Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/265

 Rh early life. "Sir John William Lubbock, the astronomer and mathematician, and a prominent Fellow of the Royal Society, spent his early married life at Mitcham Grove, in a house (now pulled down) which had belonged to the Hoares. But on succeeding to the baronetcy in 1840, he settled permanently at High Elms, Farnborough, Kent, which, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, had been a mere farm. He had a family of eight sons and three daughters, and as the former began to grow up he made a delightful cricket ground for them, and organised matches in which for some years he used to take part. John was the eldest of the sons, and being in his boyhood rather delicate, and from the first devoted to study, he was less known for success in games and sport than his numerous brothers. He was, however, fond of cricket and the Eton game of fives, his father having built a fives court at High Elms, and there being also a court at my home (about three miles off). For a time he assisted in the management of the West Kent Cricket Club. Long afterwards, when he had almost given up the game, he agreed to play one or two matches for the 'Lords and Commons,' then exceptionally strong in cricketers. In order to prepare himself, he used to get Joseph Wells, the Bromley professional, to bowl to him for some weeks regularly in the early morning before he went up to London to business, the result being that he scored well in matches against Harrow and the famous wandering club 'I Zingari.' Lord Avebury was very keen about fives, and a good performer. I have played with him scores of times. He generally had some stiff book of science with him, which he read between the games. When we most often played together he was engaged in the study of bee life, and between the games I have several times seen him mark a bee's head with paint, the bee never attempting to sting him. He was trying how far they could find their way home to the hive." With respect to Lord Avebury's intimate association with Charles Darwin, Dr. Norman adds,—"His introduction to science was undoubtedly to a large extent brought about by his being near Darwin, who encouraged and helped him in his study of plant life when he was a child."

He was an indefatigable Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed over one hundred papers to its publications. His favourite