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SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS 

 AND THEIR WORKS. 



BY 

 W. H. MULLENS, M.A., LL.M., M.B.O.U. 



IL— RICHARD CAREW 



(1555—1620). 



William Camden (1551-1623), the celebrated author 

 of " Britannia " (London, 1586, 1 vol., 8vo), at the 

 conclusion of the " Account of Cornwall," contained in 

 that work, wrote as follows : — 



" But these Matters will be laid open more distinctly 

 and fully, by Richard Carew of Antonie, a Person no less 

 eminent for his honourable Ancestors, than his own 

 Virtue and Learning, who is writing a Description of this 

 Country,* not in little but at large." 



Carew's work duly appeared in 1602, and was entitled 

 " The Survey of Cornwall." 



It was dedicated by its author to Sir Walter Raleigh, 

 and in the dedication Carew describes his book as " This 

 mine ill-husbanded Survey, long since begun, a great 

 while discontinued, lately reviewed, and now hastily 

 finished . . ." And in his preface to the reader he 

 informs us that " When I first composed this Treatise, 

 not minding that it should be published in Print, I caused 

 onely certaine written copies to bee given to some of my 

 friends, and put Prosopopeia into the bookes mouth. But 

 since that time, master Camden's often mentioning this 

 work, and my friends perswasions, have caused my 

 determination to alter . . ." 



* The original Latin word is " regionis," the translation is from James 

 Woodman's edition of Carew's " Survey of Cornwall." 



