538 
ADDRESS AT GREAT YARMOUTH. 
same Mr. Youell kept a common Scoter alive for several months 
feeding it on barley, seemingly not a very suitable food for a 
diving Duck. Wbitear also mentions finding the Eeeve breeding 
in the marshes and taking the eggs. 
Another local name familiar to Norfolk Naturalists is that 
of Charles Stuart Girdlestoue, two of whose letters to his 
friend the Eev. Eichard Lubbock, and one to P. J. Selby, 
published in our ‘Transactions’ (voL ii. p. 393), prove to have 
been a very shrewd observer ; he was the son of Dr. Girdlestone of 
Yarmouth, and died in 1831. Writing to Selby, he tells him that 
“ the Bearded Titmice plentifully breed with us, but their nests are 
difficult to discover Bitterns also breed with us, but their 
eggs for the same reason are seldom found.” . . . “The Avocet 
breeds at a place called Horsey, .... a most desolate place, and 
duty at Church is performed only once a month, and in winter the 
place is scarcely approachable.” One cannot but regret that the 
three letters referred to are all that we have left from the pen of 
this talented naturalist, to whom his contemporaries were so much 
indebted, and in whose esteem he stood so high. Girdlestone 
appears to have been intimate with Colonel Hawker, the author of 
the ‘ Instructions to Young Sportsmen,’ who about this time used 
to shoot at Horsey.* 
* At the time the above was written I had not seen the recently published 
“ Diary ” of Colonel Peter Hawker. As on some other occasion I hope to 
have something to say about the local references in this most disappointing 
book, I will only now observe that he paid a fifth visit to Yarmouth on the 
3rd March, 1824, when he states that he “ received the greatest civility and 
hospitality from C. Girdlestone, Esq., who, being an excellent sportsman, 
proved to be a capital pilot and guide for even' information.” It was on the 
6th of July, 1816, that Hawker paid his first visit to Mr. Rising at Horsey, 
and although he admits having killed “ large numbers of almost every kind 
of sea and marsh birds” (without, however, giving the name of one of 
them), he concludes his account of the visit with the following remarkable 
words : “ The circumstance that makes the birds so plentiful here cancels all 
the pleasure of the shooting, which is that fear of death deters strangers 
from hazarding their constitutions in such a pestilential climate. 1 came 
home ill, but w r as happy to escape as well as I did.” Take heed all ye who 
in July, the most charming of all months in this always charming resort, 
incur so terrible a risk in the mistaken search for health! 
