22 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



[ournal (19. 3. — June, 1838), it is stated that it was erected for the 

 purpose through the Hberality of Lord Braybrooke, " assisted, amongst 

 others, by the late Jabez Gibson, Esq., the fruit of whose zeal is still 

 visible in many a valuable specimen. The huge elephant in the 

 centre, whose bulky form strikes the attention on first entering, was 

 presented by him in 1837, and on almost every table we find some 

 traces of his busy hand." Jabez Gibson was born on December 

 II, 1794, and died on February 23, 1838. In an obituary notice 

 which appeared in Wood's Natiiralht (vol. iii., p. 283) we read 

 that : — 



" In connection with this [Walden Natural History] Society, by the exertions 

 of five or six individuals, a museum has been formed that would do credit to an)' 

 town in the kingdom. By the industry of the curators and the liberality of 

 Mr. Gibson, some of the rarest objects in zoology have been placed there, and the 

 collection, especially of British birds and British and Foreign insects, is very 

 excellent." 



GRUBB, Jonathan, of Sudbury, was born at Clonmel, 

 Ireland, on the 12th of January, 1808. He was educated at a 

 private school at Rochester, connected with the Society of Friends, 

 of which body he has been throughout life a prominent member. 

 In early life he carried on the business of corn-miller at Lexden, 

 near Colchester, but in 1842 he retired to Sudbury, where he still 

 resides. He has long been very widely known as a Temperance 

 advocate. Almost from boyhood he has taken a very warm interest 

 in natural history, especially ornithology, and several contributions 

 from him are to be found in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History. 

 In 1876, he contributed an interesting paper on the "Birds of My 

 Premises " (39) to the Friends Quarterly Examiner, from which I 

 have made many extracts. 



HILL, Rev. Walter Henry, was curate of Southminster 

 from January, 1832 to 1839, under Dr. A. J. Scott, the vicar, who 

 was Lord Nelson's chaplain, and whose life has been published. 

 As to who or what he was, I have been able to obtain very little 

 information, but he was evidently a good naturalist, and he con- 

 tributed a list of birds observed by him round Southminster to 

 Loudon's Magazine (12. vi. 452). Dr. Scott, who died July 24th, 

 1840, was succeeded by the Rev. G. C. Berkeley, brother of the late 

 eminent fungologist, who is, I believe, at present, the oldest beneficed 

 clergyman in the county. He writes to Mr. Fitch as follows : — 



" Mr. Hill has been dead at least thirty years. He was drowned in some 

 trout stream when on a fishing expedition in either North or South Wales. It was 



