 After around twelve years his health declined, including a near loss of his sight, and in 1879 the Church allowed him to retire (with one good eye) to a sinecure as a "clergyman without care of souls" with lodgings in the precinct of Exeter Cathedral, where his wife ran a day school, assisted by their two daughters and quite possibly by him.He died in Exeter 9 May 1887.In the days before light traps, moth-collectors obtained most of their specimens by finding and then raising caterpillars, or breeding them up from eggs.