206 



KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



Lark, and am gladr, for the sake of natural his- 

 tory itself, that I have broached this subject. 

 Few people outside this county, nor did I whilst 

 in my early days in this my native county, think 

 the dear lark to be so deadly a depredator on 

 such crops as I have enumerated; so that if Mr. 

 Kidd cannot on principle (a principle which I 

 admire) assist me, I will presume to assist him 

 in the natural history of the lark, whose principal 

 food, in this corn-growing county at least, is the 

 pulpy part of the germinated grain discovered 

 and ferreted out on seeing the young shoot over 

 ground. No other bird that I am aware of, 

 seeks the grain in this state so voraciously™ ex- 

 cept the rooks, whose depredations are nothing 

 compared to those of the larks. The larks will 

 occasionally extract from the husk, or bran, the 

 Wheat, Barley, or Oats before vegetation sets 

 in; but it is only in the stage which I have at- 

 tempted to describe they do the irreparable mis- 

 chief — a thousand-fold worse than that done by 

 crows, who can be scared or shot without any 

 extraordinary cost ; but I verily believe, a man, 

 on every rood of land, with a deadly " Shilma- 

 lier," or " Queen Anne," in his hand, could not 

 save the crops last March, at least from the 

 larks ; and what makes the matter worse if pos- 

 sible, the finer the tilth the more readily they 

 effect their purpose. I take leave to enclose a 

 card for Mr. Kidd, that he may know my where- 

 abouts, should he be disposed to favor me with 

 a visit. I will certainly, if I can visit the World's 

 Great Fair next summer, avail myself of the 

 pleasure of waiting on him. In the meantime, 

 I must remain grateful for his polite attention, in 

 admiration of his beautifully written and highly 

 interesting letters, as well as in devotion to his 

 humane principles. — A Shilmalier, April 18 th, 

 1851. 



Skylarks. — I see by a note appended to Mr. 

 Kidd's letter in reference to the lark question, that 

 he doubts whether larks eat grain at all. I can 

 assure him that the larks here are similar to 

 their Irish brethren in this respect. ' I once had 

 complete faith in their innocence; but growing 

 suspicious, I observed them more closely, and 

 even committed the sacrilegious act of shooting 

 four or five. A post-mortem examination com- 

 pels me to pronounce them guilty of eating 

 Wheat, Barley, and Oats, when sown, and even 

 after the plant has sprung up through the ground, 

 the latter, particularly with Wheat. Probably 

 the wide difference which Mr. Kidd imagines to 

 exist between his Richmond larks and the Irish 

 ones, would be considerably narrowed, if on 

 some bright morning in the seed-time he would 

 take a walk in the corn fields, armed not with a 

 murderous gun (I would not hurt his feelings by 

 such a request), but with a good telescope. He 

 would then perhaps see that his favorites charge 

 a very handsome per centage for their musical 

 services, fully more at this season in the shape of 

 grain, than of wire-worms and insects I fear. 

 The song of the lark, — 



" Soft is his lay and loud 

 Far in the downy cloud "— 



is no doubt very beautiful, and comes in spring 

 with additional relish after a winter of London 



fogs; but it is a question, on both sides of which 

 a great deal may be said — whether after all the 

 farmer does not pay too much for his " whistle." — 

 J. Foreman, Kinnabei; Montrose, N.&., April 

 20th, 1851. 



As we have yet more to say on this sub- 

 ject, which cannot but interest our readers, 

 " the Trial " of the accused must be post- 

 poned. The Court now rises, and will sit 

 again, D. V., this day week, when " Judg- 

 ment" will be given. The defendant mean- 

 time, is " out " on bail. 



OBITUARY. 



Thomas Moore, the Poet. 



In a Journal like ours, it would not do to 

 pass over the Life and Death of a man like 

 Moore, whose writings have become so exten- 

 sively known all over the world. We will there- 

 fore offer a brief summary of his long life and 

 anticipated death. 



Thomas Moore, " the poet of all circles, and 

 the idol of his own," died at Sloperton Cottage, 

 near Devizes, on Thursday, the 26th ult., in his 

 72nd year. He had survived all his great con- 

 temporaries who started in the race of fame at 

 the opening of the present century — except the 

 veteran Rogers ; but, as in the case of Sir Walter 

 Scott and Southey, mere physical existence had 

 for some time back outlived the vitality of 

 genius. His career was one of the most bril- 

 liant and happy in the proverbially checkered 

 annals of his class. No poet was ever so uni- 

 formly fortunate. Wherever the English language 

 has penetrated, the winged words of his musical 

 and melodious minstrelsy have wafted his name, 

 and endeared him to millions in both hemi- 

 spheres. Few men enjoyed through life such a 

 splendid range of intercourse with all that is ex- 

 alted in social refinement, intellect, rank, wit, or 

 beauty ; and there have been still fewer whose ac- 

 quaintanceship was more honored for its worth, or 

 more prized for its charm. This is not the place 

 to indulge in critical analysis of his poetical sys- 

 tem, or to examine the principles of taste which 

 guided his active pen in every variety of compo- 

 sition ; neither have we room to dwell on the 

 incidents of his biography, which it was his 

 latest occupation to detail in the prefaces of the 

 last complete edition of his Works. It will 

 suffice to state that he was born on the 28th of 

 May, 1780, in Angier Street, Dublin, where his 

 father, a strict Roman Catholic, carried on a 

 grocery and spirit business. He was entered at 

 an early age at Trinity College, and in his 20th 

 year he came to London to study at the Middle 

 Temple, and to publish his translations of Ana- 

 creon, which were highly successful, and were suc- 

 ceeded, in 1801, by "Poems and Songs, by 

 Thomas Little." Shortly afterwards, he was 

 made registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Ber- 

 muda — as singularly inappropriate an appoint- 

 ment as some we have seen in our own day — 

 went out to the islands, appointed a deputy, 

 took a glance at the United States, and came 

 home again. He then published " Sketches of 



