XX11 PROLEGOMENA 



Kecovery.' The House of Eecovery was afterwards pulled 

 down; but what became of the 'remnant' of Dr. Heysham's 

 birds on that occasion is unknown. 



Dr. Heysham's closing years were cheered by the devotion of 

 his family, and especially by the pious care of the son to whom 

 he had transmitted his own enthusiasm for natural history. He 

 died in his own house on Sunday, March 23, 1834, in the 81st 

 year of his age. Mr. T. C. Heysham took charge of his father's 

 papers. They are not now forthcoming. Had they contained 

 much unpublished matter, it seems probable that T. C. Heysham 

 would have published them. 

 John Gough. While Dr. Heysham explored the zoology of Cumberland 



during the latter years of the eighteenth century, the Fauna of 

 Westmorland occupied to a lesser extent the attention of John 

 Gough of Kendal. This remarkable man was born at the 

 capital of Westmorland in 1757, and built up a reputation such 

 as ordinary men may well envy, by the force of his mathematical 

 powers and talent for teaching. He became blind from smallpox 

 at a very early age, a misfortune which prevented his prosecut- 

 ing to the full the fine genius for the study of natural history 

 which he undoubtedly possessed. The labours of 'the Blind 

 Philosopher' upon lines of a general character are too well 

 known to require mention here. That he was an excellent 

 botanist has also been widely recognised. But up to the present 

 time no one seems to have perceived that John Gough was an 

 acute and painstaking zoologist. This circumstance is to be 

 explained by the fact that he wrote little regarding birds. 

 Indeed, the only paper of any intrinsic value to us that 

 John Gough printed was one published in the second volume of 

 the Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of Manchester in 1813. 

 The private papers of Thomas Gough include an interleaved 

 copy of this little essay, entitled, 'Eemarks on the Summer 

 Birds of Passage, and on Migration in General, by Mr. John 

 Gough,' dated from Middleshaw, Westmorland, Feb. 21, 1812. 

 This was communicated to the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Manchester by Dr. Holme, and was read to the 

 members of that body on March 20, 1812. If this paper failed 

 to contain any novel information, it was, nevertheless, a pleasant 



