JVotes. 
253 
Westmeatli is declared to be a " virgin field, but promising great variety 
of aquatics"; Wexford botany is "yet uninvestigated," and Queen's 
County is little better off as being "yet unexplored." 
So much for the botany of the Scientific Tourist. What about the 
various other branches of natural history to which the "inquisitive 
traveller" so often referred to in the Introduction may be supposed to 
give a share of his attention ? There is a little mineralogy' and a little 
geology ; there is a reference to the Gillaroo trout of Lough Corrib, 
" with a gizzard like a fowl," and another to the pearls that may be 
picked up " from a muscle peculiar to the lake." But it is to the student 
of insect life that the strongest incentives are offered to a scientific tour 
in Ireland. Here is the prospect held out to him in the Introduction : — 
"The entomologist will be certain of finding numerous sources of amuse- 
ment. Mr. Hall in his tour, Vol. 2, p. 168, asserts that with a tolerable 
glass one sees animals grazing like cattle in a meadow on the leaves of 
every vegetable, and these ako much larger than in Great Britain.'' 
What have our Irish entomologists been doing for the last century that 
we are still in the dark about these grazing animals ? 
As a guide book in the ordinary sense of that term, the Scientific 
Tourist through Irelandis a most interesting and meritorious little work, 
and was, no doubt, highly esteemed by the " picturesque tourist" of its 
day. As a contribution to the history of Irish natural science it is of 
no account. And I must confess that I pen this latter severe judgment 
with a certain sense of relief ; for I should have found it hard to forgive 
myself for overlooking the work had it been of any scientific value. Can 
any bookish reader of the Irish Naitu alist tell us who the Irish gentleman 
was ? 
N. Coi^GAN. 
Sandycove. 
The author of this book was Thomas Walford, militia officer and anti- 
quary, born 1752, died 1833. He also wrote " The Scientific Tourist 
through EJngland, Wales, and vScotland . . . 2 vols., t8i8. He had no 
claim to his nojn de phivie of " An Irish Gentleman," as he was born at 
Whitley in Essex, and lived and died there, being a Deputy Lieutenant 
of the county, and a major of the local militia. Walford was a member 
of the Society of Antiquaries, and of the Linnean and Geological Societies, 
and contributed to Arehceologia^ Vettista Monuvienta^ and the Linnean 
Society's Transactions. Having dealt with England, Wales, and Scotland 
iu his larger work mentioned above, he evidently undertook the descrip« 
tion of Ireland, for which he was not specially qualified, in order to make 
his survey of the British Isles complete. As the author himself says in 
his Introduciion: — "This interesting country becoming every day more 
and more the subject of inquiry and personal observation, an Hibe;rnian 
Tourists' Guidk consequently forms a necessary adjunct to our original 
plan." 
R. Li,OYD Praegkr. 
