Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

46
PROCEEDINGS OE THE
Mrs. Percy Sladen, 1848-190G.— Constance Anderson, daughter
of the Lite William Charles Anderson, M.E.C.S., J. P., sometime
Sherifi: of York, was born in that city on the 11th of August^
1848. The noble minster of her native place may be credited
with Laving kindled in her an enthusiasm for architecture and
antiquarian lore. One of her brothers, Dr. Tempest Anderson,
M.D., D.Sc, P.L.S., has informed us that in the outset of life her
taste was cultivated at the York School of Art and in Eome.
Among the results of the proficiency thus attained are spirited
accounts of some important English churches, which she published
at the prompting and under the editorship of Professor Bonney,
P. U.S., in 1884 and 1890. One of these essays describes the
grand cathedral with which from childhood she had been familiar.
The others are concerned vrith the less I'enowned but archaeologically
and otherwise very interesting parish churches of Louth, Halifax,
and Bradford, and the Abbey church of Selby. In j-egard to the last
of these, the authoress remarks that "to give any idea of the beauty
of the interior, words utterly fail,"' and then proceeds, with perhaps
designed inconsistency, by her ovvTi skilfully worded sketch toevoke
a very pleasing conception of its numerous charms. Upon
wedding Mr. Percy Sladen in 1890 she readily allowed her lively
intelligence to be directed to a new sphere of interest. Por five
years after his marriage Sladen continued to be, as he had been
for five years before it. Zoological Secretary of this Society. The
President in his address has explained how the sympatLy between
genial husband and genial wife led eventually to tbe foundation
of the Pei-cy-Sladen Trust, a boon to science great in promise and
already not insignificant in performance. Before this came about
there had to be intervening days of sunshine and days of sorrow.
In 1898 the husband inherited a large fortune. In 1900 the ^vife
became a widov/. Thus it fell to her lot to carry out his wishes,
and to show in only too brief opportunity that she knew how to
make no ignoble use of riches. In the tribute of this memorial
notice she herself enjoys a sorrowful primacy, won by what in
the language of human ignorance we call her untimely death on
the 17th of January, 1906. In the ranks of women who have
been expressly honoui-ed by the Linnean Society, the past yields
two conspicuous examples—Lady Smith, who survived her husband,
our Pounder, for nearly fifty-six years, and Queen Victoria, who
was for a still longer period our gracious patron. But neither of
these remarkable persons was eligible for the ordinary Peilowship,
to which Mrs. Percy Sladen was admitted, with a bevy of other
ladies, on the memorable 19th of January, 1905, when the tardy
recognition of women's aptitude for biological research received
its inaugural blessing so far as this great house of science was able
to bestow it.
[T. E. R. S.]
William Soweeby, who died on 9th March, 1906, at his residence
at Baker's End, Ware, Herts, aged 79, came of a family well
known in the records of natural history in this country. His