Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/370

 value. From his earliest years he showed a keen interest in birds. 'I have myself,' he wrote, 'talked with men who have taken the eggs of the avocet and black-tailed godwit, and who have seen the bustard at large in its last stronghold. The bittern was so common in Feltwell Fen that a keeper there has shot five in one day, and his father used to have one roasted for dinner every Sunday. I have found the eggs of Montagu's harrier, and know those who remember the time when the hen harrier and short-eared owl bred regularly in Roydon Fen, and who have taken the eggs of the water-rail in what was once Whittlesea Mere.' He devoted much attention to the preservation of birds. For the educational series of the Society for the Protection of Birds he wrote papers on the swallow (No. 4), and the terns (No. 12). His most useful achievement was the completion of the 'Birds of Norfolk,' by Henry Stevenson, F.L.S., of which the earlier volumes had been published (1866–1870). Stevenson died on 18 Aug. 1888, and in 1890 Southwell brought out the third volume, thus completing 'a model county ornithology,' from letters and manuscripts left by the author, but largely supplemented by information supplied by himself.

In 1881 Southwell published 'The Seals and Whales of the British Seas' (sm. 4to), papers reprinted from ' Science Gossip.' From 1884 onwards he contributed annually to the 'Zoologist' a lucid report with authentic statistics on the seal and whale fisheries. He had been elected a fellow of the Zoological Society on 22 Feb. 1872, his proposer being Professor [q. v. Suppl. II]. He closely identified himself with the work of the Norwich museum, serving on the committee from 1893, when the old museum was transferred to Norwich castle. He compiled an admirable official guide in 1896, and contributed an article entitled 'An Eighteenth Century Museum ' to the 'Museum Journal' in 1908. Southwell died at 10 The Crescent, Norwich, on 5 Sept. 1909. He married, on 15 June 1868, Margaret Fyson of Great Yarmouth (d. 10 July 1903), and by her had two daughters, who survived him.

Besides the works mentioned and many other contributions to periodicals, Southwell published a revised edition of the Rev. Richard Lubbock's 'Fauna of Norfolk' (1879; first published in 1845), and 'Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk, more especially on the Birds and Fishes' (1902), from Sir Thomas Browne's MSS. in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library.

 SPENCER, HERBERT (1820–1903), philosopher, was born in Derby on 27 April 1820. The Spencer family had been settled for several centuries in the parish of Kirk Ireton in Derbyshire. All Spencer's four grandparents were among the early followers of John Wesley. His paternal grandfather, Matthew Spencer, settled in Derby as a schoolmaster; he had six sons, and on his death left his property in Kirk Ireton, consisting of a few cottages and two fields, to his eldest son, [q. v.], the father of Herbert Spencer. George Spencer, as he was commonly called to distinguish him from his youngest brother, who was also William, was a man of extremely strong individuality and advanced social and religious views. In 1819 he married Harriet Holmes, the only daughter of a plumber and glazier in Derby. On her mother's side a dash of Huguenot and Hussite blood was traceable. Of this, however, she showed little trace in her character, which was patient, gentle, and conforming. Neither in intellect nor in force of character was she able to cope with her somewhat overbearing husband, and the marriage was not a happy one. Herbert was eldest and only surviving child. Four brothers and four sisters succeeded him (Duncan), but all died within a few days of their birth, with the exception of one sister, Louisa, who lived for nearly three years. His father's energies were taken up with teaching, and Herbert's early education was somewhat neglected. Until the age of thirteen he lived at Derby, with an interlude of three years in the neighbourhood of Nottingham; he attended a day school, but was particularly backward in Latin, Greek, and the other usual subjects of instruction. On the other hand, in natural history, in physics, and in miscellaneous information of all kinds he was advanced for his age. He acquired some knowledge of science from the literature circulated by the Derby Philosophical Society, of which his father was honorary secretary. His father did everything to encourage him in the cultivation of his natural tastes for science and observation of nature. At thirteen he