No botanist contemporary with the elder Evans attained greater celebrity than John Martin, of Tyldesley. He was especially well-informed respecting Carices, and first drew the attention of the botanists of Manchester to the richness of the neighbourhood, supplying, in regard to them, names and localities they knew not of, as well as many facts respecting the botany of Tyldesley in particular, with which he has never been properly accredited. This eminent veteran was among us till so late as August 13th, 1855.
The mantle of these old men has fallen well. Very few of the botanists mentioned above are still alive--I am glad to be able to add to the short list the name of Richard Hampson, of Tyldesley; but they have plenty of successors, and never more energetically than at the present moment was natural history pursued as a pastime in South East Lancashire.
The peculiarities of the original race are fast disappearing, a circumstance plainly attributable to the facilities of travel given by the railway system, to the multiplication of books, and to the more general diffusion of knowledge. At the period when the celebrity of the old Lancashire botanists was established, say during the first quarter of the present century, they lived in comparative isolation. Now the isolation alike of abode and opportunities has been cancelled, and as a consequence the class of men who as individuals, somewhat conspicuous in their way, gave it colour, have slowly disappeared. The ancient spirit, nevertheless, is as keen as ever, and the love of botany in particular is quite as honourably and intelligently represented as at any preceding time. If we can no longer single out men very particularly remarkable, it is because the estates of the patriarchs have been divided, as it were, among whole troops of worthy descendants.
[24: The following pages were originally printed in the _Manchester Weekly Times_ of July 10th, 1858. It gave me great pleasure to see that the article was made the subject of comment and lengthy extract in _Chambers's Journal_ of the following October 16th, a recognition of the general interest of the matter dealt with that seems to me quite to justify a reprint almost _verbatim_, with corrections that bring it up to the present date.]