Cummings, A biographical sketch of Col. George Montagu. 311 



through thick brushwood to identify the song of a Woodwren or 

 collecting seaworms from the mud at Kingsbridge or dredging 

 in Tor Bay. To his favourite pursuit he very rarely alluded in 

 conversation unless it was introduced by others. He was a great 

 talker with a wide knowledge of affairs and extensive general 

 information. He always kept his word, he was always punctual, 

 punctilious over questions of fact, precise in his methods of 

 work, indefatigable in industry and regular in his mode of life. 

 Small as it is, this evidence, is almost overwhelming in its support 

 of the suggestion that Montagu was a good type of the average 

 man of science — accurate, thick-fingered, laborious, practical, 

 excellent. At the close of his career, he bore his sufferings 

 with the "equanimity of a philosopher" and with the "fortitude 

 and resignation of a true Christian." 



The Colonel belonged to the old and honourable school of 

 naturalists who were accustomed to woik out their researches to 

 a barren conclusion by resigning all they could not understand to the 

 power of the Omnipotent Creator. Their memoirs used to end 

 in a few complimentary remarks to God. Hervey himself said 

 that at one time he thought the circulation of the blood could 

 only he understood by God. The squibs of such "scoffers" as 

 Laplace, Voltaire, Haeckel and Shaw he would have called blas- 

 phemies for Montagu was one of the old brigade who accepted 

 the defiant "I am that I am" with a bowed head, studying animal 

 life in the pious opinion of good Sir Thomas Browne who wrote, 

 "The wisdom of God receives small honour from those vulgar 

 heads that rudely stare about and with a gross rusticity admire 



his works. Those highly magnify him whose deliberate 



research into his creatures returns the duty of a devout and 

 learned admiration." In conclusion I ought to mention that 

 Montagu was an authority on sport and duelling. Although we 

 have no definite facts to go upon it seems probable that he 

 was an expert duellist. His Sportsman's Directory contains 

 many curious passages of instruction in the art of fighting 

 a duel. 



An old friend, the Rev. K. Vaughan of Modbury (Aveton 

 Gifford) was at his bedside during his last illness. On being 

 asked where he wished to be buried, he replied, calmly, "Where 

 the tree falls there let it lie," which shows that he was able to 

 meet even the Last Enemy with a stout heart. 



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