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 life, the 12th of March, 1852, would be about the
beginning of my real study of Entomology. 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 (plate 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”[25] 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 _palpi_, _maxillæ_, and names of all the
smaller parts of 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 “looked 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 (?), in
the 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 1-inch and ¼-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.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
PLATE XVII.
CHEPSTOW WITH THE ROAD BRIDGE OVER THE WYE (OPENED IN 1816), CHEPSTOW
CASTLE ON THE RIVER-BANK, AND RISING GROUND BEHIND.
_Frith photo._
]
In the number of the “Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette” for
August 1, 1868, the announcement was made that “Throughout the month of
August there will be open in the Palace of Industry, in the Champs
Élysées, Paris, an Exhibition which we conceive cannot fail to be of
great service in extending a knowledge of the destructive or beneficial
habits of various species of insects.... The Exhibition is organised by
the ‘Société 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 attention 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 Collection 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 which they feed; next to these again,
“insects beneficial or injurious to man.” Negotiations 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
Collection, 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. J. 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 workings, as I then
resided on my father’s Gloucestershire property. 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 plentiful; 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 cliffs 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. His last illness, however, was short. On the
Monday preceding 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,[26] 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 unexpectedly 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 practising 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 excellent 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 Manchester 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 archæology, 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. III. PAGE 450 (1ST
EDITION), RELATIVE TO THE ORIGINAL OF PL. XVIII.
“_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.”
[Illustration:
PLATE XVIII.
ANTIQUE CARVED CHEST, AN HEIRLOOM OF THE ORMEROD FAMILY.
]
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