OBITUARY. 351 



through life, aided, we trust, by higher hopes, enabled him to settle down, in 

 the bosom of his daughter's family, into his usual habits and pursuits. 



We find by a letter to Colonel Montagu, dated 1809, that he had then 

 completed the reconstruction of his original work, with a view to a second 

 edition. Some difficulties had occurred on the part of the booksellers, and 

 it was postponed for the time. In 1811 he had revised, and largely aug- 

 mented with notes and observations from this the ornithological part for M. 

 Pennant's British Zoology, of which a second edition was published by his 

 son, Mr. D. Pennant. But although he had thus drawn upon his own work, 

 he had never relinquished the idea of republishing it himself entire, and had 

 continued to add daily to his stores. 



With the desire of withdrawing his mind from the painful events to which 

 we have alluded, as well as with the hope of pecuniary advantage to him, 

 his friends now pressed him to print by subscription the work which he had 

 prepared. Accordingly, in 1821, he commenced the publication of the 

 General History of Birds, and it was completed, in ten volumes, in about two 

 years and a half It was not likely, from the very nature of the undertaking, 

 that he would add materially to his reputation by this late effort, but it was 

 a curious and interesting spectacle, to see a man who had attained the 82nd 

 year of a laborious and harrassed life, busilj^ engaged in editing a work which 

 demanded so large a space of time for its completion ; and those who have 

 witnessed him during that time, retouching the copper plates, with a steadi- 

 ness of hand which is supposed peculiar to the prime of life, will not easily 

 forget their admiration. 



He lived nearly fourteen years after the termination of this task, without 

 sorrow or suffering, beyond that which he has in his correspondence de- 

 scribed as the great evil of old age — to become the survivor of those whom he 

 had valued and loved in life. He was already a widower for the second time, 

 and his only remaining child, Mrs. Wickham, died in the beginning of 1 835. 

 During this year he felt, for the first time, the failure of his eye sight. In- 

 firmities gradually increased ; but he was an active and cheerful man still — 

 he took his daily walk alone— he scorned the assistance of an arm — and if any 

 one was happy enough to ask for information on any subject which his 

 library could illustrate, neither the distance of the room, nor the weight of 

 the folio, deterred him from going himself to gratify his inquirer. 



His end was rapid, but not unexpected — not the effect of disease, but of 

 exhaustion— the taper burnt fairly out. Four days before his death he ex- 

 hibited an unusual vivacity, and sprightliness almost unnatural ; this was 

 followed by a sudden failure of understanding — then of appetite — and he fell 

 into a deep sleep of many hours duration, in which he expired without a 

 pang, on the 4th of February, 1837- His remains are deposited in the 

 Abbey Church of llomsey. 



Dr. Latham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1775. He was 

 the originator of, and took a prominent part in the formation of the Linnean 

 Society, of which he was also a fellow from the beginning : and he became a 

 member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1793. 



The celebrated composer, Zingarelli, the author of Romeo e Giitlietta, died 

 lately at Naples, aged 87. He was chief director of the lloyal Academy of 

 Music of that capital. 



