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 longing 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 entomological publications as I can get together for acceptance by the Entomological Society of Ontario.[[35]] I cannot tell you 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 thinking 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 conversation. 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. Therefore 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 was 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 intellectual 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 was 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.”
PLATE XIX.
Torrington House, St. Albans, Herts, Miss Ormerod’s last Residence.
(p. [115].)
Lady Hooker made a practice of inviting Miss Ormerod and her sister to come over and help to entertain distinguished visitors at great functions and on the occasion of visits of official scientific parties. On one 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:—