1 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



savans in his favourite branches of study at home and abroad, and began early, as soon as he had 

 the resources and the time, to lay the foundation of the very fine collection of birds which bears 

 testimony to his knowledge, industry, and intelligence. His influence in the neighbourhood was 

 soon established ; and he did much to attract to Chiselhurst the elements of elegant and refined 

 life which the exiled Emperor and Empress of the French found there when they selected their 

 residence in the delightful district which may now be considered almost a suburb of London. 

 But he was eminently alive to the duties of his station, and never thought of his o^vn pleasures, 

 innocent as they were, when the interests of those who had a claim upon him were concerned. 

 He was ever ready with coimsel and sound advice to help his friends, and with his purse, as far as 

 in him lay, to promote the public good and succour the worthy in distress. That this is not the 

 language of undiscriminating eulogy, all those who were acquainted w ith what he did in private 

 and in public will admit and vindicate. Amid all his work he found time to attend the committees 

 of the various clubs to which he belonged, and to assist in the deliberations of the scientific 

 bodies with which he was associated ; and when he accompanied his wife on the visits to the 

 country houses where their presence was so warmly welcomed, his opinion on many a question of 

 rural importance connected with the county, or local politics, or social questions, was eagerly 

 sought and generally accepted. His knowledge of the matters on which he gave an opinion was 

 thorough ; he despised shallowness, and what he professed to know he mastered in every detail. 

 When he spoke it was with certainty and force, for he did not open his mouth till he had listened 

 or read and thought the subject out ; and the same characteristic was observable in him in dealing 

 with such disputes and controversies and magisterial business as came before him for decision. 

 Gradually he secured the honours which, next to those of the profession he had followed, he 

 would have coveted the most. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and, finally, was 

 elected President of the Zoological Society, in the affairs of which he took an active and beneficial 

 interest to the day of his death. 



The collection of birds, to which Capt. AVardlaw Ramsay sent him a unique contri- 

 bution from the Andaman Islands, Burma, and India, was augmented by judicious efforts 

 to a very high place amongst private museums of the kind ; and at his own expense he 

 sent out collectors to the Malay and Philippine Archipelagoes, the ornithological treasures 

 of which had been imperfectly explored, to investigate the natural history of the islands. 

 In 'The Ibis' and in the 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society the papers which he 

 wrote (now collected and edited, at the pious desire of his widow, by his nephew, Capt. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay) bear ample proofs of his great attainments ; and on the birds of India his 

 authority was second to that of no living naturalist. The death of his first wife was deeply 

 felt, too deeply ever to be quite forgotten ; but Lord Waldcn was not one of those who sorrow 



