[Illustration: Elliott & Fry. Photo Walker & Cookerell Ph. So. Eleanor A. Ormerod ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ELEANOR ORMEROD, LL.D., ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGIST: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND CORRESPONDENCE EDITED BY ROBERT WALLACE PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH WITH PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 1904 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DEDICATED TO ALL MISS ORMEROD’S CORRESPONDENTS IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE ------- The idea that Miss Ormerod should write her biography originated with the present writer during one of many visits paid to her at St. Albans. Miss Ormerod had unfolded in charming language and with admirable lucidity and fluency some interesting chapters of her personal experiences and reminiscences. The first working plan of the project involved the concealment of a shorthand writer behind a screen in the dining-room while dinner was proceeding, and while the examination of ethnological specimens or other attractive objects gave place for a time to general conversation on subjects grown interesting by age. Although the shorthand writer was selected and is several times referred to in letters written about this period (pp. 304-307), Miss Ormerod, on due reflection, felt that the presence, though unseen, of a stranger at these meetings _in camera_ would make the position unnatural, and dislocate the association of ideas to the detriment of the narrative.