44 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE 



The older English naturalists — Tarrell, Rennie, Hemiiig, Selby, 

 Day — all bear testimony to the value of Montagu's work. 



It may be surmised that we are about to deal with a very dull 

 fellow indeed. Certainly it may prove difficult to stimulate 

 general interest in the secluded life of a simple-minded country 

 gentleman who spent his days in catching worms and starfish. 

 Moreover, Montagu's is not a personality requiring subtle psycho- 

 logical analysis. He liad no "temperament" and no " mission." 

 He started no movement and was the centre of uo uew "cultiu-e." 

 Neither the Pre-Raphaelites uor the Transcendentalists will be 

 called into account. Let the dead bury the dead. Montagu was 

 " un cceur simple," and those happily unsophisticated few who 

 still can pursue with delight the fortunes oP Dr. Primrose and 

 his spouse will not be slow in discovering in the chequered career 

 and naive personality of this warrior-naturalist the same charm 

 and the same idyllic quality which distinguish " The Vicar of 

 Wakefield."' 



There is no gainsaying Montagu's enthusiasm for zoology. In 

 1789 he wrote to Gilbert White that were he not bound by 

 conjugal attachment he «"ould have liked to ride his hobby into 

 distant parts. Lady Holland, the famous c/rande dame, records 

 meeting him one day at dinner, when the Colonel " launched forth 

 on the topics he is ait fait of and during a three hours' assemblage 

 of people at and after dinner, he gave the Natural History of 

 every bird that flies and every fish that swims." 



To trace the genesis of his love of Natural History, which in 

 those days must have distinguished him as a very eccentric 

 person, it is necessary to go back to liis early youth, when at 

 the age of nineteen he fought in the War of the American 

 Colonies as an officer in the J 5th Regiment of Foot. In America 

 he first began to shoot and collect birds, a few of which he 

 prepared \Aith his own hands, though with no further intention 

 than that of presenting them to his Lucasta on returning from 

 the wars. 



Montagu had already, at the age of eighteen, married Anne, 

 the eldest daughter of William Courtenay and Lady Jane Cour- 

 tenay, sister of the Earl of Bute, who was Prime Minister to 

 George III. Montagu himself was a man of some quality, his 

 mother being the granddaughter of Sir Charles Hedges, Queen 

 Anne's Secretary; and his father, James Montagu, being de- 

 scended from James Montagu, who was the third son of Sir Henry 

 Montagu, first Earl of INIanchester. 



Montagu's niarringe turned out unhappily. Dates and details 

 are not available,, but it is perhaps sufficient to say that he became 

 eventually separated from his wife, and in 1799 was living with 

 another lady at Kingsbridge in South Devon, where most of his 

 best work in marine zoology was carried on. 



Lady Holland, after remarking upon his reputed ill-temper 

 and the separation from his wife, adds sardonicallj'- that he "... . 



