Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The Neighbouring Countries | Page 4

in families, that Mr. Griffith was great grandson of Jeremiah Meyer, Historical Painter to George the Second, and one of the founders of the Royal Academy. It is also but fair to state on the present occasion, that he was not himself the only member of the family who would appear to have inherited something of his grandfather's peculiar art, as we owe the transfer of the landscapes to stone, which add so much to the appearance of the following volume, to the talent and kindness of his sister.
It may perhaps be acceptable in this place to afford a few extracts from the private letters of Mr. Griffith, especially those in which he adverts with a liberality of feeling to his contemporaries, no less honourable to himself than to the persons mentioned.
The following notes addressed to his uncle, at various periods, exhibit the sentiments with which he regarded the late Mr. Bauer not merely as an artist, but original observer.
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_From letters of Mr. GRIFFITH, to Mr. MEYER_.
_Mergui_: _January 17th_, 1835.
"My last accounts of Mr. Bauer state him to have been in excellent health: he had just completed some more of his unrivalled drawings."
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_Suddya_: _December 30th_, 1836.
"Pray give the compliments of the season to Mr. Bauer, to whom I look up with the greatest admiration: what a pity it is for science that such a life as his is not renewable ad libitum. Tell him that I have a beautiful new genus allied to Rafflesia, the flowers of which are about a span across, it is dioecious and icosandrous, and has an abominable smell. How I look back occasionally on my frequent and delightful visits to Kew."
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To MRS. H---.
Serampore, _Calcutta_: _July 22nd_, 1841.
"I was aware of the departure of Mr. Bauer through the Athenaeum, in which an excellent notice of him appeared. He certainly was a man to whom I looked up with constant admiration: he was incomparable in several respects, and I am happy to find, that his death was so characteristic of his most inoffensive and meritorious life. It is also very pleasing to me to find that he continued to think well of me. How I should have been able to delight him had he lived a few years longer."
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_Calcutta_: June, 1843.
"Poor Mr. Bauer, we never shall see his like again, I have seen but few notices of his life, which assuredly is worthy of study. There is not a place I shall visit with better feelings than Kew, it has so many pleasant associations even from my school-days."
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_Calcutta_: _December 31st_, 1843.
"Mr. Bauer is not half appreciated yet; he is considered a very great artist, but what is that to what he was? But he did not fight for his own hand, though he worked hard enough in all conscience. Mr. Bauer in fact preceded all in the train of discovery: he saw in 1797, what others did not see till 30 years after. For instance, the elongation of the pollens' inner membrane into a tube, the first step towards the complete knowledge we now have of vegetable embryogeny. Unfortunately, Mr. Bauer drew, but did not write, and when I recall to mind a remark of Mr. Brown, that it was a disadvantage to be able to draw, I always fancy he had Bauer in his mind's eye; for had he been a writer and not a drawer, before 1800, in great probability we should have known nearly as much of embryogeny as we do now. But he shut his portfolio, and folks went on believing the old fovivillose doctrine and bursting of the pollen, which, his observations of the pollens' inner membrane, would have destroyed at once. Then with regard to Orchideae and Asclepiadeae, he was equally in advance: it would be a rich treat if some one would come forward and publish a selection from his drawings, without a word of letterpress."
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_Calcutta_: _February 11th_, 1844.
"Mr. Bauer's light is not yet set on the hill. Really when I look back at his works I am lost in admiration, and always regret that he worked more for others than for himself, and that he did not use his pen as freely as he did his brush. When, in the name of all that is generous, will great men think that true greatness consist in endeavouring to make others more prominent than themselves?"
For some years before his death, Mr. Griffith would appear to have had a presentiment that he would not be spared to complete the description of all his collections. On one occasion, when enumerating those who might contribute most efficiently to this object, in the event of its not being permitted to himself,