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NOTICE OF THE LATE COL. MONTAGU. 
Died, Aug. 28, 1815, at Knowle House, Devonshire, in his 6‘4th year, George 
Montagu, Esq., many years a Lieutenant-Colonel of the- Wiltshire Militia. 
He possessed talents of the highest order; and :as a writer on Natural History, 
his name will descend to posterity with praise and admiration. He had chosen a 
retirement in the fine county of Devon, singularly beautiful, for the prosecution 
of his inquiries into the works of Nature ; and some very rare MSS. were in 
preparation for the press at the time of his death. Col. Montagu was of very 
ancient and honourable descent, being, on the paternal side, from the family of 
Montagu, of Lackham House, Wiltshire, closely allied to the noble houses of 
Manchester and Sandwich; and, on the maternal side, from the family of Hedges, 
of Alderton, county of Gloucester, of whom Sir C. Hedges, Secretary of State to 
Queen Anne, was a distinguished ornament. Col. Montagu possessed a long 
correspondence between Her Majesty and her favourite Secretary, which, with 
the family estates of Lackham and Alderton, descend to his son, George 
Montagu, Esq. — Gentleman's Magazine , Vol. LXXXV. 
The vignette on the next page is a representation of Knowle Cottage, as it 
is there called, which is situated about half a mile from Kingsbridge, and at 
which Col. Montagu resided many years. For this opportunity of presenting 
a memorial of an English zoologist, 1 feel myself greatly indebted to the kindness 
of the Rev. Robert Holdsworth, of Brixham, who supplied me with a sketch 
from which the vignette below was prepared. —Yarrell’s British Birds , Vol. /., 
p. 453.—[Wrom the ardour and success which characterised Col. Montagu’s 
researches intu various departments of Natural History, the students of separate 
branches frequently imagine that his whole attention was confined to their parti¬ 
cular section; but the fact is widely different, as many of our readers are doubtless 
aware. We should be much obliged to any one who will assist us to a memoir 
and authentic portrait of the Colonel.— Ed. Nat.~\ 
CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES, 
METEOROLOGY. 
Murphy’s Weather Almanac. —On the night of Jan. 9, on which the weather- 
prophet promised us the “ lowest degree of Winter temperature,” the thermometer 
sank as low as 15° Fahr., and probably the cold was more intense in many places. 
Mr. Murphy has also been generally correct throughout the month of January.— 
Editor.. 
