LIFE OF A NATURALIST. 



CHAPTEK I. 



EARLY YEARS. 



THOMAS EDWARD was born at Gosport, Portsmouth, 

 on Christmas day, 1814. His father, John Edward, 

 was a private in the Fifeshire Militia. Shortly after 

 his enlistment at Cupar, he went to Aberdeen to join 

 his regiment. While stationed there, he became 

 acquainted with, and afterwards married, Margaret 

 Mitchell, a native of the place. 



Not long after John Edward's marriage, his regi- 

 ment was ordered to Portsmouth. Towards the 

 close of the continental war, militia regiments were 

 marched hither and thither, from one end of the 

 country to another. The regular troops had mostly 

 left England, to meet the armies of Napoleon in 

 the Peninsula and the Low Countries. The militia 

 were assembled in camps along the coast, or were 

 stationed in garrisons to hold watch and ward over 

 the French prisoners confined there. Hence the 

 appearance of the Fifeshire militia at Gosport, where 

 the subject of our story was born. 



B 



