12 Memoir of Mr. John Legg, of Market Lavington, Wilts. 



What valuable information we should gain in regard to the hawks 

 and other birds of prey, then so abundant, now so nearly extermi- 

 nated ! What accounts of the Common Kite, then to be seen evepy 

 day, now altogether banished from the county ! What personal 

 experiences of the Great Bustard, then frequenting the downs just 

 above Market Lavington, and all Salisbury Plain, at tha£ time for 

 the most part an unbroken tract of pasture ! What reminiscences 

 of the Dotterel, even within my recollection to be seen on those same 

 downs, but now very rarely met with ! How familiar he must have 

 been with the peregrine, the hen harrier, the marsh harrier, the 

 buzzard, the raven, the great plover, the bittern, and many others, 

 now so seldom seen in the county ! ! As 1 picture to myself the 

 solitude of those vast plains and downs, when the tinkle of the sheep- 

 bell was the only sound telling of man's occupation ; when the 

 whistle of the steam engine was yet unknown ; when wheat-hoeing 

 in the spring (so destructive to such birds as nest on the ground) 

 was not yet practised ; when the sportsman's only weapon was a 

 flint-lock gun, and breech-loaders and even percussion caps had not 

 been invented ; and when to " shoot flying " was an art only 

 mastered by a select few ; our wild birds enjoyed such security and 

 freedom from disturbance as one can hardly realize now. And our 

 author must have learned his experience of Wiltshire ornithology 

 under these happy conditions ; and I repeat that his " History of 

 British Birds " would be to the Wiltshire naturalist almost invaluable. 

 And it is possible, though perhaps hardly probable, that the MS. still 

 exists : for it is strange how old MSS. which have lain neglected 

 and unknown for years in some cupboard or box, do occasionally 

 come to light ; and in many a remote country house there are stores 

 of documents, generally perhaps of little interest, but sometimes of 

 surpassing value, and such would doubtless be this work in question, 

 which we know to have been ready for the press in 1780. Should 

 that MS. still exist, it will, I think, be eventually recovered, for the 

 late Rev. Edward Ludlow (into whose keeping all the papers be- 

 longing to that branch of the family came) was happily (as I am 

 assured by his executor) one who never destroyed any document, 

 not even an ordinary letter ; and that executor (Mr. Hungerford 



