Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

50
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
'Twenty years' observations on Botany, Entomology, Ornithology,
and Meteorology, taken at Marlborough College, 1864-84' to be
issued by the College Natural History Society, whose reports began
in 1865, under Mr. Preston's guidance.
He died at Thurcaston, 6th February, 1905. The last work
undertaken by him was a Plora of Leicestershire, which, it is
announced, will be completed by a friend and competent
successor.
A former pupil writes :— " I remember that he w as exceedingly
kind to us boys, who learned from him so much about the zoology,
botany, and geology of the Marlborough neighbourhood. He was
a most careful observer and taught his pupils to record in a proper
way everything that was noteworthy. He started a botanic
garden after I left Marlborough. He was constantly arranging
excursions, also lectures and discussions in his room in the evenings.''
A former colleague states :— " Not a master of the ordinary type,
which compels immediate attention and commands popularity, not
a great Form- or Housemaster, or athlete, yet in his own subjects
and in his own way, his powers of originating and organizing, of
stimulating and permanently influencing, mark him out as one of
the leading spirits, and one of the truest benefactors of Marlborough
College . , . His own enthusiasm was catching. Little
bands of followers attended him armed with hammers, butterfly
nets, moth boxes, and botany tins. His room a little before bedtime
was a notable sight. Hither were brought the miscellaneous
spoils of a half-holiday raid : flowers with the prospect of a ' first
notice,' butterflies, flints, coins, all to be identified and discussed
by the Master. Later in the sixties . . . Mr. Preston gave some
excellent courses of lectures on botany, zoology, comparative
anatomy, and physiology. This was a step in advance of the time,
for Science Masters and Laboratories had not then been introduced.
They were capital lectures, very stimulating, questions being asked
and answered. The lecturer's munificence was shown here as in
all his other work, fine specimens and beautiful instruments being
freely provided The Natural History Society did not, as was
dreaded, injure games. The Society has long been an essential
])art of the school life, but it was a novel thing in the sixties, the
first of its kind in the Public Schools of England, and those who
appreciate the interest and the refrcsliment which it affords to
minds somewhat jaded with cricket, and iambics, and essays, and
turned lessons, the pure delight of a field-day's outing with its
al fresco meals on grass or in barn, will surely bless the memory of
the founder. Not a few famous scientific men have drawn
inspiration from the Natural History Society."
On leaving Marlborough a crowded meeting presented him with
a farewell address, which embodies much that has been set out
above.
" Mr. Preston held the living of Thurcaston for over 19 years.
He found it heavily encumbered, he left it free . . • His scientific