V ° 1920 ] Henshaw, In Memoriam: William Brewster. \i 



In illustration of Brewster's charm of manner and his ability to 

 enlist the attention and interest of strangers, an incident may be 

 related that occurred when he was at Lyndhurst in the New Forest 

 in the midsummer of 1909. Visiting the smoking room of the Inn 

 the evening after his arrival, he found there several men smoking 

 and reading their papers, each at a separate table. Singling out 

 the one who seemed to him to have the most interesting face, he 

 made his way to his table and, as the gentleman glanced up to see 

 who the intruder was, he introduced himself, as an American who 

 wanted to ask a few questions about the New Forest. The ques- 

 tions duly answered, a long conversation of a humorous and dis- 

 cursive character followed in which, among other things, the 

 respective characteristics of Englishmen and Americans were 

 discussed, apparently to the great interest and amusement of the 

 other guests. It was not until the stranger had left the room that 

 Brewster learned he had been conversing with the famous author, 

 Kipling. During the following days he met Kipling frequently, 

 found him a most genial companion as well as a most interesting 

 conversationalist, was introduced to his wife, and finally received 

 an invitation to visit them in their English home. 



It was very fortunate that early in his career Brewster became 

 acquainted with the Umbagog Lake region. He first visited it in 

 June 1870, when C. J. Maynard, Ruthven Deane and Henry Purdie 

 also were there. The region was little known in those- days, save 

 to disciples of good old Isaac Walton, and possessed manifold 

 attractions in its deep forests, its beautiful lake and waterways, 

 abounding in fish and an ample supply of large and small game. In 

 the eyes of a Massachusetts ornithologist it possessed an added 

 attraction in a long list of warblers and other birds which here found 

 a summer home, but elsewhere to the south were known chiefly or 

 only as migrants. Brewster at once became strongly attached to 

 the place, which not only satisfied his longings as an ornithologist 

 but strongly appealed to the artistic and aesthetic side of his nature. 

 For many years he rarely missed sojourning at the Lake during 

 the summer or fall, and here he gathered an unparalleled harvest of 

 notes and data, especially on the water birds, which found in these 

 comparative solitudes ideal opportunities to nest. 



For several years he maintained a most attractive camp on Pine 



