he said, ‘I was born in sight of one crag pit and shall probably be buried in sight of another.’ He died at Martlesham, after a few days' illness, on 26 Oct. 1880, and was buried at Melton. In 1821 he married Elizabeth Taylor, only daughter of Thomas Taylor, solicitor, of London. His only child, Searles Valentine Wood (1830–1884) [q. v.], is separately noticed.
[Obituary notices in Nature, xxiii. 40; Athenæum, 6 Nov. 1880; Quart. Journal Geol. Society, 1881, Proceedings, p. 37, see also 1860 Proceedings, p. xxv; Geol. Mag. 1880, p. 575 (duplicate); information from Mrs. Searles Wood (junior), per F. W. Harmer, esq.]
WOOD, SEARLES VALENTINE, the younger (1830–1884), geologist, the only child of Searles Valentine Wood (1798–1880) [q. v.], was born at Hasketon, near Woodbridge, on 4 Feb. 1830. He was educated at King's College, London, and in France; on returning to England he studied law, was admitted a solicitor in 1851, and practised in London. As he had been devoted to geology from his earliest years, he took the opportunity of his partner's death in 1865 to retire from business, after which he made his home with his father, in whose work he was constantly a helper. Elected F.G.S. in 1864, he published in that year a map of the East Anglian drifts. The next six or seven years after he became free were devoted to a more thorough study of those deposits in conjunction with F. W. Harmer, Wood taking as his especial task the drifts of Suffolk and Essex, his friend those of Norfolk. They embodied the results in a memoir and map, published by the Palæontographical Society in 1871, as an introduction to the supplement to the ‘Crag Mollusca’ by S. V. Wood, senior. The son wrote separately or jointly nearly sixty scientific papers. The earlier deal with rather wide geological problems, but the majority refer to Pliocene and glacial deposits, more especially the latter. As this is a controversial subject, Wood's views have not escaped adverse criticism, but they always demand respectful consideration as founded on most careful and conscientious investigation. Indeed he never spared any pains to get at the truth, for which alone he cared. For instance, in 1871, on finding a seam in the mid-glacial sands to be full of minute fragments of marine shells, he had a quantity of the material sent to Brentford, where he then resided. By patiently sifting this he obtained about seventy recognisable species of mollusca, some of which were novelties, and these led him to regard the deposit as older than a similar one in Lancashire, previously supposed to be contemporaneous.
About 1875 Wood's heath began to fail, but his mental powers were not affected, and he continued to work at and write on his favourite studies. His latest task was the investigation of the very early Pliocene deposit discovered at St. Erth's, Cornwall. He died at his residence, Beacon Hill House, Martlesham, near Woodbridge, on 14 Dec. 1884, and was buried near his father at Melton. In 1853 he married Elizabeth Gayler, but their union was childless.
[Obituary notices, Nature, xxxi. 318, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1885, vol. xli. Proc. p. 41, Geol. Mag, 1885, p. 138 (with list of scientific papers); also information from Mrs. Searles Wood (widow) and F. W. Harmer, esq.]
WOOD, SHAKSPERE (1827–1886), sculptor, born in Manchester on 13 Nov. 1827, was son of Hamilton Wood of the firm of Wood, Rowell, & Co., smallware manufacturers, of Manchester, by his wife Sarah Anne, daughter of Charles Bennett of Newton Grange. On the break-up of the Manchester business the Wood family removed to London, where the father was connected with the Wood Carving Company until about 1846. Shakspere received a part of his education as a sculptor in the schools of the Royal Academy, and about 1851 he visited Rome for purposes of further study. For some years he worked hard, and exhibited five sculptures at the Royal Academy between 1868 and 1871. From his first settlement in Rome he took a keen interest in the objects of art and antiquity in and around the ancient city, and as years went on these subjects engrossed more and more of his time and attention. He delivered lectures to English visitors, and gave them the benefit of his copious knowledge.
He contributed to the ‘Times,’ at first as an occasional correspondent, and afterwards as its accredited representative. He was singularly successful in winning the confidence not only of the papal government but, even after the establishment of the kingdom of Italy, both of the Vatican and the Quirinal. He died in Rome in February 1886, leaving a widow and children. Wood's statues, Evangeline and Gabriel, were lent for exhibition in Manchester a few years ago by George Clay.
Wood published:
- ‘The Vatican Museum of Sculpture; a Lecture delivered before the British Archæological Society of Rome on the 19th of March, 1869,’ Rome, 1869, 8vo.
- ‘The Capitoline Museum of Sculpture: a Catalogue,’ Rome, 1872, 8vo.
