308 Saddle and Sirloin. 



in " the late Dr. Marshall's excellent purgative pills," 

 and many friends have a box of his presenting by them 

 to this day. It was regarded by him as a special mark 

 of consideration when he took out his cherished 

 wourali poison, and told how the Nottingham Cor- 

 poration had asked him to come and exercise his art 

 on a policeman, who died, unluckily for the test, a 

 few hours before the North Mail was due. The cock- 

 ade, " with which I carried Lord Cochrane's despatches 

 in 1808," was another treasure ; and so were the fatal 

 blow-pipe of the Indians, and the hammock which he 

 used when he was a wanderer in the forests from which 

 he drew those inexhaustible chronicles. Still the stuf- 

 fing of birds was his great forte, and he spoke with 

 too well-merited contempt of many modern professors 

 of the art. " Every feather is poisoned," was his in- 

 variable mode of introducing his handiwork. The 

 large picture on the staircase pourtrayed him a hale 

 young fellow of thirty, bestriding the cayman, while 

 all the forest birds of his acquaintance looked on ap- 

 provingly from the boughs. Opposite was the cayman 

 himself, which has been the very idol of three genera- 

 tions of boys, stretched out in all its scaly length, 

 and furnishing a vivid key to the picture. He 

 scarcely ever quoted any other naturalist, but of 

 Mr. Frank Buckland he expressed a very high 

 opinion. As might have been expected, he was very 

 stiff in his own theories, and did not seem to allow 

 that the world had grown older, and other men as 

 well as himself grey and white with thought. He 

 would lay down the law most positively about stags 

 and foxes, which he had not hunted for fully fifty 

 years, and the opinion of men like Charles Davis 

 and Harry Ayris on the point did not weigh one 

 ounce with him. Still it was this peculiar tenacity 

 of opinion which gave his character that unique charm 

 when once you got accustomed to him. 



While you were looking through the big telescope, 



