2,1 A Cummings, A biographical sketch of CoL George Montagu. 



monplace every day tragedy perhaps, but just such an one as 

 a great modern writer has brought us to see loom out quite 

 as black as one that is obvious, blatant and acclaimed. The 

 whole story of Montagu's life, his early marriage, so soon 

 after succeeded by a painful separation from his wife to fight 

 in America, his love for his son Frederick, his uprightness and 

 patriotism, his simple habits, the mistake of the will, the loss of 

 the timber and estates and the quarrel with George are all a 

 little reminiscent of the idyllic qualities and atmosphere of the 

 "Vicar of Wakefield." 



There was money enough however for Montagu to live in 

 quiet; and at Kingsbridge, the latter years of his life were spent 

 in seclusion and study, broken only by the intermittent excite- 

 ment caused by the presentation of his memoirs to the Linnean 

 Society or by the publication of his books or the staggering dis- 

 covery of a new beast. He died of lockjaw in 1815 after treading 

 on a rusty nail. Mrs. F. M. Crawford, his daughter, stated that his 

 collection of birds was disposed of to the British Museum for 

 the sum of ^ 3,000 after his death. On the recommendation of 

 Sir Joseph Banks the Sum actually paid was ^£ 1,200. 



THE NATURALIST. 



Montagu is not a star of any magnitude in the firmament of 

 illustrious zoologists who have passed away. I cannot even claim 

 that like Patrick Matthew, he anticipated Darwin in the theory 

 of natural selection, or that like Spallanzani he made any contri- 

 butions to the classical controversy of spontaneous generation, 

 but English field naturalists have always apportioned him his 

 true value as a man who was among the first to observe and 

 describe with accuracy the many singular and interesting animals 

 inhabiting the British shores and countryside at a time when 

 there were few other workers and they, for the most part, pro- 

 ducing researches of inferior quality. 



Professor Edward Forbes wrote of him: — "Montagu's emi- 

 nence as a naturalist depended upon his acute powers of obser- 

 vation and the perspicuous manner in which he regarded the 

 facts which came under his observations. He excels as a de- 

 scriber and all his accounts of the animals which he noted are 



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