LINXEAX SOCIETY OF LOXDOX, 45 



might inherit an estate from his brother if he would be united to 

 her, but the condition is too hard and he renounces the possession 

 of a benefit so encumbered." His eldest brother James, dying 

 childless, left the family estates at Lackham in AViltshire to the 

 Colonel's eldest sou, the Colonel hiinself receiving only a i-ent 

 charge of .£800 a year. A lawsuit followed, and father and son 

 were arraigned iigaiust each otlier. The litigation was prolonged, 

 and this, coupled with the son's extravagance, ultimately deprived 

 the family of their estate. Colonel Montagu was forced to 

 endure the mortification of seeing all the fine old timber on the 

 estate cut down and sold, and the valuable library and collection 

 of relics and curiosities at Lackham House sold and disboursed 

 under a decree of the court. 



In later years, the loss of his three lusty soldier sons, John, 

 James, and Frederick-, brought further sorrow into the old gentle- 

 man's life, and in the Parish Church at Lacock may be read the 

 touching memorial he erected to the memory of Frederick, his 

 favourite, who fell pierced through the heart by a musket ball, 

 while leading his men to the charge at the Battle of Albuera 

 in 1811. 



In spite of Lady Holland's gossipping references to a threatened 

 court-marshal, there is every reason to believe that Montagu 

 himself was a very gallant soldier who lived up to the best 

 traditions of English honour. His book, 'The Sportsman's 

 Directory,' contains some very curious passages of instruction in 

 the art of fighting a duel. 



His house at Kiugsbridge was full of curiosities and trophies, 

 and " there were live birds all over the grounds," and ducks, 

 gulls, and all sorts of swimming-birds on the pond. This recalls 

 Walton Hall, the residence of Charles Waterton, the " mad 

 Englishman," famous as a naturahst and as the author of the 

 ' "Wanderings in fSouth America.' 



Life in the little town in Devonshire must have flowed very 

 quietI3^ Although of ancient and honourable descent, Montagu 

 founded his claims to respect upon individual merit rather than 

 upon noble ancestry. He disliked pomp and ceremony of all 

 kinds, and found his true measure beating through the brusliwood 

 to identify the song of the wood-wren, or digging up worms from 

 the mud in the estuary : a life of seclusion broken occasionally by 

 the " staggering " discovery of some new kind of beast or by the 

 presentation of his memoirs to the Linnean Society. His mistress, 

 Eliza Dornom, seems to have proved herself a valuable helpmate 

 to the naturalist, for many of the drawings of the animals he 

 .studied bear her initials. 



Montagu died of lockjaw in 1815 after treading on a rusty nail 

 during the course of some repairs to the house, when a lot of old 

 timber was lying about. His authoritative biographer, Wilham 

 Cunnington, in his short memoir in the Wiltshire Magazine, tells 

 us that in his last illness, Montagu bore his sufferings with the 



