WRITING OF WATERTON, THE NATURALIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 200, 2 July 1879, Page 3

WRITING OF WATERTON, THE NATURALIST.

- Mflfluhm's Magazine says: —"Tlie Sqwba-wed in a room at the top of his bouse, vafeh Lad neither bed or carpet; V- |m slsjsi oxrtha fioor in a blanket, with an asjt lag for k> pillow. He rose at S, and 5 Mftjfean shaved, and in his private chapel amm* at «s books (chiefly Latin and ; oßush) and his accounts till 8, when &3gflkfiut was served on the stroke of the - dparease clock, once the property of Sir Stomas More, one of his famous ancestry, adioag whom were also no leas than six s - Miuta of the Boman Catholic calendar. SFrom that time till dinner he was among his birds and trees, turning his ugly Yorkshire valley into a veritable wonderland, And at tha stroke of 8 lie retired to his room. He built a wall all round his park of 350 aeres, ranging from 8 to 16 feet in Iteight, and ' modified all within it to the use of birds, caring much more for their comfort than hia own.' His trees lie watched and loved as much as his birds, aod do stored them with far greater success - 4haa he had achieved in physicking uian- - Iciod. It was a favorite habit of his to sit among the highest branches watching ; bin}* and reading Horace or Virgil, oven after he was 80 ; and he often astonished - - visitors at the hall by inviting them in - perfect good faith to accompany him. Ho ~ IjUI himself, in his early manhood, Uvico diasbad to tiie top of the cross of St. J Peter's—once to leave his glovo on the top ; cf the lightning conductor, and again at 1 \ the Pope s desire (no workman in Homo : * being willing to risk his neck in tho operation) to take it off again—so could not ucdontaad losing one's head in troo climbing. And his humour played about Jbia twee, and birds, and buildings, and i HMbyttoup« in the park wore known as tho ■nfi«To Apostles, the Eight Beatitudes, Iho Sttfen Deadly Sins, and an oak and jfttftcb fir twined together going by tho c-ifi*!# PJwrcfc »nd Sfcato"