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.