114 IN MEMORIAM: JOHN WILLIAM CHALONER. 
chosen he might have made another Selborne of Newton Kyme), he 
making observations, his outlook and method of work as to 
plants, fishes, birds, beasts, and insects, very much resembling that of 
Gilbert White, Charles Waterton, and F. O. Morris. They would 
have been hail fellows, well met; but I do not think he ever saw 
the two last-named naturalists. 
As an angler, Mr. Chaloner was very great. Halcyon in ‘The 
Leeds Mercury Weekly Supplement’ says: ‘ Another fine old angler 
gone to his rest. As a fly-fisher he was very hard to beat; in fact, 
I have on many occasions heard him termed by practical men “ the 
best on the Wharfe” during his day. He was ever ready to do 
anything in his power to assist a brother angler, and the very last 
time that I had the pleasure of a long talk on angling matters with 
him, was when he brought me some feathers which I had told him 
I wanted to dress a certain fly. I always seem somehow to associate 
his name with the famous sporting parson, old Jack Russell.’ Yes, 
he would do a good turn to anyone, poor or rich. For a great many 
years the Easter afternoon service might be slightly shortened, for 
the rector had to drive to York to catch the express for Loch Awe, 
where he awoke next day, with rods and tackle, and where he stayed 
to recreate for a fortnight. They all knew him at Loch Awe. He 
never liked to hear of anyone catching a bigger fish than himself, 
though it is understood he never caught salmon. 
Chaloner’s father used to tell his son about seeing flights of 
Bustards, and shooting, next to fishing, was one of the Rector’s out- 
door amusements. He had an unerring eye, and often some shot, 
for Ruff and Bittern, Goosanders, Mergansers, Skuas, Phalaropes, 
Scoters, and scarce birds generally. Many of them adorn his 
beautiful collection, mostly stuffed by the late Mr. Graham, of York. | 
Stormy Petrels, Orioles, Nightingales, Waxwings, and other rare 
birds came within his ken, and his parish walks, undetected by any 
other observer, and notes of them being made, sometimes they were 
sent to the ‘ Naturalist,’ or Clarke and Roebuck’s ‘ Yorkshire 
Vertebrata.” I have many such notes now before me. 
Two eminent men visited Newton in old times—Martin Lister 
and George Herbert. The latter would probably stay in the old 
Rectory. Lister collected shells in Chaloner’s parish. A shell is 
said to be in the British Museum found by the Rector near the 
place where Lister found Cyclostoma—probably the two shells are 
identical. 
A friend, caricaturing Chaloner’s contempt for luxury, said ‘ He 
drives to Tadcaster at six in the morning, back to breakfast on bread 
Naturalist, 
