which he made the most, rendered him during the thirty years
of his active life widely known as a public official, as a scientific
investigator, while of economic entomologists he was facile
princeps.

' He was born at Chelsea, London, September 18, 1843. His
boyhood was spent at Walton-on-Thames, where he made the
acquaintance of the late W. C. Hewitson, author of many works
on butterffies, which undoubtedly developed his love for insects.
At the age of eleven he went to school for three years at Dieppe,
afterwards studying at Bonn-on-the- Rhine. At both schools he
carried off the hrst prizes for drawing, making finished sketches
of butterflies, thus showing his early bent for natural history.
It is said that a restless disposition led him to abandon the old
country, and at the age of seventeen he had emigrated to Illinois,
and settled on a farm about fifty miles from Chicago. When
about twenty-one he removed to Chicago, where he became a
reporter and editor of the entomological department of the
*' Prairie Farmer."

^ Near the close of the war, in 1864, he enlisted as a private in
the 134th Illinois regiment, serving for six months, when he
returned to his editorial office.

' He also enjoyed for several years the close friendship of
B. D. Walsh, one of our most thorough and philosophic ento-
mologists, with whom he edited the "American Entomologist."
His industry and versatility, as well as his zeal as an entomolo-

^ The substance of the foregoing statement was supplied by Dr. Bethune.
The following (condensed) obituary notice by Professor A. S. Packard, of
Brown University, and referred to by Miss Ormerod, appeared in " Science,"
and subsequently in the " Canadian Entomologist."

PROFESSOR RILEY'S OBITUARY 333

gist, made him widely known and popular, and gave him such
prestige that it resulted in his appointment in 1868 as State
Entomologist of Missouri. From that time until 1877, when he
left St. Louis to live in Washington, he issued a series of nine
annual reports on injurious insects, which showed remarkable
powers of observation both of structure and habits, great skill
in drawing, and especially ingenious and thoroughly practical
devices and means of destroying the pests. It goes without
saying that this prestige existed to the end of his life, his
practical applications of remedies and inventions of apparatus
giving him a world-wide reputation. In token of his suggestion
of reviving the vines injured by the Phylloxera by the importa-
tion of the American stock, he received a gold medal from the
French Government, and he afterwards received the Cross of
the Legion d'Honneur in connection with the exhibit of the
U. S. Department of Agriculture at the Paris Exposition of 1880.
' The widespread ravages of the Rocky Mountain locust from
1873 ^o ^^77 had occasioned such immense loss in several States
and Territories that national aid was invoked to avert the evil.
The late Dr. F. V. Hayden, then in charge of the U. S. Geogra-
phical and Geological Survey of the Territories, sent Dr. P. R.
Uhler to Colorado in the summer of 1875. Mr. Walsh had
made important suggestions as to the birthplace and migrations
of the insect. Meanwhile Riley had since 1874 made very
detailed studies on the migration and breeding habits and
means of destruction of this locust. Dr. Cyrus Thomas had
also been attached to Hayden's Survey, and published a mono-
graph on the locust family, Acrididcv. As the result of this
combined work Congress created the United States Entomo-
logical Commission, attaching to it Dr. Hayden's Survey, and
the Secretary of the Interior appointed Charles V. Riley, A. S.
Packard, and Cyrus Thomas members of the Commission. Dr.
Riley was appointed chief, and it was mainly owing to his
executive ability, business sagacity, experience in official life,
together with his scientific knowledge and practical inventive
turn of mind in devising remedies, or selecting those invented
by others, that the work of the Commission was so popular and
successful during the five years of its existence. In 1878, while
the Report of the Commission was being printed, Riley accepted
the position of Entomologist to the U. S. Department of Agri-
culture, but owing to the lack of harmony in the Department,
he resigned. Professor J. H. Comstock being appointed. Con-
gress meanwhile transferred the cotton- worm investigation
[on which Riley had been engaged] to the Entomological
Commission. Dr. Riley was reappointed to the position of
U. S. Entomologist in June, 1881. Mr. L. O. Howard said of
the administration of this office : '* The present efficient organi-
sation of the Division of Entomology was his own original

334 APPENDICES

conception, and he is responsible for its plan down to the
smallest detail. It is unquestionably the foremost organisation
of its kind at present in existence." Again he writes : " Professor
Riley's work in the organisation of the Division of Entomology
has unquestionably advanced the entire Department of which it
is a part, for it is generally conceded that this Division has led
in most matters where efficiency, discipline, and system were
needed."

' His Division published the hrst bulletin, and in " Insect Life "
began the system of periodical bulletins, which has since been
adopted for the other Divisions of the Agricultural Department.
In an address, says Howard, before the National Agricultural
Congress, delivered in 1879, in which he outlined the ideal
Department of Agriculture, Professor Riley foreshadowed many
important reforms which have since become accomplished facts,
and suggested the important legislation, since brought about, of
the establishment of State Experiment Stations under the general
government.

' His practical, inventive genius was exhibited in his various
means of exterminating locusts, in the use of kerosene oil emul-
sified with milk or soap, and in his invention and perfection of
the '^ cyclone " or '' eddy-chamber " or Riley systems of nozzles,
which, in one form or another, are now in general use in the
spraying of insecticide or fungicide liquids.

' Although the idea of introducing foreign insect parasites or
carnivorous enemies of our imported pests had been suggested
by others, Riley, with the resources of his division at hand,
accomplished more than any one else in making it a success.
He it was who succeeded in introducing the Austrahan ladybird
to fight the fluted scale.

' Riley's scientific writings will always stand, and show as
honest work. He was not *'a species man" or systematist as
such ; on the contrary, his most important work was on the
transformations and habits of insects, such as those of the
lepidoptera, locusts and their parasites, his Missouri reports
being packed with facts new to science. His studies on the
systematic relations of Platypsyllus as determined by the larva
evince his patience, accuracy, and keenness in observation and
his philosophic breadth.

^ His best anatomical and morphological work is displayed in
his study on the mode of pupation of butterflies, the research
being a difficult one, and especially related to the origin of the
cremaster, and of the vestigial structures, sexual and others, of
the end of the pupa. Whatever he did in entomology was
original. He was also much interested in Aeronautics, and took
much delight in attending seances of spiritualists and exposing
their frauds, in one case, at least, where another biologist of world-
wide fame, then visiting in Washington, was completely deluded.

PROFESSOR RILEY'S OBITUARY 335

' Riley was from the first a pronounced evolutionist. His
philosophic breadth and his thoughtful nature and grasp of the
higher truths of biology are well brought out in his address on
'' The Causes of Variation in Organic Forms," as Vice-President,
before the biological section of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science in 1888. He was a moderate
Darwinian, and leaned, like other American naturalists, rather
to Neo-Lamarckism. He says : " I have always had a feeling,
and it grows on me with increasing experience, that the weak
features of Darwinism and, hence, of natural selection, are his
insistence (i) on the necessity of slight modification ; (2) on the
length of time required for the accumulation of modifications,
and (3) on the absolute utility of the modified structure." Riley,
from his extended experience as a biologist, was led to ascribe
much influence to the agency of external conditions, remarking,
in his address : *' Indeed, no one can well study organic life,
especially in its lower manifestations, without being impressed
with the great power of the environment." He thus contrasts
Darwinism and Lamarckism : " Darwinism assumes essential
ignorance of the causes of variation and is based on the inherent
tendency thereto in the offspring. Lamarckism, on the contrary,
recognizes in use and disuse, desire and the physical environ-
ment, immediate causes of variation affecting the individual and
transmitted to the offspring, in which it may be intensified again
both by inheritance and further individual modification." '

' " Evolution shows that man is governed by the same laws as
other animals." '^ Evolution reveals a past which disarms doubt
and leaves the future open with promise — unceasing purpose —
progress from low^er to higher. It promises higher and higher
intellectual and ethical attainment, both for the individual and
the race. It shows the power of God in what is universal, not
in the specific ; in the laws of nature, not in departure from
them." '

INDEX

A hraxas grossulariata, Magpie
moth, 114 (Fig.)

Accentor modularis, Dunnock or
Hedge-sparrow, 162

Acrididce, 333

"Agriculture and Rural Economy
of Australia and New Zealand,"
Professor Wallace's, 280

Agriculture, Board of, Miss
Ormerod's aid to the Adviser
given and withdrawn, 202

Agricultural College (Royal),Ciren-
cester, Miss Ormerod's lectures
at, 83 ; Professor Harker at ;
Principal of, 201

Agricultural Education Committee,
271, 272, 273

Agricultural Education in the Ele-
mentary School, 271

Agricultural Entomology, progress
of, 200 ; work on, 276 ; Miss
Ormerod, Co- Examiner in, 282

Agricultural lectureship proposed
in Oxford University, 225

Agricultural Society (Royal), Miss
Ormerod's diagrams for, 88 ;
work for discontinued, 212

"Agricultural Zoology," by Dr.
Ritzema Bos, translated by Pro-
fessor Ainsworth Davis, 222

Agrotis exclamationis, Heart-and-
dart moth, Linn., loi (Fig.)

Agrotis segetum, Ochsenheimer,
Turnip moth, loi (Fig.)

"Alder Killer," German name of
Mottled Willow Weevil, 267

Aldersey schoolboys, 113, 119, 127

! Alfalfa (lucerne) hay infested with
locusts, 228, 229

Alopecurus pratensis, 244

Altum, Dr. Bernard, Forsi Zoologie,
61

American Ambassador, congratu-
lations of the, 193

American blight, see Schizoneura
lanigera, 142, 143, 144

American clover-seed midge, 198

American migratory locusts, South,
229

Anbury, club-root, or finger and
toe, see Plasmodiophora, 196, 213

Angoumois moth, 188

Anguillulidcv (eel- worms), 198, 282

Angiiillula radicicola, 213

Annual Reports, see Reports

Anobiwm paniceum, 253

A nihomyia ceparum, 60

Antler moth, see Charcvas graminis

Ants, black, 138

" Ap Adam" oak, 93, PI. xxi.

Aphides, 79; attack of, 222, 250,

257
Aphis, wooWy, Schizoneura lanigera

144 (Fig.)
Apple-bark beetle, see Shot-borer,

199
Arbuthnot, Mrs., 292, 301
Architects, practice of, 7
: Arderne of Alvanley, family of, 13
I Argyresthia conjtigcUa, 247
Arkwright (J. H.) of Hampden

Court, Herefordshire, 76
Armstrong, Dr., 28, 29
Army worm (Leucania unipunc-

iata), paper on, by Dr. L. O.

Howard, 184

23

337

338

INDEX

Arnold, Dr., of Rugby, 3

Arsenite of Copper, 201

Artists, the Misses Ormerod as,

18,74
Ash-bark beetle, see Hylesinus
Ashworth, Miss, letter from, 320
Aspidiotiis perniciosus, San Jose

scale, 242
Assistant, reasons for refusing an,

79

Astynomtis ccdilis, 224

Atomaria linearis, Mangold beetle,

230 (Fig-)

Aust " Bone bed," 40

Aust cliffs, 39, 40

Austen's opinion on " Deer forest
fly," Mr., 261

Australian thrips, 183 ; larvae, 277

Autumnal breeze fly, see Tabanus
aiitumnalis

Avian Rat, nickname for the spar-
row, 160, 168

Axe, Professor, 85

B

Bacon-fly, see Piophila casei

Bacon, Lord, burial-place, 298

Badam's Court, 93

Bailey, Colonel, 303

Bailey, Mr., Editor of the Dumfries
Herald and Courier, 106

Bailey, Mr. William, letters to,
109-127 ; letter from, to the
Duke of Westminster, iii

Barley, Hessian fly on, 132 (Fig.)

Barnes Cottage, 7

Barnesville, 7

" Bat beetle," see Harpalus rufi-
corn is

Bath and West of England Society
Show, Misses Ormerod's insect
cases and diagrams at, 283, 284

Bathurst's, Mr., paper on "Or-
chards," 273-274

Bean-beetle, see Bruchus

Beans and peas attacked by Eel-
worms, 304

Bean - seed weevil — sad-coloured
{Bruchus tristis,) ; red-footed {B.
rufipes) ; red-horned {B. bra-
chialis), 271, see Bruchus

Beans infested with beetles, 269,
270

Beaufort, Duke of, 7

Becker, Miss Lydia, as an up-
holder of "Women's Rights," 86

Beckett, Edmund, Lord Grim-
thorpe, 91, see Grimthorpe

Bee, Mason, 174

Beet carrion beetle, see Silpha
opaca, 142, 220

Beetles in the Argentine terri-
tories, 222

Beetles (water), killing of, 54

Bethnal Green Museum, connec-
tion with, 87

Bethune, Rev. Dr., letters to, 73,
90, 213, 227-231

Bigge, General and Mrs., 298

Biographical sketch of Miss Or-
merod, by the Editor, 73

Bipalium kewense, a land plan-
arian, 192 (Fig.)

Birth, childhood, and education,
Miss Ormerod's, i

Black-currant gall mite, 153, 154,
155, 156, 177, see Phytoptus

Bladder or pocket plums, 176 (Fig.)

Bodleian Library, 58

Bolivar's, Sefior Don Igo, assistance
on locust specimens, 218

" Bone Bed," the Aust, 40

Books, lending of, 29

Boot-beetle, see Anobium paniceum

Boot-upper injured by beetle, 254

(Fig.)
Bos, Dr. Ritzema, 79, 131, 132, 156,

189, 204, 296 ; letters to, 232-237
Botanical Magazine, drawings for,

74
Botfly, the, see Hypoderma.
" Bottle-nosed whale," or dolphin,

capture of, 38, 39
Brad wall Hall, Cheshire, 11
Brauer's, Dr., frontispiece to his

" (Estridcc," 149, 150
Breathing tubes of maggot, of ox

warble fly, &c., 112 (Fig.)
Breeze flies, see Tabanida:
Brighton, Miss Ormerod refers to

taking a villa at, 264, 266
Bruchus, the pea and bean Weevil,

268, rufimanus, &c., 269 (Fig.)

270, 271, see Bean-seed weevil
Bruner, Lawrence, Locust In-
vestigation Commission Report,

229
Bryobia prctiiosa, gooseberry and

ivy red spider, 220, 221 (Fig.)

INDEX

339

Buckland, Frank, on " Putts," 37,

327, 328
Buckler, Mr. William, 107
Buckton, G. B., on Aphides, 79, 80
Bunbury Parish, work done by

schoolboys of, iii
Burd, Rev. Percy, 29
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, letters

from, 214
Bury, Lancashire, 9
Buttington, battle of, 23

Cabbage green-fly, loi

Caddis fly, see Mormonia nigro-
maculata, 152

Caddis worms attacking water-
cresses, 151, 152, 282

Cadelle, the, see Trogosita

Caerwent, 7, 174

Calandra {Sitophilus) granaria,
granary weevil, 191, 262 (Fig.),
267 ; C. oryzcE, 262

Calwer's " Kiiferbuch," 270

" Canadian Entomologist," quoted,
202, 211, 223

Canadian friends, Miss Ormerod's,
73

Cauvin's Hospital, Editor's Lec-
ture at, 289

Cecidomyia destrucior, Hessian fly,
129, 131 (Fig.), 132, 143, 147,
182 ; C. tritici, 131 ; legumini-
cola, 198

Cecidomyia {Diplosis) equesiris, 137

Centipede and millipede, 143 (Fig.)

Cephenomyia rufibarbis, Red-
bearded botfly, 149, 150, 151

Cephus pygmcEus, Corn sawfly,
147 (Fig.)

Cerostoma xylostella, Curtis, see
Pliiiella cruciferarum

CeuihorhyncJius contractus, Char-
lock weevil, 130 (Fig.)

Chapel of St. Tecla, dimensions, 34,
ruins, PI. x.

Cliaraias graminis, Antler moth,
104, 105 (Fig.), 185, 284

Charlock weevil,see Ceuthorhynchiis
contractus

Charlotte, Princess, " the people's
darling," death of, 6

Chartist Rising, 47-52 ; map of
district, PI. xv.

Cheese-fly, see Piophila casei, 125

(Fig.)
Cheimatobia brumata, 121, 146, 183
Chepstow, 15, 30, 33, 43, 53, PI. xvii.
Chepstow Bridge, PI. xiii.
Chepstow Castle, Pis. ix., xvi.
Chepstow Parish Church, Plate vi.
Cheshire, see Chester
Chest, oak, from Hulgrave Hall,

58, PI. xviii.
Chester, Dr. Ormerod's " History

of the County Palatine and

City," 8, 13, 58
Chinese Minister Plenipotentiary,

307
Chinese naturalist and Miss Or-

merod, 75
Chittenden's, Mr., paper on House-
hold Insects, 266
Chlorops tceniopus, Meigen, Gout

fly, 132, 133 (Fig.), 147
Choate, Mr., meeting with, 193 ;

characteristics, 297
Chrysops ccscutiens, small blinding

breeze fly, 136 (Fig.)
Church customs, old, 23
Cidaria dotata, Linn., spinach

moth, 231 (Fig.)
Clayden, ancestral oak at, 121
Cleg, or small rain breeze fly,

Hcematopota phwialis, 136 (Fig.)
Clergy, old local, 27
Cliviger township, 8
Clothing Club, 30
Clover-stem sickness, 226, 282
Club-root, Anbury, or Finger and

toe, 196, 213
Coccinella bipunctata, 2-spotted

lady-bird ; C. septempunctata,

7-spotted lady-bird, 234 (Fig.) ;

C. ocellata, eyed lady-bird, 237

(Fig.)
Cockchafer beetle and grubs,

Melolontha vulgaris, 209, 233

(Fig.), 277, block, 280
CodHn moth, prevention, 277
Coleman & Sons, Messrs. W. J.,

letters to, 177
Collection of specimens of in-
jurious insects, 87
"Common Fly Attacks to Farm

Stock," by Miss Ormerod, 304
Conger eels, 35
Connold, Mr. Ed. T., letters to,

i75» 241

340

INDEX

Contribution, Miss Ormerod's first,

to scientific literature, 59
Contributions, Miss Ormerod's re-
cognition of, 62, 66
Copleston, Bishop, 15
Copper, arsenite and arseniate of,

201
Cormorants, 35
Corn-fly, Ribbon-footed, sec Chlo-

rops tcEuiopus
Corn sawfly, 147
Correggios, " Marriage of St.

Catherine," 16
Correspondence, steadiness of,

Miss Ormerod's, 78, 79, letters, 97
Cosby, Sir Henry, 7
Cossus ligniperda, Goat moth, 268

(Fig.)
County dinner party,f ormalityof , 1 5
Courage, Miss Ormerod's, 92-94
Coussmaker, Colonel, letters to,

99-104
Cranefly (Daddy longlegs), Tipula,

64, 284
Crawford, Mr. Frazer, of Adelaide,

210
Croft, Sir Richard, 6
Cross-fertilisation (multiple), 298
CryptorJiynclius, lapathi, L., mottled

willow weevil, 267
Crystal oil, 181
Cucujus iestaceus, 263
Currant and gooseberry scale, Lc-

canium ribis, 214 (Fig.)
Currant, black and red, 156, 157
Curtis, John, " Farm Insects," 63,

276 ; work, &c., 184
Cutworms, or caterpillars of the

dart or turnip moth, 100, loi

(Fig.)
Cynips galls, 177

Daddy longlegs, see Tipula

Dalquhairn, Holm of, 105

Damsons, curiously formed, 175

Danysz's, J., paper on Ephestia
(Flour moth), 216

Dart or turnip moth, see Agrotis
segetum

Darwinianism, 276

Darwinism, 335

Davis, Professor Ainsworth, trans-
lation of Ritzema Bos's Agricul-
tural Zoology, 222

Dean, Forest of, lawlessness in, 38
Death, Miss Ormerod's, letters ni
prospect of, 325

see Lipopfcra ccrvi
Hy, see Hypoderma

Dcerforest fly.
Deer warble

diana
Degrees and

merods, 95,

Or-

mcdals. Miss

see LL.D.
Dell & Son's niformation, 275
Diagrams, Miss G. Ormerod's, 88 ;
coloured, published by R.A.S.E,,

99
Diamond-back moth, sec Pluiella

cruciferarum
Dicraniira vinula, Linn., 103 (Fig.)
Diptera, Westwood's use of " In-

sccta Britannica— Diptera," 136
Dipterous parasites, 107
Dogs as message-bearers, 1 1 ; Miss

Ormerod's adventures with, 92
Dolphin, Bottle-nosed {DelpJiinus

tursio), 38
Druce's, Mr., proposed vote of

congratulation, 300
Drawnigs and water-colours, set

of Dr. George Ormerod's, 298,

300, 301
Dunn, Malcolm, assistance of, 61
Dunnock, the hedge-sparrow, Ac-
centor inodularis, 162
Durobrivian ware, 8
Dyer, Professor Bernard, as a

helper, 200
Dytiscus marginalis, water beetle,

54, 124 (Fig.)

E

Earwig, see Forficula

Edinburgh University, bequest to,
283, 284, 285 ; text-book for, 303 ;
Miss Ormerod appointed exter-
nal examiner in Agricultural
Entomology, 123

Eel-worms, 186, 198, 282, 304

Electros bought from Messrs.
Blackie & Son, 63

Elliot & Fry's portraits, 300

Elm-bark beetle, see Scolytus de-
structor, 169, 170 (Fig.)

Entomological Society of Ontario,

73
Entomological Societies, Miss Or-
merod's communications with,

78
Entomologist, consulting, to the

i

INDEX

341

Royal Agricultural Society of
England, 75

Entomology, Miss Ormerod be-
ginning the study of, 53 ; first
step in, 2 ; lectures on, in Edin-
burgh, 279

Entomology, economic, progress
of, 206

Epiiesiia kuhnicUa, Zell, 180, 198,
202, 212, 262, 263

Evans, Mrs., 91

Evesham Committee work, 204

Evolution, Professor Riley on, 335

Exhibition in the Palace of In-
dustry, Paris, August, 1868, 54

Exoascus pnuii, Professor Mar-
shall Ward on, 175

Exorista lota, parasite of Lepi-
doptera, 107

Forest Peninsula, 33, 34

" Forestry," text-book of, proposed,

227, 303
Forficula minor, Linn. (Earwig)

189 (Fig.)
" Formalin," 220
Formica fuUginosa, 138, 139
Forshawand Hawkins,Messrs.,266
Fowler (Canon) on HelopJwrus

rugosus, 108, 267
Fream, Dr., references to, 203,

208, 279, 281, 282, 298, 305,

317
Frost and other leaders of the

Chartist rising in Monmouth,

47-52
Fruitgrowers' Convention, 206
Fucus serratus, 34
Fuller, Mr., 267 ; letters to, 257

Family dispersal, 56

" Famine in India," by Wallace, 308

" Farm Insects," by Curtis, 184

" Farm Pests," leaflets on, 65

Farm stock, fly attacks on, 65, 304

Fernald, Dr., 187

Ferry, Old Passage, 38, 44, 45, 50

Fielding, Copley, 16

Finger and toe, see Plasmodio-

fhora brassiccB
" Flacherie," the, 106, 107, 186
Flat worm, 192
" Flax seeds," 131, 142, 197
Fletcher, Dr., 188 ; letters to, 77,

116, 195-227
" Flies injurious to Stock," Miss

Ormerod's, 65, 305
Flour-beetle, rust-red, see Tri-

bolium ferrugineum
Flour infestation, 69, 179, 191, 220,

261, 263, 266
" Flowering," or Palm, Sunday, 25
Fly weevil (U.S.A.), 188
Font (leaden) at Llancaut, 20 ; at

Tidenham, PI. vii.
Fonts (leaden), A. C. Fryer's paper

on, in ArchcBol. Journal, 20
Foot, Hippoboscal, Pis. xxiii., xxiv.
Forest fly, 65, 133, 134 (Fig.), 138,

i39» 304
Forest flies, Indian, 224
Forest Hundreds, 33
Forest of Dean, 33

Gadflies {Tabanidce), 118, 137, 138,

304^ 306
Gamma or silver moth, 178 (Fig.)
Gardener, an old, on Miss Orme-
rod's work, 75
" Gardeners' Chronicle," 54, 55, 276
"Gardeners' Friends and Foes,"

series of diagrams, 88
Garton course of lectures, Edin-
burgh University, 118, 208
Garton, John, 298, 303
Gas lime as a top dressing, 195
Gastropacha quercifolia, Linn., 158
Gastrophilus equi, Fab., 117 (Fig.),

118,305
Gawsworth, Cheshire, 12
Generosity, Dr. Lipscomb on Miss

Ormerod's, 94
Geophilus longicornis, Centipede,

235 (Fig.)
George, A. W., letter to, 174
Gibbs, Sir Brandreth, 76
Gilbert, Sir Henry and Lady, 298
Gnat midge, see Cecidomyia legu-

minicola
Goat moth, see Cossus ligniperda
Golynrode, 10
Goodall on Tabanida;, 138
Gooseberry red spider, see Bryobia

prcstiosa
Gout fly, see Chlorops tcsniopus
Grain beetles, see Calandra {SitO'

philus) granaria

342

INDEX

Granary weevil, see Calandra

granaria
Grant, Sir Ludovic, 96, 291, 303
Grease-banding, 207, 277
Grease-proof paper, 277
Great ash-bark beetle, 172 (Fig.)
Great midge, " red maggot of," 137
Great ox gad fly, 135, 136
Great tortoiseshell butterfly, see

Vanessa folychloros
Grimshaw, Percy H., 108 ; letters

from, 149, 151
Grimthorpe, Lord, letter from,

297, 298, 308
Grouse fly, see Ornithomyia
" Guide to the Methods of Insect

Life," Miss Ormerod's, 81, 85
Gulls, see Larus ridibundus and

L. canus

H

Hacking, 10

Hcemutobia connicola, 213

HcEmatofota pliivialis, 136

" Hair-worms," 225

" Handbook of Orchard Fruits,"

Miss Ormerod's, 303
Hargreaves, Col. John, 8
Harker, Professor Allen, references

to, 79, 80, 201, 277, 278, 279, 281
Harpalus ruficornis, Bat-beetle,

223 (Fig.)
Hartwell, Miss, Miss Ormerod's

private secretary, 88, 280, 289, 291
Heart-and-dart moth, see Agroiis \

exclamaiionis I

Heather "frosted," 149 '

Helophorus rugosus, 108
Henry VI. Coronation, 58, PI. xviii.
Hessian fly, 74, 129, 131, 132, 142,

143, 147, 148, 182, see Cecidomyia

destructor', Miss Ormerod on, 86
Heierodera schachtii, 186 ; H. radi-

cicola, Miiller, 213 (Fig.)
Hibernation of insects, 226 J

*' Hill grub," the, 104, 105 (Fig.) \
Hippobosca equina, 133, 134, 136,

137, 138, 140, 265 (foot of fly, Pis.

xxiii., xxiv.) ; H. maculata, 139
Hippoboscid on a lamb, 264
Hooker, Sir Joseph and Lady, 73, 74 !
Hoopoe, the, 139 |

Hop aphis, 206 j

Hope Professorship of Zoology at '.

Oxford, 215 i

[ Hops, nettle-headed, 237
I Hornet, capture of, 92
I " Hornet Clear wing," Trochilium
(=.Sesia) bembeciforme, 103
Horse bot fly, Gastrophilus equi,
Fab., 117 (Fig.), 118,305
' Horses' iflness after eating locust-
: infested lucerne, 228, 229
; Horticultural Society (Royal), col-
I lection of injurious insects, 55
i Howard, Dr. L. O., letters to and
from, 184-194, 295, 297
Hulgreve Hall, 58
Hunt, the artist, 16
Huntspill, Somerset, 10
Huxley, Professor, 78 ; letters from,

85,88
Hybernia defoliaria, 146
Hydrophobia, strange treatment

for, 45
Hylesinus crenatus (large ash-bark
beetle), 172 (Fig.), 173, 302 ;
tunnels, 173 (Fig.)
Hylesinus fraxini, ash-bark beetle,

171, 174 ; tunnels, 171 (Fig.)
Hylurgus piniperda, pine beetle, 263
Hymenoptei'a, 174
Hypoderma, bovis and H. diana,
150; H. lineata, 116; H. or
(Estrus experiments, 183

I

Icerya purcJiasi, 79
Ichthyosaurus, 41
Index to Reports, 64, 191
"Indian Agriculture," Wallace's,

275

Inscription on Llancaut font, 22

"Insect Life," 201, 267

Insect, Professor Westwood's de-
finition of, 84

"Insects Injurious to Forest
Trees," 302 ; " to Orchard and
Bush Fruit," 274; "to Stored
Grain," 191

Isle worth, 73 ; meteorology, 80

J
Jablonowski,Prof . Jos., on Phytoptiis

ribis, 156 ; letters to, 156
Jacobite officers, 11
Janson's reports, Mr. Oliver E., 71,

72, 200, 283 ; letters to, 259-271

INDEX

343

Jenkins, Mr. H. M., Secretary

R.A.S.E., 76
Johnson, Thomas, survivors of the

children of, 11
yulus guttatus (= pulchelhis),

Leach ; y. londinensis ; J. ter-

restris, 143 (Fig.)
Juncus articulatiis, the flowering

heads of, or "spret," 104

K

Ked or Kade, see Melophagus ovinus
Kerosene as an insecticide, 120,

181, 220
Kew Gardens, 73, 86
King and Queen, 122
King George and King James,

toasts to, 1 1
Kingston Park, old name of Sed-

bury Park, 7
Knox, John, quotation from, no

Labia minor, Leach, 189 (Fig.)
Lady-bird, Australian, 334
Lady-bird, see Cocci nella
Lamophlceiis ferrugineus, 263
Lamarckism, 335
Lamellicornes, beetle grubs of the,

277
Languages, Miss Ormerod's know-
ledge of, 78
Lappet Moth, see Gastropacha

quercifolia, Linn.
Lams ridibundus 3.nd L. can iis, 105
Latham, Diana, on Sedbury, 14-19
Latham, John, M.D., 12, PI. iv., 57
Latham, Peter Mere, 13, 57
Lathy nis (White), 221
" Leaden Fonts," 20 ; Alfred C.

Fryer on, 20
"Leafage caterpillars," 146
Lecaniuni ribis, Fitch, 214
Lecture at Institute of Agriculture,
South Kensington, Miss Or-
merod's, 84 ; at London Farmers'
Club, 102
Lecturer, Miss Ormerod as a, on
Economic Entomology, at Royal
College, Cirencester, 83
Lectures, ten, by Miss Ormerod,

on " Orders of Insects," 85
Lee-chee (lichi) orchards, 308

Legal experiences, samples of

Miss Ormerod's, 69
Lepidoptera, American lists of, 181
Lesser earwig, Forficula minor,

189 (Fig.) ; 261
Lesson book for village schools, 207
Letter or letters from William
Bailey, 102; Dr. Ritzema
Bos, 296; Dr. Fream, 298;
Lord Grimthorpe, 296 ; Sir
Joseph Hooker, 87 ; L. O.
Howard, 295, 297 ; T. H. Hux-
ley, 85 ; J. A. Lintner, 81-82 ;
Dr. R. S. MacDougall, 295 ; Sir
William Muir, 301 ; Rev. Prof.
Taylor, 310 ; Professor W^allace,
287-293 ; J. O. Westwood, 81
Letter or letters to William Bailey,
109-127 ; Rev. C. J. S. Bethunc,
227-231; Dr. Ritzema Bos, 232-
: 237 ; Messrs. Coleman, 177-178 ;
E. T. Connold, 175-177 ; Colonel
Coussmaker, 99-104 ; Dr. J.
Fletcher, 195-227 ; Claude
Fuller, 257 ; A. W. George,
174; D. D. Gibb, 128-148;
j P. H.Grimshaw, 149-151 ; L. O.
I Howard, 184-194 ; C. P. Louns-
bury, 252-257 ; Rev. John Martin,
169-174; J. C. Medd, 271-274;
Dr. A. Nalepa, 247-252 ; Dr. E.
Renter, 244-247 ; Dr. W. M.
Schoyen, 237-243 ; Robert Ser-
vice, 106-8 ; W. B. Tegetmeier,
159-168 ; Professor Wallace,
275-325 ; C. D. Wise, 151-159
Letters, destruction of, 97
Leiicania nnipunctata, 185
Lias, frontage of, 40, 41
*' Licked" beef, 116
Limna'a truncatula, 144
Limnepliilus Jiavicornis, 152
Lindeman, Dr., 197, 209, 212, 263
Lintner, Dr., 207; letters from, 81,

82
Lipoptera cervi, Von Siebold and
Loew, 140 (Fig.), 141 (I^'ig)* 180,
259,265
Lipoptera or Lipoptcna, confusion

between, 140
Lipscomb, Dr. Eustace, 194, 290,
293, 294, 322, 324; on beneiits
of Miss Ormerod's work, 75
' Lithobius forficatus, "thirty-foot,"
235

344

INDEX

Little, Professor Herbert, 76, no,

279
Llancaut Church, 21, PI. viii.
LL.D. of Edinburgh University, 95,

193, 287,289; letters on, 294-297
Loch Dungeon, 104
Locust, capture of a strange, 53
Locust, South American migratory,

sec Sdiistocerca paranensis (Fig.)
Locusts, 144, 214, 218, 229
London, annual visit to, 16
London Farmers' Club, lectures,

102, 299; request, no; resolu-
tion, 300
London purple, 183, 205
" Loopers," 121, 146
Lords of Committee of Education

invite Miss Ormerod to advise

them, 87
Loudon's "Arboretum," 103
Lounsbury, C. P., 118, 187; letters

to and from, 193, 252
Loyalty, Miss Ormerod's, 94
" Lyde, the," 35
Lyell, Sir Charles, on the Aust

" Bone Bed," 40

M

" Mabie Moss," noui dc plume of

K. Service, 104, 106
MacDougall, Dr., 227, 291, 295, 302,

303 ; as a colleague, 302, 303,

307> 317* 322, 323
Magpie moth, Currant and goose-
berry, see Abraxas grossulariaia
Mail coach. Pis. xii., xiv.
Mails, the Newport, 50
Man, Dr. de, 79
Mangold attacked by Atomana

linearis, 230
" Manual of Injurious Insects,"

Miss Ormerod's, 65, 276, 300
Martin,Rev.John,letters to, 169-174
Mayer, Rev, Peter, 12
McEwan Hall, the, 292
Meade, Mr., of Bradford, 107, 205
Medals and Miss Ormerod's other

pubhc distinctions, 95 ; key to,

98, PI. xxii.
Medd, Mr., 259 ; letters to, 271-

274 ; letter to on the Warble

question, 116
Mediterranean flour moth, see

Ephestia kiihniella

' Melolontha vulgaris, cockchafer
209, 233 (Fig.)
Mclopliagus oviiius, Linn., 141 (Fig.)
Mennis, 186 ; albicans, io6
Merodon narcissi, Fab., 157, 158
Mcromyza, 276
Meteorological observations at

Isleworth, 80 ; station, PI. xx.
Miana, 186

Micrococcus bombycis, 106
Midge, great, 137
Mik, Professor, on Tabanida% 20,
138 ; on Deer Forest fly, 261 ;
j decease of, 271
i Mill Moth, see Epliesiia kuhniclla
' Millepede, 143 (Fig.)
Mite, see Phytoptus
Modelling in plaster of Paris, Miss

Ormerod's taste for, 95
Moles at strawberry roots, 153
Morris, Little and Son's emulsion,

121
Mormonia nigromaculata, 152 (Fig.)
Mosley's models and figures of

insects, 279
Mottled Umber moth, see Hybernia

defoliaria
Muir, Sir William, 284, 285, 298 ;
! letter from, 301
I Murray, Mr. Andrew, secretary,
i Royal Horticultural Society, 75
Murray, Mr. John, xx, 315, 319, 325
Murtfeldt, Miss, 256
Music, Miss Ormerod's knowledge

0^.95
Mustard beetle, sec Phcedon belulcs

N

Nalepa, Dr., letters to, 247 ; on
the PhyioptidcB, 155, 218 ;
publications of, 176
Narcissus fly, 157
" Nature Knowledge,'' 306
" Nature Study," Mr. Medd's, 259
Needlework, Miss Ormerod's skill

in, 95
Newman, Mr. T. P., 309, 325
Newstead, Mr. Robert, 64, 68, 84,

310
Nipius hololeucus, 262
Nixon, Mr., 145
Norman's microscopic slides, Mr.,

264, 265, 267
Nostril fly, of sheep, 304

INDEX

345

O

Oak, "Ap Adam," and ''Hedge-
hog," PI. xxi., 93

Oak-leaf roller moth, Torthx
viridaiia, 145

Oak-leaf seaweed {Del esse ria), 39

Oak-trees injured by caterpillars,
222

Observations, Miss Ormerod's
arrangement of, 60, 61

CEstrida', 118, 283

(Eslrus ovis, 76 (Fig.)

"Offa's Dyke," 18

Oilcakes and granary weevil, 262

OJigotrophiis alopecuri, 244

Ontario Entomological Society,

73

" Orchard and bush fruits,
Handbook of insects injurious
to," Miss Ormerod's, 229

Orchard growers, experimental
committee of, 183

Ormerod, Arthur, 57 ; theM.D.,291

Ormerod, Charlotte Anne, 8

Ormerod, E. L., M.D., author of
" British Social Wasps," 9, 57, 93

Ormerod, Eleanor Anne, birth,
childhood, and education, 1-6;
fondness for animals, 7 ; re-
ligious experiences, 27 ; bio-
graphical sketch, 73-97; courage,
92-93 ; kindness to servants, 94 ;
medals. 97 ; death, 325 ; retire-
ment, 328 ; portraits, frontis-
piece, Pis. XX., xxix.

Ormerod, George, D.C.L., LL.D.,
author of " History of the
County Palatine and City of
Chester," 8, 11, 18, 19, 23, 28, 53,
56, 57, Pis. ii., iii., xxx.

Ormerod, Mrs. George, 3, PI. iii.

Ormerod, Georgiana, i, 3, 4, 5, 6,
16, 17, 18, 30, 73, PI. xxvii.

Ormerod, Rev. G. T. B., 57

Ormerod, Henry Mere, 34, 58

Ormerod, John Arderne, 13, 57

Ormerod, Laurence, 8

Ormerod, Oliver, 9

Ormerod, Thomas Johnson, 57

Ormerod, Wareing, 58

Ormerod, William, 57

Ormerod demesne and mansion,
8, PL xxviii.

Ormerod family, decent from

Edward I., 13; branches of, 8-9 ;

dispersal of, 56
Oniithomyia avicularia, Linn.

(Grouse fly), 264, 265 (Fig.)
Osmia (Mason bee), 174
Ostrich parasite, 196
"Our Programme'' leaflet, 272
Owen, Professor Richard, report

on an Ichthyosaurus, 41
Oxford, Port Fellowship, 13, 57;

Tractarian Movement, 28

Padiua, Pavonea, 39

Palm Sunday, or "Flowering

Sunday," 25
"Papist," "The picture of a," 10
Paraffin, 181

Parasites of Lepidoptera, 107, 108
Parasites of silkworm, 106
" Parentalia," Dr. George Orme^

rod's, 9, 13
" Paris green," 153, 183, 201 ; as

an insecticide, 203, 204, 205,

206 ; pamphlets on, 207, 208
Passer domesticus, 159, 160 (Fig.), 188
Passer montanus, 162 (Fig.)
Pea- weevil, see Sitoiies
Peacock seaweed {Padinapavonea),

39
Pension proposed for Miss

Ormerod, 322
Plicsdon betulce, 215 (Fig.)
Philips, Sir Thomas, mayor of

Newport, 50
Photographs of Miss Ormerod,

227, 300, 302
Phylloxera, 155, 210
Phytoptida', 250
Phytoptus galls, 177
Phytoptus pyri, 249 (Fig.)
Phytoptus ribis, 153, 156, 251 (Fig.)
Pillischer's preparations, 261
Pine beetle attack, 263, 264, 285
Piophila casei, Linn., 125 (Fig.),

256, 265
Plagiarism, prevention of, 62
Plan of work. Miss Ormerod's, 78,90
Plasmodiophora brassicce, 213
Plum-wood, Shot-borers from, 200
Plusia gamma, Linn., 178 (Fig.)
Plutella cruciferarum, 130, 210, 211

(Fig.)
Polydesmus complanatus, 143 (Fig.)

346

INDEX

Port Fellowship, Brasenose Col-
lege, 13, 57
" Post-horn " beetle attack, 224
Potter, Professor M. C, 144
".Proceedings of the Convention

of Fruit Growers," 206
Ptinus, 263

Pupation of butterflies, 334
" Puritan," "The picture of a," 10
Puss moth, see Dicranura vinula
Putcher for catching salmon, 36,

327* 328
" Putts " or " putchers," 36 (Fig.)
Pyrethrum, 216

"Quasi Cursores," Hole's, 308, 311

R i

Rabies, an instance of, 92 '

Railway travelling, 46
Rassam, Mr. Hormuzd, 205
Red-currant mite, 157 see Phytoptus
Redenhall-cum-Harleston, 57
" Red spider," 145, 221 (Fig.), 300
Redwater "tick," 193
Reports (annual), plan of prepara-
tions, 78 ; discontinued, 66
Retinia buoUana, " Post Horn," 224
Renter, Dr., letters to, 244
Ribes nigrum, 156
Ribes rubruni, 157
Rice weevil, see Calandra oryzcs
Riley, Professor, 78, 80 ; letters to,

179-184 ; resignation of, 221,

223 ; sketch of, 332, app.
Ritzema Bos, see Bos
Roberts, Margaret, 17
Roman coins found near the Severn

Cliffs, 174 ; military station, 7 ;

pottery, 8, 174 ; PI. xi.
Rothamsted, 203, 217, 298 ;

Roundell, Charles, the " Rural I

Reader," 273 ;

Rural Economy, Sibthorpian Pro-

fessor of, at Oxford, 225
" Ruricola," nom de plume of J.

Curtis, 184
Rust-red flour beetle, see Tribolium

ferruginetim \

I

S I

Saddle fly, Cecidomyia {Diplosis) \

cqiiestris, 12"J (Fig.f ]

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 57 |

Salix caprea, 103

Salmon-fishing on the Severn, 36
Samian cup, 175
San Jose schIq, see Aspidiotus penii-

ciosiis
Sap-wood beetle, see Scolytiis pruni
Saurian remains, 41, PI. xi.
Scale insects, 242, 257
Scarabaeid beetles (rare), 222
Schaiimerde, a sugar by-product,

236
" Scheele's-green," 201
Schisiocerca paranensis, 229 (Fig.)
Schizoneura lanigera, Hausm,

American blight, 142, 143, 144

Schools, coloured diagrams for
elementary, 99 ; see Diagrams

Schoyen, Dr., letters to, 237-239 ;
notes on wasps from, 218

Science and Art Department, in-
vited to help, 87 ; diagrams for,
88 ; official plagiarism, 88

Scolytus desinidor, Oliv., 169, 170
(Fig.) ; 5. pritni, Ratz., 270, 271

, (Fig-)
Seaweeds, 39

Sedbury Park, 7, 14-19 ; remini-
scences of, 15 ; routine of life at,

17, PI. i.
Servants, Miss Ormerod's kindly

treatment of, 94
Service, Mr. Robert, letter to, 99 ;

notes by, 104, 105
Sesia bembeciformis, see Trochllimn
Seth, Professor, letter from, 303
Severn and Wye, the, 33, PI. ix.
Severn, cliffs, PI. x. ; colour of, 35,

41 ; shipping of, 36
"Shag" or " Chog," 197
Sheep spider fly, or " ked," 141

(Fig.) ; nostril fly, 304, 305 ; see

Melophagus
" Sheep Scab," paper on, 299, 306
Shell-(snail)-slug, 191 (Fig.), 192
Shells, Miss Georgiana Ormerod's

love for, 3
Shot-borer, see Xyleborus dispar
Signoret's, Dr., opinion, 79
Silk, moths injuring, 219
Silpha opaca, Linn., 142 (Fig.)
sup Ji ides, 219
" Silver-top " wheat, 197
Simpson, Mr. Wm., letter from, 72
Sirex juvencus, 81 ; S. gigas, 81

INDEX

347

Siiones (pea-weevil), 226

Sitophilus granariiis, 262 ; S. oryzce,
262

Sitotroga {Gelccliia) cercalella, 188

" Slime" fungus, 213

Smirke, Sir Robert, 7

Smith and Co.'s flour, Messrs., 266

Smith, John B., 257

Smith, Sir Robert Murdoch, refer-
ence to, 284

Snail-slug, 191 (Fig.), 192

Snellen, Mr., on "Great" and
" Small " tortoiseshell butterflies,

131

Sparrow, Hedge, 162

Sparrow, House, Passer domesticiis,
i6o-i68, 160 (Fig.)

Sparrow leaflet, 163, 166, 167, 225 ;
extract from, 164

" Sparrow, Spare the," 165

"Sparrow, The House," Teget-
meier's, 167, 168

Sparrow, Tree, Passer uiontanus,
162 (Fig.)

Sparrows, repeal of laws in America
protecting, 161

" Spider " fly, 304

"Spinach moth," 231

"Splint," a sap-wood beetle,
Scolytus prnni, 271 (Fig.)

Sprayers, 208

Spret, Jimciis articulatus, 104

St. Alban's Show, Prince and
Princess of Wales at, 123 ;
exhibit for, 123

Stebbing, E. P., 307

Stein, or Hartman quoted by Stein,
260

Stem eel-worms, 209 (Fig.)

Steven lecturer, on Agricultural
Entomology in Edinburgh Uni-
versity, 282, see Fream, Dr.

Stewart's, Prince Charles, march
to Manchester, 10

St. Petersburg International Ex-
hibition, 19

Stock flies, 304, 307

Strathconan Deer Forest flies, 260,
261

Strawberries, moles at, 153 ; eel
worms at, 204 ; beetles at, 223

Strigul, ancient name of Chep-
stow, 8

" Strigulensia," George Ormerod's,
7,21

I Subpoena, a, 69
Suff erings,political, of " Tyldesley "
in 1745, 10

T

TabanidcB, 138, 141, 145, 150
Tabanus autiimnalis, 136; bovinus,

Linn., 135 (Fig.), 136
Tachina fly, 106 ; larvae, 186
Taschenberg's, Dr., "Die Prak-

tische Insektenkunde," 277
Taylor, Dr., 284 ; letter from, 310
Tecla, St., chapel of, 33
Tegetmeier, Mr., letters to, 159-168
Tenebrioides mauritauiciis, 70
Teriacus, Tecla, or Treacle, Saint,

33
Testacella haliotidea, Draparnaud,

i shell-slug, 191 (Fig.), 192

I Texas fever, 193, 257

I Thackeray, death of Mrs., 6

i "Thrips," 185, 197
Thursby, John Ormerod Scarlett, 9
Thursby, Rev. William, 9
Thursby, Sir John Hardy, 9
Thysanoptera, 185
Ticks causing " redwater," 193,

Tidenham church, 18, 21, 22, 24,

25, 26, 29, PI. vii.
Timberman beetle, 224 (Fig.)
Time-table, mail coach, 44
Tintern Abbey, PI. v.
: Tip Ilia, daddy longlegs or crane
fly, 64, 284
Toasts of the rival kings, 1 1
Toddington Experimental Com-
mittee, 201, 203, 204, 207, 248,
277, 333
Tomato root-knot eel- worm, 213

(Fig.), 214
Torquay, 73

Torrington House, St. Albans, 19,
73, PI. xxiv. ; an " at home "
at, 86
Tortoiseshell butterflies, 129, 131
Tortrix viridana, 145, (Fig.) 146
Townhead Farm, Closeburn, Dum-
friesshire, 104
Transportation of wingless females

by winged males, 183
Travelling in olden times, 43-46
Treacle, or Tryacle, Island, 33
Tribolium fcrriigineiim, Fab., 70,
72, 266 (Fig.)

348

INDEX

Trinity College School, Port Hope,

Canada, destruction of by fire, 227

Triton cristatus, Miss Ormerod's

paper on, 59
Trochilium bemhcciforinc, 103
Trogosiia maiiriianica, 70, 72
Trout crammed with "hillgrub,"

105
" Tulip root," 65, 209 (Fig.)
Turnip caterpillars, 10 1 ; fly or flea
beetle, 76 ; mud beetle (Helo-
phorusrugosus), 108 ; saw fly, 211
Tyldesley, i, 7, 10
Tylenchiis dcvastatrix, 79, 190, 209
(Fig.) ; attacking clover, 226

Vanessa poly chloros, Great Tortoise-
shell butterfly, 129 (Fig.), 130, 186

"Venus" shells, 40

Verney, Sir Harry, 121

Verrall's List of British Diptera, 157

Vere Street Chapel, London,
preachers at, 26, 27

Voelcker, Dr. A., on gas-lime, 195

Voles, report on, 104

W

Wales, Prince and Princess of,

123, 124
Wallace, Professor, an ally and

friend, 227 ; letters to, 275-325
Wallace, Dr. Quintin, M.A., death

of, 281
Warble fly, see Hypodcrma hovis
Ward, Mr., 125
Warington, Professor, Sibthorpian

lecturer, 225, 298
Wasps, 17. 218, 220, 273
"Wasps, British Social," by

Dr. E. L. Ormerod, 93
Wasp's nest, 241 (Fig.)
Watercresses attacked by Caddis

worms, 151, 282
Waterloo, news of battle of, 31
Waterloo Station, accident at, 77
"Water-moth," see Mormonia ni-

gromaciilata
Water-snails, 144
Weed seed for adulterating im-
ports, 276
Weevil, see Bmchiis, injuries to

bean and pea seed, 143
Weevils in flour, 72, 262

Westminster, Mr. Bailey's corre-
spondence with the Duke of, 1 1 1
West, Newman & Co., Messrs., 277,

302
Westwood, Professor, 78, 80, 205,

279, 280 ; letter from, 81
Whalley, Whitaker's history of, 8
Whateley, Archbishop, 27
Wheat cleaning, 275 ; " silver-top "
or "white eared," 197 ; wheat
with Hessian fly maggot, 131

(i^^ig-)
Whipple's experiment with larvae,

211
White ants destroying cocoa trees,

268
Whitehead, Mr. Charles, 76
Wild tribes of India, 309
William IV., i

WiUiam of Worcester quoted, 34
Willow weevil, 267
Winter moth, 146 (Fig.), traps, 183 ;

see Cheimatobia
Wire worm, 206
Wise, letters to Mr., 151, 152
Woburn report on mite-galls, 157 ;

Experimental Fruit Grounds, 226
Wood leopard moth {Zeuzera

asciili), 102 (Fig.)
Woolastone, 22
W^oolly aphis, 144
Work, plan of Miss Ormerod's, 78
Writing, Miss Ormerod's early

love for, 2 ; specimen of, 89
Wye, free railway passage over,

208 ; map of lower valley, PI.

ix. ; railway bridge on, PI. xxvi.
i

I X

Xylcborus dispar, Fab., 182, 198,

''199 (Fig.), 331 (App.)
Xyleboi'us pyri, 198
Xylcborus saxescni, 188, 263

Yeats, Dr. John, on saurian re-
mains, 41

Z

Zeuzera asculi, Linn., 102 (Fig.)
Zimmermann, A., trials with

"formalin," 220
Zoology, Dr. Claus' text-book of,276
Zoology, Hope Professorship of,

at Oxford, 280

LONDON : WEST, NEW.MAM AND CO., HATTON GARDEN.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
BRANCH OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

THIS BOOK IS DUE O^ THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW

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JAN 2 3 1963

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