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Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix

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Specimens themselves, carefully pressed and dried, convey a clearer idea of a plant than any plate or description can give. Indeed it was our wish in all their Natural History pursuits, to direct them to Nature herself, instead of depending on books. As a proof of our thoroughness in searching for the flowers of the district, we offered a prize of five shillings to the discoverer of a new plant. To our great surprise and the boys great delight, one was found, swine’s-cress (senebiera coronopus) growing between the paving stones in the farm yard.

As the years went on our study of Natural History increased; beside the flowering plants we made collections of mosses, lichens, hepaticae seaweeds, and fungi, that were sold to visitors at the time of the general meetings, the proceeds of which enabled us to purchase some of the best books on these subjects. We paid considerable attention to land and fresh water shells, and found the district rich in these mollusks. As there was no cheap work describing them, John Wm. Watson, our head apprentice, and Ralph Dixon, published a manual with plates of all the species and genera of the animals; as they were mostly drawn from nature and transferred to the stone, they bear many fine markings which might have escaped the eye of the lithographer, but add greatly to their value. This fact, and the localities of the rarer species being given, enhance its value with conchologists. To collect the marine species we made trips to the sea-shore, collecting at the same time seaweeds, zoophytes, star-fish and crustaceans, also those plants and grasses found only near the sea.

The enthusiastic interest manifested by scholars and teachers in Natural History in the early years of the school, was quite a feature in the establishment, hence a friend in speaking at one of the school conferences said “the Society of Friends are deeply indebted to Ayton School for introducing the study of Natural History into many of their schools.”

Another original character deserves a passing notice, as he was known to a large number of Ayton old scholars. We formed a Botanical class in the village. Wm. Mudd, a young man, then gardener at Cleveland Lodge, joined the class. He had a knowledge of exotic plants but knew nothing of Botany. He began with the Linnœan system, then passed on to the Natural arrangement and soon became familiar with all the British plants in the neighbourhood. He was able to extend his walks further than we could, and brought to us plants that did not grow in our district, particularly ferns and their allies. He collected all the cryptogamic families, mosses, hepaticae, lichens, algae, and fungi; but gave more particular attention to lichens, By a student's microscope he discovered that the spores of the different species varied, and classified them accordingly. He published a volume and illustrated it by natural specimens. It is now out of print, and is so scarce that a copy of it cannot be bought for less than £3. He was appointed curator of the Botanical Gardens at Cambridge University. When the Prince of Wales went to India Wm. Mudd's eldest son represented Botany on his scientific staff. He died, a few years ago, and his son succeeded him, I believe.

We became acquainted with a remarkable family of three brothers residing at Stokesley, John, Thomas, and Richard Cail. They were ironmongers, tinmen and plumbers, and were employed by William Holmes to fit up his steam cooking apparatus. The talents of the brothers differed. John was chemist and philosopher, Thomas artist and musician, Richard geologist. John fitted up our electrical machine and apparatus for a great variety of experiments, gave a lecture explaining their manipulation. When the new school-house was built, he fitted up the laboratory with furnace and sand baths for heating retorts and crucibles; obtained for us such reagents as were needed in analytical chemistry, and instructed us in the use of them. He was at home in galvanism and magnetism, invented a powerful galvanic battery, by which he produced artificial and permanent magnets, also a simple, one for covering copper wire with thread to insulate it when formed into coils; the ends of which being connected with the poles of a battery and a ratchet wheel, gave a shock every time the current was broken by turning the handle. With John Can's assistance and instruction we had one of these machines fitted up, a very good one, which proved useful in rheumatism and some other bodily ailments.

Thomas Gail was an artist, and gave the scholars weekly instruction in drawing. The engraving of the south view of the school was from a sketch made by him. One of our old scholars, now an Art Master ascribes his taste for drawing to the early lessons he received from him.

Richard Cail fitted up a museum, in which he exhibited a large collection of the fossils of this district, mostly named, and had pleasure in supplying us with duplicates for our museum.

John and Thomas are dead. Richard is still living, a hale old man, with long white locks, and may still be seen strolling over the hills and in the ravines with his geological hammer digging out specimens of fossils.

In the geological collection of the museum we had a stratigraphical arrangement of the rocks forming the earth's crust, from the primary up to the most recent formations; those of the Cleveland district were well represented. Bolckow and Vaughan finding water expensive hoped, by boring, to find an Artesian spring, but to their great disappointment, at that time, they struck salt. William Jones, who was always interested in our Natural History and scientific pursuits and often visited us in company with his pupil, Henry Fell Pease, was now carrying on Chemical Works at Middlesbrough. He was on the committee and acted as secretary during Isaac Sharp's absence; causing over to attend a committee meeting he brought with him a piece of the boring core; I asked him to accompany me to the museum; in the stratigraphical arrangement we found a piece of rock salt from the Cheshire mines laid between the gypsum beds of the new red sandstone series, just in the position which they had found it at Middlesbrough.

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