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The Life and Thoughts of a Naturalist

With Portraits, and an Introduction by.

Eliza Brightwen, née Elder, was born Oct. 30, 1830, and died May 5, 1905. Her love of nature was intense from an early age, yet it was not till 1890 that her gifts as a naturalist were prominently brought before the public. Though she was the friend of Hooker and other eminent men of science, the chief interest of her biography is its self-revelation, which is remarkably candid and pathetic. The book shows her religious earnestness and benevolence, and her delight in all the works of nature from a gipsy to a cork-moth. The last twenty years of her life were spent in her beautiful residence at Great Stanmore, where she petted and studied curious animals and was a shining light of the Selborne Society.