WM. THOMPSON, ESQ. 
xiii 
ous and exotic. He planted many various species at the family place in 
the country, and, had he ever gone there to reside permanently, would 
have beautified it much by his taste in this department of rural pursuits. 
Up to the years 1830 and 31, his taste for Natural History was more that 
of an amateur than a scientific naturalist, and he had every intention of 
pursuing the business to which he had been brought up ; but in these 
years circumstances of a domestic nature occurred which had the effect of 
altogether changing his intentions with regard to business, and in fact to 
make him give it up entirely. This was the pivot upon which his future 
life turned, and I am satisfied, had matters then gone on as he wished, we 
should never have heard of him as a naturalist. But such not being the 
case, and his mind being of such a cast that frivolous pursuits had no 
charm, he began in real earnest to devote himself to the investigation of 
the Natural History of his native country ; and you will observe, that with 
few exceptions all his observations date from 1832.* From this period up 
to the time of my leaving Ireland, he and I were in the constant inter- 
change of thought in regard to ornithological observations, and he was 
always most particular in noting down at the time anything new that I 
might have observed in our favourite branch of Natural History ; and the 
frequent allusions to the ‘ Falls’ in his works, always recall something to 
my mind probably long forgotten. Many a pleasant ramble he and I have 
had together ; one of our favourite excursions was to Colin Glen, entering 
at the foot and ascending to the top of the glen ; every foot of the way 
would be subjected to his indefatigable research ; the heaps of fallen 
leaves would be our ‘ diggings,’ and were as carefully searched for land 
shells, as ever were the golden lands of Australia or California for that 
treasure, the love of which ‘ is the root of all evil.’ The trees and rocks 
afforded lichens, the sandstone its fossils, while overhead among the foli- 
age not a bird could open its mouth, without note of observation on our 
parts. Sometimes the top of Colin, and at others that of Devis, would be 
our aim ; if in summer, the golden sunsets as seen from the latter, when 
the orb of day would slowly descend beyond the waters of Lough Neagh, 
were to my friend inexpressibly charming ; he saw nature with a painter’s 
eye and a poet’s soul, and the apt quotations from our best poets, which 
were always so ready, would be given with great expression. I cannot 
recall those days without much sorrow for his loss ; I still looked forward 
to a period when I might again revisit my native land, and the most pleas- 
ing anticipation was that of again rambling to some of our former haunts, 
and living over again the days of our youth or early manhood : that vision 
has faded, never to reappear.” 
The usual length of an apprenticeship to business — five years — was 
completed by the subject of the present memoir early in 1826. 
That year was a memorable one in the life of Mr. Thompson, then in 
his twenty-first year. In the spring he set out on his first visit to the 
Continent, accompanied by his friend and relative, the late George Lang- 
try, junior, Esq., of Fort William, Belfast. Their route lay through Hol- 
land and Belgium, thence by the Rhine to Switzerland, Rome, and Naples ; 
returning homewards by Florence, Geneva, and Paris. Travelling was in 
1826 a slow and expensive procedure, compared with what it now is. 
* It was in the month of June this year, in company with Mr. Hyndman, that 
he made his first Natural History excursion to Strangford Lough, County Down, 
where he visited many of the islands. 
