CHAPTER XI

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR

The removal of Miss Ormerod and her sister, Georgiana, from Torquay to Spring Grove, Isleworth, was primarily because Torquay did not suit their health and secondarily because at Isleworth they were near Kew Gardens, where they were on intimate terms with Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker. They left again for Torrington House, St. Albans, in September, 1887, partly because Sir Joseph resigned the Directorship of Kew Gardens in 1885 and partly because of the increase of population, and the defective and unwholesome drainage of the house. In a letter (p. 74) to Dr. Bethune, one of her esteemed Canadian correspondents, she refers to her impending change of residence.

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.”

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.”

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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:—

“My sister was talking to a small market gardener in a flower garden she was painting near Penzance, and Miss Ormerod’s name happened to be mentioned. The old gardener was beside himself with delight to meet some one who knew Miss Ormerod. He said she had saved him from utter ruin. His flowers had become infected with some injurious insect which bade fair to devastate the whole garden. In despair, hearing of Miss Ormerod, he wrote to her and not only received a kind letter of advice, but also a copy of her work on ‘Injurious Insects’ with the page turned down and the paragraphs specially applicable to the case marked. No wonder the poor old chap with tears in his eyes said he loved his unknown benefactress.”

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Miss Ormerod was appointed Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1882, and for ten years retained that honourable position to the advantage of the Members and the British public generally.

The need of a Consulting Entomologist was forcibly brought home to the Society, then under the presidency of Mr. J. Dent-Dent, by the disastrous attack in 1881 of the Turnip fly, or more correctly flea beetle, which resulted in an estimated loss of over half a million sterling to farmers in England and Scotland. Leading agriculturists all over the country, but more from the East than the West, supplied information for a report, and special assistance was given by some members of the Royal Agricultural Society, including Mr. J. H. Arkwright of Hampton Court, Herefordshire. The results were embodied in the Annual Report for 1881, published in 1882.

A short time after this event a request was made to Miss Ormerod to indicate whether she would accept the post of Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society. Urged by Mr. Charles Whitehead, Chairman of the “Seeds and Plant Diseases Committee,” and by her intimate personal friend Professor Herbert Little, another member of the Council, she accepted, but with hesitation and with considerable reluctance, engendered by the opposition of her sister Georgiana, who believed her strength was not equal to the strain of additional work. The meeting with members of the Council at the Society’s offices, 12, Hanover Square, London, at which details were discussed, was unusually trying, in spite of the kindly courtesy of the Secretary (Mr. H. M. Jenkins) for whom Miss Ormerod entertained the deepest regard. She says, writing in 1900, “I was nearly frightened out of my wits in going through the requested ordeal, and the recollections of the experiences remain as uniquely unpleasant. On arriving, I gave my card to the attendant, who led me upstairs, where I expected to meet but two or three people, and I was ushered into a room full of gentlemen standing waiting my arrival, not one of whom except Professor Little was known to me even by sight. I advanced about two feet, my sole thought being of the awkward fix in which I had so suddenly been landed, and how I should get out of it. Scarcely a word was spoken when I was led down again to the Secretary’s room, where a discussion took place with Professor Little, Mr. Whitehead, the Secretary, and the President of the Society,—the others remained absent. In the discussion the President attempted a slight examination of my qualifications, but it amounted to little more than eliciting the length of time during which attention had been devoted to Entomology. My reply was “about thirty years,” to which he had nothing further to say. There was a slight departure from the serious nature of the interview when a parcel of Daddy longlegs grubs which had been placed on the table, gave way, and the creatures crawled all over the place. The final result was, that I agreed to take the post of Consulting Entomologist, but I returned home very uneasy in mind and wrote the same evening that I did not wish to accept office. I was, however, pressed into acceptance at the first business meeting and the first work I undertook was the making of drawings to form originals for six diagrams illustrating some common injurious insects with life histories and methods of prevention.[36] This would be the first Tuesday of June, 1882, and I inaugurated my position on the way home by meeting with a severe accident at Waterloo Station, from the results of which I have never recovered. While doubtless rather preoccupied, crossing the road, a rapid incline from Waterloo Road to the station, I did not notice a carriage coming down the slope till the horses’ heads were over mine. With no time to run or turn, I sprang and landed on the pavement, but a sharp pain set in, in the muscle above one knee. Whether it originated from a strain or a blow I never knew, but a little flask I carried on the injured side was beaten in as if by a horse’s foot or the point of a carriage pole. The injury was not properly attended to and the affected part gradually increasing and spreading gave rise to the lameness accompanied with severe and frequently intermittent pain which necessitated exceeding quiet and bodily inactivity—a state of matters which was in marked contrast to the extremely active life I had led in my early years rambling in the country, and latterly by indulging in the mechanical in addition to the usual æsthetical pleasures of gardening.”

She explains in a letter to Dr. Fletcher, dated August 22, 1892 (p. 212) that she was driven by failing health to resign her honorary official work and to concentrate her energies upon her private work, which steadily increased in volume, and especially on the work of her Annual Report.

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A conception of the interesting methods adopted by Miss Ormerod in carrying out her work may be gleaned from her own words addressed to us in the course of a long and intimate correspondence.

“I will now try and think of something you may care to insert about languages. So far as I can avoid it, I try not to write in any language but my own, but I can read serviceably French, Italian, and Spanish, and also Latin for what I need; likewise, of course, German; Russian I could read once but not so readily now; and with the dictionary I can make something of Dutch and Norwegian.”

“Of my very special colleagues who are now gone from us, were Professor Westwood, Life President of the Entomological Society, and Dr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of the Board of Agriculture of the U.S.A.; and Professor Huxley, in days when I sat on the Council of Education Committee of Economic Entomology, was a valued friend. It was marvellous to see how Huxley with his towering personality led a committee. On one occasion he asked if any one present would express an opinion on the subject under consideration, and he rather suddenly directed his attention to a certain member of committee, who was so startled he nearly got frightened out of his life.”[37]

“The regular course of my work brings me into such constantly recurring communication with the Entomological Departments of our own Colonies, also of many of the U.S.A. States, and various Continental Societies or specialists, that I may venture to say that as occasion occurs we interchange—I mean the heads of the Departments and myself—friendly observations, very beneficial and pleasant to me. The plan of my work has long been to reply, if I could do so soundly, to every enquiry on the day of receipt. Often investigation is needed for scientific purposes, but a large proportion of the enquiries may be answered at once so far as the practical needs of the enquirers are concerned. For further purposes my custom is to work up anything new or involved that occurs, for use in the following Annual Report. I do not devolve on my specialist referees the researches (so far as I can ascertain the state of the case), but they tell me if my identification is correct, or correct it for me, and I quite invariably, if the matter be for publication, publish also my acknowledgment. The correspondence continues steadily all the year round, more of course in the warm seasons of the year than at other times, but even in winter it never ceases. My plan has generally been to store up all the observations of the growing (and consequently insect-attacking) times of the year till autumn, and then sort them and prepare them for the Annual Report of that year. If some favourite subject be under discussion the letters may be very numerous. I once had a run of 60, 80, to 100 a day for a short time, including on one day a total of 149—but of course on such an occasion I was obliged to get help to keep reply at all in hand. The steady letter work of the year I estimate at about 1,500.”

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Referring on December 27, 1889, to a proposal which had been made to procure an assistant to relieve her of the enormous pressure of work, she says:—

“I need not point out that, however agreeable the post might be to my so-called ‘assistant,’ to me the addition would be a trouble—loss of time and other inconveniences beyond telling. It would be more trouble to write to him than to attend myself, and as a referee he would be almost useless. My reference work is to the leading men of the world—those who are known, literally, as the authorities above all others on the special points; thus I am in no way derogating from the respect I bear to Professor Harker’s[38] knowledge, but who that knew anything would have cared for his opinion on _Icerya purchasi_ (scale insect of orange trees)? Dr.Signoret’s opinion carried all before it. Again, no one’s opinion stands like that of Mr. G. B. Buckton on Aphides, and he communicates with me whenever I ask.

“On that most important agricultural matter, _Tylenchus devastatrix_, there is no one in England fit to form an opinion worth comparison with Drs. de Man and J. Ritzema Bos, by whom I am favoured, through being allowed any amount of communication. These, and men like these, pre-eminent each in his own line, are the referees that I personally am honoured by being allowed to ask aid from; and in my own humble way sometimes I can reciprocate, but ‘an assistant’ would do me no good in any of these matters. And with regard to agricultural and applied bearings I do not want a _dictum_, but year by year by my own correspondence with agriculturists to work out on the fields the parts of the cases as they occur, and to give the points to the public in my reports. I am responsible for the entomological work of the R.A.S.E., and unless it goes through my hands I do not know what may be going on, and no one would know to whom to write, or, in fact, anything definite about the matter, if there were an assistant. I have my own circle of helpers, my own paid special referee, by whom I reach specialists out of my circle, and my lady amanuensis in the house, besides my good sister’s invaluable aid—always promptly and ably given. So long as I can I hope to keep my work in my own hands, and if it were not for the great masses sometimes sent me, which come because I have been (up to the present time) the only Official Entomologist here, the work would not have been so distressing. Professor Harker is, I believe, excellently qualified to hold a good and high entomological post, but not even Professor Riley or Professor Westwood would work a post without referees. Some day, I hope, he may be high in office; then he will, as I do now, have his organised corresponding staff.”

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“As a meteorological observer, while living at Isleworth my work consisted in taking notes on about eighteen different subjects once a day, beginning at 9 a.m., Greenwich time precisely. These included taking the readings of the maximum and minimum temperatures, and also those other thermometrical conditions, as of dry and wet bulb, solar, earth, and ground thermometers, &c.; likewise of rainfall in the past four-and-twenty hours, of the state of weather at the time; the nature of the clouds, with the amount and direction of them, and likewise the direction and estimated speed of wind. The time occupied out of doors in the observations was about twenty minutes, to which had to be added the barometrical reading with that of the attached thermometers, with corrections according to tables furnished for altitude of the barometer, and such minute errors in record of the thermometers as were shown by tables of error furnished by comparison with the instruments at the Royal Observatory, Kew. Altogether the work required some considerable amount of time, and also most scrupulous attention to accuracy, not to say some amount of personal self-denial, as whatever the weather might be at 9 a.m. the work had to be done. Perhaps there would be a thunderstorm, or at other times cold so great that my fingers almost froze to the instruments, as on one occasion, when the thermometer registered nearly down to zero.”

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Professor Westwood belonged to the good old academic type of scholar who made the responses in church in Latin. He was, till his death, Miss Ormerod’s mentor from her initiation into Entomology, and she regarded him as the greatest living scientific authority in the broad lines of their common subject during the whole period of her advisory work. They “got on famously,” and as she said, he “took the privilege,” which she highly appreciated, “of knocking her work about,” as the subjoined letter, written at an early stage of her career as an authoress, charmingly shows.

UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, OXFORD, _January 10, 1884_.

MY DEAR MISS ORMEROD,—I congratulate you on the publication of your “Guide to Methods of Insect Life”—the nicest little Introduction to Entomology with which I am acquainted. You have been very fortunate in obtaining such a good series of woodcuts, many of which were new to me. Allow me to suggest one or two improvements after a hurried glance over the contents. It would have been well to have indicated more precisely the size of some of the objects figured; for instance, the locust, p. 28, is twice the size of the figure—whilst the earwig, on the same page, is about one-half the length of the figure. In p. 98, the Death’s-head moth, which is twice the size of the Eyed-hawk moth, is represented smaller than it is in next page. In p. 118 the fly is the _Sirex juvencus_, not the commoner one _S. gigas_. In p. 125 the Bee parasite has not the front portion of the wings black, but as milky as the other part. In p. 73, line 8, for “glassy” read “glossy.” I know you will thank me for these hurried suggestions, or I would not have troubled you with them.

Thanks for your kind enquiries. I am thankful to say that after two months’ attack of bronchitis I am nearly all right again, but have been much confined to the house, although I have been wanting to go to London. My kind remembrance to your sister. We should be very glad if you could come and give us a visit for a short time.—Yours very truly,

J. O. WESTWOOD.

The high terms of approval and appreciation of her work by Miss Ormerod’s numerous foreign correspondents are shown in no halting manner in the subjoined letter:—

_From Dr. J. A. Lintner, New York State Entomologist._[39]

ALBANY, N.Y. _May 29, 1889._

MY DEAR MISS ORMEROD,—I must congratulate you upon your last Report. It is excellent, and reflects great credit upon you. I am very glad that your letters have been so appreciated that it has been necessary to summon a lady private secretary to your aid. It will be a satisfaction to you that you will now be able to accomplish much more than before. I am led to think whether I should not ask our next Legislature to provide for an assistant for me.

Your kind letter of the 10th inst. was also duly received. How strange, and how very interesting to me, that you should discover _Cecidomyia leguminicola_ (Gnat midge), red maggot, with you, as you have done, working at the root—only “infesting the root,” and not, so far as known, attacking the head. If it occurs on the blossoms, you should have been able to find it there by the time that this reaches you, for, as I have somewhere mentioned, the nearly-mature larva shows a disposition to leave the clover heads very soon after they are picked. You ask if I have observed this form in other cecids of the clover. We have, so far as known, but one other clover cecid, and that is your introduced _C. trifolii_ (Clover leaf midge). The thought suggests itself to examine some of my dried _leguminicola_ larvæ. I am glad to have found in my collection examples preserved in alcohol of the larvæ which I had forgotten. As I put up quite a little quantity of them, I can spare you these, which I am sure will be acceptable to you.

Your investigation of the “warble” presence (p. 110) effect upon the beef-eater will, I am sure, be of much importance. One of our Western agricultural papers has commenced an investigation. Probably your studies and publications have incited them to it.

_March 12, 1894._

In going carefully over several pages of your seventeenth report, which came to me last week, I asked myself, “Is not this the best report that Miss Ormerod has written?” You are pleased to bestow praise on my reports, which from you is agreeable to receive, but I think that I can judge of their true value, and very glad indeed would I be if I could feel that they were up to the standard of yours. These are far from words of flattery, but are said because I believe that you need encouragement. Your reports have high merit and value, beyond similar writings of any of your English contemporaries—yes, far beyond.—As ever, sincerely yours,

J. A. LINTNER.