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



Lady Holland (4) the famous grande dame, visited Lord Boringdon at 

 Saltram in 1799, where she met Montagu. She writes in her gossipy journal: 

 "Col. Montagu I saw but once. Lord Borringdon announced him as a superior 

 man and I was therefore prepared for something remarkable tho' his praises 

 are often queerly bestowed, frequently for the love of paradox, to surprise 

 by admiring where others disapprove However, Col. Montagu appears to be 

 clever. He launched forth on the topics he is au fait of and during a three 

 hours' assemblage of people at and after dinner, he gave the natural history 

 of every bird that flies and every fish that swims. He is a man of bad temper 

 nor does it sound creditable to him that none of his officers speak to hini 

 and they are on the eve of bringing him to a court martial. He is separated 

 from his wife and might inherit an estate of his brother's if he would be 

 united to her, but the condition is too hard and he renounces the possession 

 of a benefit so encumbered." 



I am much indebted to Dr. E. A. S. Elliot, of Slade, Kingsbridge, Devon, 

 for drawing my attention to his note in "The Field" (6) in which he gives an 

 interesting account of a conversation he enjoyed with a cottager, aged 96, 

 who knew Col. Montagu and as a glazier's apprentice put the glass into all 

 his cases of stuffed birds. The Colonel often used to come into the workshop 

 with his gun and dogs and say there was a case ready to be glazed. He was 

 very fond of his gun which he called his "Joe Manton". The Colonel was 

 very genial with a good word for everyone although a man with peculiar 

 tastes. For example, the old cottager, as a house decorator, remembered the 

 very peculiar wall-paper on the staircase at Knowle. The house and grounds 

 resembled those of Charles Waterton, the "mad Englishman" who lived at 

 Walton Hall and wrote the famous "Wanderings in S. America", for the house 

 itself "was full of curiosities" and there were "live birds all over the grounds". 

 On the pond, he had ducks, gulls and all sorts of swimming birds. While 

 some repairs were being done to the house and a lot of old timber was lying 

 about, the Colonel stepped on a rusty nail and died of lockjaw in three days. 



Many years ago, when Kingsbridge Church was being restored, the 

 vaults in the aisles were opened and the lead stolen from the coffins. 

 Montagu's coffin the most massive of all presented some difficulty, but the 

 lead was finally ripped off" and the remains of the coffin and of the Colonel's 

 bones were pitched back into the vault. More recently, during a second 

 restoration, Dr. Elliot, who has kindly sent me this information, upon dis- 

 covering the sacrilege, rescued the breastplate and had it suitably framed 

 and placed on the Church wall over the vault. 



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