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Aldersey most favourable to his pursuits in the British Islands. His only sister, who survived him unmarried, always accompanied and assisted him. Thus he collected the large museum of British shells and zoophytes, which, with his library, was presented to the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by Sir William Armstrong. The latter society, founded 1829, as well as the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, founded in 1846, owed very much to Alder. In conjunction with Mr. Albany Hancock, he published the great monograph ‘On the British Nudibranchiate Mollusca,’ 1845–55 (Ray Society). His various papers, all zoological, and over fifty in number, are published in the ‘Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland,’ vols. i. and ii.; ‘Trans. Tyneside Nat. Field Club,’ vols. i. iii. iv. v. vi.; ‘Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland,’ vol. i.; ‘Magaz. Zool. Bot.’ vol. ii.; ‘Ann. Nat Hist.’ from vol. vi. onwards; ‘Trans. Zool. Soc.’ vol. v.; ‘Journ. Microsc. Soc.’ vol. iv.; ‘Brit. Assoc. Reports,’ 1844. In 1840 Mr. Alder gave up business and devoted himself exclusively to science. The loss of all his property by the failure of a local bank in 1857 was irreparable; but by the aid of a Civil List pension of 70l., supplemented by personal friends, Alder was enabled to continue his work till his death in 1867. His geniality and uprightness were as notable as his power of accurate and minute observation and his trustworthiness as a draughtsman. His soundness of judgment made him an acknowledged authority in the discrimination of species. Many of his papers were written in conjunction with Mr. Albany Hancock, but the larger number bore his own name.

[See Notice of Life, with List of Publications, by Dr. Embleton, in Nat. Hist. Trans. North. &c. vol. i. pp. 324–337.]  ALDERSEY, LAURENCE (fl. 1581–1586), traveller, made two journeys to the Levant, the accounts of which, ‘set downe by himself,’ are preserved to us in the pages of Hakluyt. Aldersey set out on his first journey on 1 April 1581, travelling overland through Holland and Germany to Venice, where he embarked on board a vessel bound for Cyprus. From thence he sailed in a small bark and landed at Joppa (Jaffa), finally reaching Jerusalem, the goal of his journey, 12 Aug. After a visit of ten days to the Holy City and its environs, he returned by the way he came, passing through Nuremberg and Antwerp, and finishing his journey to and from Jerusalem in the space of nine months and five days.

His second journey was made by sea. Embarking at Bristol in the ship Hercules, of London, 21 Feb. 1586, he sailed through the Straits and first touched at the Goletta of Tunis; from thence he sailed to Zante and to Patras in the Morea. At the latter place he and his company were received with honour by the cadi of the town, as they had on board the Hercules twenty Turks, ‘redeemed by Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies, at which the cadi marvailed much at the Queenes Maiestie of England being a woman of such power and renown.’ From thence he sailed to various islands in the Grecian Archipelago, and after a second visit to Cyprus he landed at Tripolis, in Syria, whence he took a small passage boat and finally reached Alexandria on 28 July. The only Englishman to receive him there was Thomas Rickman, master of the ship ‘Tyger’ of London, who worthily performed the duties of a guide to the place. After visiting all the objects of interest in or near Alexandria and Cairo during a visit of fourteen days, he made his way to Argiers (Algiers); leaving this place on 7 Jan., he landed at Dartmouth on 1 Feb., and seven days later ‘came to London, with humble thanks to Almightie God for his safe arrival.’ Considering the period at which they were written, Aldersey's observations on men and cities are exceedingly curious and interesting; as, for instance, those upon Cologne, Augsburg, Venice, and Alexandria. His remarks upon the Doge and the Jews of Venice are worthy of the attention of the student of Shakespeare. Aldersey describes himself as a merchant of London; he was in all probability a near relative of Thomas Aldersey, whose name is familiar to the student of the State papers of the period.

[Hakluyt's Voyages, Lond. 1598, fol., ii. 150, 282.]  ALDERSON, AMELIA. [See Opie, Amelia (DNB00).]

ALDERSON, EDWARD HALL (1787–1857), judge, was the son of Robert Alderson, for many years recorder of Norwich, Yarmouth, and Ipswich. His mother dying in 1791, he was sent to live with his maternal grandfather, Mr. Hurry, and went to school at Scarning, near Dereham. Thence he passed to the Charterhouse in 1804, and after being a pupil of Maltby, afterwards bishop of Durham, at Buckden, Huntingdonshire, entered Caius College, Cambridge, in 1805. He was Browne's medallist in 1807, and in 1809 took a degree, only once equalled (by Brundish, of Caius, in 1773), being senior wrangler, first Smith's prizeman, and first chancellor's medallist, the last honour being then the highest attainable by classical scholarship. He became a fellow of his college, 