168
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
other sons and three daughters, some of whom died at a very
early age; but his brothers, John, Benjamin, and Henry, and
his sisters Frances and Jane, were destined to be his almost
life-long companions.
William's two elder brothers, John and Julius, were at board-
ing-school at Woodford, in 1852, and it was during visits to them
that, at the age of 8 years, he first learned to know and to love
the Forest with which he was to be so closely associated in later
life.
His education was acquired at various private schools in
North London according to the family's not infrequent changes of
residence, and later he attended evening classes at King's College.
We are told that he was a studious lad, though not caring for
school restraints, and he read scientific books with keen interest;
at an early age he showed intellectual superiority, which led
him to give lectures on Physical Science and Natural History
subjects to his admiring brothers and sisters.
In 1861 William, as a lad of 17, was sent into a shipbroker's
office in Mark Lane.
The death of his father, in 1865, brought about a removal
of the home from Tottenham to Islington, and two years later
to Clapton. William now entered the office of Mr. Charles
Browne, Barrister, of Lincoln's Inn, as shorthand writer, and
stayed with him for some five years; he afterwards joined the
staff of a morning newspaper in the same capacity.
Though never a great lover of outdoor sports, William Cole
was a keen cyclist in the early days, and he founded, with others,
the first bicycle club in London. All through his life he was
an ardent collector of butterflies and moths, as well as of plants
and natural objects generally. Even in natural history pursuits,
however, he preferred the more sedentary and intellectual task
of arranging and naming the numerous specimens which his
brother Benjamin (chiefly) went forth to capture.
At Stoke Newington, whither the family had now removed,
the microscope occupied a large share of his leisure as a young
man.
In 1877 another removal, this time to Laurel Cottage, Buck-
hurst Hill, brought the Cole family into more intimate connection
with Epping Forest, and the way was thus prepared for the
foundation of the Essex Field Club in the beginning of 1880.