would be responsible for tb e illustrations. W ith his unfailing in stinc t he
rightly estimated his wife’s a rtistic powers, and he broached the subject
to her. “ B u t who will do th e plates on stone ? ” she ask ed ; for lith o graphy
was not a t th a t time an everyday ma tte r as it is now. “ Who ? ”
replied her husband. “ W hy, you of course!” This was the story as
told me by my old friend forty years after the event. Anyhow, aided
hy the sketches of her husband, Mrs. Gould did draw all the plates of
the ‘ Century,’ and, with th e exception of Bewiok’s woodcuts and the
beautiful illustrations of Swainson, no such clever drawings of birds had
been seen in this country. By th is time Gould had left the service of the
Zoological Society and had a house in Broad Street, Golden Square, where
Mr. Gerrard tells me he many times visited th e young couple and saw
Mrs. Gould a t work upon the lithographic stones, which were destined
to make th e names of herself and her husband imperishable in the
history of Ornithology. Considering th a t Gould was a self-taught man,
his talents for sketching the details of a bird picture were rema rkable;
and though he had excellent interpreters in his wife, and afterwards in
Mr. Lear, Mr. Bichter, and Mr. H art, still his was always the moving
spirit in designing the plates.
When Gould died, and th e papers were publishing notices of his
career, th e ‘ Times ’ alluded to him as a tru e Priest of Nature, and the
following le tte r from the late Blanchard Jerrold appeared in th a t journal
on the 11th of Pebruary, 1881:—
“ S i r ,— I should like to add a few words to your admirable article on
th a t ‘ tru e P rie st of N a tu re ,’ th e author of a * C entury of Birds from
the Himalayas,’ and so much other work of the highest value. The
Priest of Na ture was assisted by a devoted Priestess. The loving,
skilful hands of Mrs. Gould were a t work, painting the birds which she
and her husband so passionately studied together, through trials and
perils innumerable, for many a long year. There are those alive who
remember her a t work in th e rooms of th e Zoological Society in B ruton
Street, where she and h e r husband lived, in th e days when Laman
Blanchard was Secretary to the Society, and Mr. N. Vigors, M.P., his
brother-in-law, was one of its most arduous supporters. Mr. Gould
never failed to te ll his friends how deep was his debt of gratitude to the
artistic aptitude and courageous devotion of his wife and fellow-traveller.
She it was who gave form and colour to his 600 varieties of birds. I t
would grieve him could he know th a t this debt of his had been overlooked.
.
“ I have the honour to remain, S ir,
“ Your obedient Servant,
« Reform Club, Eeb. 9.” “ BLANCHARD JERROLD.”
The appreciation which Vigors fe lt for th e talents of Mrs. Gould was
shown by his naming a Sun-bird after her, Nectarinia gouldix, and his
regard for her husband by his writing th e letterpress for th e ‘ Century.’
This work consisted of 80 plates o n ly ; b u t many of these illustrated
both male and female of certain species, so th a t altogether 102 figures
are given in th e work. The males of V. gouldice and Vinago militaris
heing figured in two positions makes th e total number of specimens
illustrated exactly 100—hence th e title of a ‘ Century.’ Of these, ninety
specimens are said to have been given by Gould to the Museum of the
Zoological Society, and ten were borrowed from other collections. Prom
internal evidence I am able to account for five of th e la tte r with
c e rta in ty ; viz., Senicurus scouleri, Pyrrhula crythrocepihala, and Ibido-
rhynchus struthersi, which were borrowed from th e Glasgow Museum,
and Pastor traillii from the Liverpool Museum. Falco cUcquera and
Phoenicornis peregrina may have been either in Sykes s or P ran k lin s
collection; and Otus bengalensis was probably taken from a drawing
belonging to th e Hon. C. J . Shore, as Picusshorii certainly was. Vigors
likewise says th a t some plates were drawn from specimens in the
Ashmolean Museum a t Oxford,but I cannot find which they actually were.