XV1U PROLEGOMENA 



had arrived of the decease of her roving spouse. The sym- 

 pathetic townsmen of Penrith organised a subscription to assist 

 the bereaved widow. The fund had just been completed when 

 Mr. Clarke reappeared, and forthwith took charge of the pro- 

 vision thus happily provided for his grief- stricken household, 

 on the strength of which he is supposed to have caroused 

 somewhat merrily. 



W Richardson. It was in the year 1793 that the Rev. W. Eichardson first 

 drew up a quasi- scientific paper on the Fauna of a district of his 

 native county. Like Clarke he belonged to the neighbourhood 

 of Ulleswater, not improbably to Pooley Bridge. That he already 

 enjoyed some local reputation as a scholar and a naturalist is 

 rendered certain by the fact that the Editors of the History of 

 Cumberland, which Hutchinson published in parts between 1794 

 and 1797, expressly remark upon the services which he rendered 

 to their undertaking. Not only were they indebted to Richard- 

 son for a catalogue of Cumberland plants : ' He also favoured 

 us with the description and natural history of Ulleswater, his 

 native place, and many valuable articles and observations in every 

 department of the work.' 1 Richardson was no doubt hampered 

 by conditions of space in the notice which he supplied of the 

 Ulleswater district. He must have been a delightful outdoor 

 companion, judging from his wide reading and trained powers 

 of observation. Meagre and sadly incomplete his paper must 

 be admitted to be, even allowing for the disadvantages under 

 which he laboured. Yet, in spite of the slightness of his work, 

 it shows quite as good quality of tone as that of Dr. Heysham, 

 although, of course, far less ambitious. We owe to Richardson 

 an authoritative statement (independently corroborated ten 

 years later) that the Golden Eagle nested in Martindale in 1787 

 and in 1789. But if Richardson failed to make his mark as a 

 Lakeland naturalist, it was because his importance was dwarfed 



Dr. Heysham. by the sturdy genius and strong originality of Dr. John Heysham, 

 his own contemporary. Dr. Heysham came to the border city in 

 the year 1778, to practise surgery upon the natives, having 

 previously served his apprenticeship of 'bottle-washing' with 

 Mr. Parkinson of Burton, and studied medicine at Edinburgh. 

 1 History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 39. 



