AN OLD SUFFOLK NATURALIST
AN
OLD
SUFFOLK
105
NATURALIST:
G . P . HOPE, M.A. BY CANON WALLER AND M I S S A L I N E IRENE DOROTHEA H O P E .
Miss Dorothea, our n e w Member, is doubtless a daughter of m y old friend Hope, who had Peewit-Farm, known by its imposing eagle gateway, at Hollesley as a week-end place : it must be nearly forty years since I remember her as quite a young girl. H e r father was a good all-round field-Naturalist and, I believe, had a fine collection of Birds with their Eggs ; b u t also he was a keen Lepidopterist, and interested in other Orders of Insects as well. H e it was who introduced m e to Irrorella and Castrensis at Shingles t r e e t ; and I well remember his excitement when he secured a specimen of Sphinx pinastri, Aying over Honeysuckle in his garden at P e e w i t : it was a great rarity in those days (Trans, supra i, 31). H e most carefully preserved Montagues Harriers, which nested among the heather o n his small estate (cf. Babington's Birds, 256). Indeed, H o p e was a Naturalist of no mean order ; he was well versed in the habits of all the local Birds, Beasts, &c. ; a good friend, a charming companion, with most infectious enthusiasm and great generousity, by which my collection of M o t h s was m u c h enriched.—A.P.W. O n account of Dorothea's health, the family migrated to T o r q u a y in 1 9 2 0 ; a n d t h e r e m y f a t h e r , GEORGE PALMER HOPE,
who had been born on 17 J u n e 1845, died on 18 October 1926. I am not aware of any connection with the Revd. F . W . H o p e of 1787-1862: H o p e is a locally common name. Most of m y Father's paternal folk hailed f r o m Northamptonshire ; in fact some relationship with the Revd. Isaac Watts has been suggested, b u t no one can teil m e how it comes about. For, apart f r o m m y brother and his family of one son with grandson, another u n married son and a daughter as well as an unmarried nephew, w e possess only cousins in Australia. M y F a t h e r rented the M a n o r farm in Hollesley, b u t had to give it u p before 1914. W e actually lived at Havering Grange near Romford, which my G r a n d f a t h e r , Stephen Charles H o p e , who died in 1872 some years before my Father's marriage, had bought in 1844-5 and migrated to f r o m Tottenham. GEORGE PALMER was an Eton and Caius man, who took his degree in 1871, following his F a t h e r and Uncle Palmer as a stockbroker. F r o m his M o t h e r ' s people, the Yorkshire Richardsons, he inherited great mechanical skill. H e was most versatile, and there were few subjects f r o m gardening to organ-building of which he did not know something. His main collection of Birds is in Chelmsford M u s e u m ; a fine one, as nearly all the specimens were set u p by himself with his own painted environment. M o s t of the entomological specimens, with a few inferior Birds, are at