For some years, aided by his sister, he devoted himself to the study of natural history, and to the investigation of the Roman and Saxon remains in the neighbourhood of Audley End, Essex, and ultimately attained a distinguished position among the practical archæologists of his day. At one period geology was his favourite pursuit, and he formed a collection of fossils, which he presented to the museum at Saffron Walden. He also brought together a beautiful series of stuffed birds. The most remarkable feature, however, of his collections at Audley End is the museum of antiquities of every period, the creation of his own exertions, and consisting almost exclusively of objects brought to light at the Roman station at Great Chesterford, or at other sites of Roman occupation in the vicinity of Audley End, and at the Saxon cemeteries excavated under his directions near Little Wilbraham and Linton in Cambridgeshire during 1851 and 1852. On 25 March 1847 he had been elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and from time to time he made communications to that body regarding his explorations (cf. Archæologia, xxxii. 350–4, 357–6). To the 'Journal of the British Archæological Association' he also communicated memoirs (cf. iii. 208–13). To the 'Journal of the Archæological Institute,’ of which society he became a vice-president in 1850, he was a frequent contributor (Journal, vi. 14–26, viii. 27–35, x. 224–34, xi. 207–15, xiii. 1–13). To the 'Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society' he sent a list of potters' names upon Samian ware (i. 141–8), and notes on Roman Essex (i. 191–200). On the death of John Disney in 1857 he was elected president of the society.
