ADDRESS AT GREAT YARMOUTH 
539 
Tn 1834 appeared the ‘Sketch of the Natural History of 
Yarmouth and its Neighbourhood,’ by the brothers Charles John 
and James Paget, the former of whom died in 1844, hut Sir James 
is happily still with us, and the energy which resulted in what was 
at that time one of the best local Fauna and Floras known, has 
remained unabated throughout his long and distinguished career. 
This ‘Natural History of Yarmouth ’ is even now an authority, and 
has, no doubt, formed the model of many subsequent works of the 
same nature, its completeness and accuracy render it a lasting 
monument of the industry of the two brothers, the elder of whom 
was only twenty-two years of age at the date of its issue. 
The list of Birds was doubtless very complete at the time, as 
its compilers, in addition to their own observations, had the 
assistance of all their immediate predecessors and contemporaries ; 
they speak of Cirdlestone’s “ union of first-rate sporting accom- 
plishments with the greatest ardour in the pursuit,” giving him 
“ advantages which none here have since equalled,” and of the value 
of his excellent practical notes ; other naturalists mentioned by them 
are D. and C. A. Preston, Mr. Miller, Mr. John Youell, and Captain 
Chawner of Alton, who for some time collected in Yarmouth. 
Hardly less complete no doubt was the list of plants found in the 
district, with regard to which they say, “ probably no neighbourhood 
has been so completely investigated as this, which has had the good 
fortune to have been for nearly a century, the constant stage for 
the action of some inquiring mind. Long ago, Dr. Sims, Dr. Aikin, 
and Mr. Joseph Sparshall were engaged in the observation of our 
plants, by the feeble light which the science, then, comparatively 
speaking, in its infancy, afforded them.” Then came Lilly Wigg, 
Mr. Mason, and Dawson Turner, and the “anxious desire” of the 
last “for the advancement of science afforded opportunities to 
almost every one of the first botanists of his time to study all the 
points of interest in this part of the county. Smith, Hooker, 
Borrer, Dillwynn, Merteus, Sowerby, and a host of other both 
foreign and native naturalists, . . . made this the scene of their 
accurate observation.” Hence these two sections of the book 
should be as complete as the state of the knowledge at the time 
