LIFE OF C. ST. JOHN 



Many men well known in the literary world possess no history, 

 because their life has been spent with their books. Mr. St. 

 John's days were passed on the moorland or by the river, 

 devoted to sports and natural history, consequently there is 

 little to tell of his life except the distinctive facts which mark 

 off one human being from another. His love of animated 

 nature, his perseverance and keenness in capturing the rarer 

 birds and beasts, are only matched by the acuteness with which 

 he caught their habits and instincts and transferred them into 

 these pages. In them and in his other two books may be read 

 his real life-work. 



Charles William George St. John was son of General the 

 Honourable F. St. John, himself the son of Frederick, second 

 Viscount Bolingbroke. He was born at Chailey, Sussex, 3rd 

 December 1809, and sent in due time to Midhurst School, 

 under Dr. Bayley. Here it is upon record that under the 

 careful tuition of an old pensioner, who acted as drill-sergeant 

 to the school, the characteristic bent of his mind showed itself, 

 and he became a proficient in spinning for pike and setting 

 night-lines for eels in the river Arun. During his stay of 

 about four years his box was usually filled with some kind of 

 pets ; dormice, guinea-pigs, or stag-beetles. He was appointed 

 to a clerkship in the Treasury in 1828, but only remained for 

 some two years at his desk, the confinement and regular hours 

 being little suited to his tastes. At this time of his life St. 

 John was fond of society, and was enabled to enjoy it to his 

 heart's content through the kindness of his aunt, Ladj'^ Sefton. 

 He had a slight impediment in his speech, but it almost dis- 

 appeared when he was among friends, and then his conversation 



