MEMOIR. 



CHARLES ST JOHN, or, to speak accurately, Charles William George 

 St John, the author of " Wild Sports of the Highlands," and of 

 these observations and notes of natural history, was the son of 

 General the Hon. Frederick St John, who was the second son of 

 Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke. Charles was born 3rd 

 December 1809. The first account I have of him is from his 

 schoolfellow and dear friend, a frequent companion in his after 

 years, and a fellow-student of nature as well as fellow-sportsman. 

 Mr Thomas Jeans writes to me : 



" My friendship with Charles St John began about the year 

 1821, when he was first sent to school at Midhurst, in Sussex, 

 when Dr Bayly was head-master. He might then have been 

 about eleven years of age. I remember perfectly his first appear- 

 ance as a ' new boy ' handsome, fair-haired, quiet, and gentleman- 

 like. I can see him now, standing near the ponderous ' iron door ' 

 which had just been shut upon him by the porter, and which 

 separated us from the outer world. My happening to know a 

 relative of his was our first bond of union, and the similarity of 

 our tastes cemented it. We became friends at once, and worked 

 our way up together in the school. Though I was his senior by a 



