and having near its extrem. C HE a 1100 aders The only portion now remaining of the ancient hall of the Watertons is the "water-gate," to the left as we crossed the bridge. It is a building containing many subjects of great interest, both to the antiquary and the naturalist, and with which Mr. Waterton's own graphic description had already made me so familiar that I found myself my own "Cicerone" among them, and at once entered "in medias res, non secus ac notas." This far-famed "water-gate." is surrounded by yew trees, and quite concealed from view by the thick hedge which they form. Within this inclosure there is a singular round building, specially erected for the ac commodation of starlings, of which no less than eighty pair built their neste in it, and reared their young during and the last breeding season. My attention Hall was next drawn to the place where More, through my grandmother; while by the mother's side I am akin to the Bedingfields of Oxburgh, to the Charltons of Hazleside, and to the Swinburnes of Capheaton." Thus," Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis," as he truly and aptly quotes. But of all the pictures in the house the general visitor will be most attracted by the one painted by Captain Johnson, a friend of Mr. Waterton, and which represents the "hero of the wilds and forests of Guiana" bareheaded, stripped to his checked shirt, and, as his wont, barefooted, riding across the back of an alligator, and holding on by his forelegs, or paws, crossed over its neck, and thus breaking the resistance of the monster, who is drawn along by one British sailor and several red-ochred Indians from the lagune in which it had taken the bait into its stomach. Some Indians are looking on, under the cover of tufted trees, in a state of great apprehension and alarm, and seem ready to give "leg-bail" should the rope break. The hook and the rope are preserved in the same frame. Captain Johnson has introduced into this extraordinary picture all the beautiful birds of South America captured or shot during his wanderings by Mr. Waterton, and ultimately prepared by himself in the way described above. Opposite this pictorial record of Mr. Waterton's daring deed, you see the identical monster alligator itself in a glass case, looking tremendously fierce. A little above this gentle inhabitant of the lagune is a terrific monster of the forests of Guiana-a boa constrictorone of the largest, if not the very largest, ever met with. Mr. Waterton found it asleep, and with his wonted daring drove a spear through its neck and pinned it to the ground, and manfully accomplished the victory over it, notwithstanding its mighty struggles, and dangerous gyrations. It is impossible, by enumeration of all the curious specimens in this museum, to do full justice to the extensive collection, procured by the energy and skill and science of Mr. Waterton in South America for the illustration of his natural history. The collection, to be fully comprehended and duly estimated, must be carefully inspected. Permission to do so naturalists and other visitors are sure of obtaining by presenting letters of recommendation from the friends or acquaintances of Mr. Waterton. After having thus delightfully employed some hours in inspecting the mansion, its pictures and curious relics, and the unrivalled collection formed by the vigorous traveller, and now constituting a most valuable (nay, inestimable) museum, we recrossed the elegant iron bridge over the lake, and walked through the stables and homestead buildings into the beautiful vegetable and flower-gardens, situated to the north of the Hall. In these Hesperian grounds, terrace is raised above terrace, and seats are disposed upon them at convenient distances, whence Mr. Waterton can unobserved indulge his ruling taste by quietly contemplating and studying the habits of the feathered tribe which, at all seasons of the year, crowd this umbrageous and silent solitude. Mr. Waterton some forty years since planted for this very purpose a forest of fir and other trees upon a drained morass, and many of them have attained to a majestic height and large diameter. Envying Mr. Waterton the means thus provided here by himself for the happy continuance of his ornithological studies, watching and noting the movements of birds, which present an infinite variety of characters, and afford an exhaustless source of mental gratification, (“leading from nature up to nature's God,") I recalled to mind the congenial sentiments expressed by Mr. Jesse in his interesting work entitled, "Favourite Haunts and Rural Studies," so well adapted to the "religio loci" of Walton Hall, and the daily pursuits of its devoted proprietor, whose book has long been "nature herself." It always affords me," writes Mr. Jesse, "infinite pleasure not only to listen to the various notes of our numerous song birds, but to watch their habits and instincts. They appear to enjoy a degree of happiness peculiar to themselves; but in a state of confinement it is far otherwise. A caged blackbird pours forth its melancholy and complaining notes; and the sky-lark flutters, as if wanting to stretch her airy wings towards heaven. It is no longer the warbling songster of the sky, but a moping wretched prisoner. In fact, the con trast between birds in a wild and confined state is very striking." But the autumnal sun is fast setting with unclouded glory, and gilding the western horizon with the gaudiest colours. The evening is now far advanced, and we have to retrace our steps homeward a long distance, ere the shadows of night come upon us. The carriages are ordered, and we are making hasty preparations for our instant departure. "monumental" grief, but is identified with his existence. The cause of this deeply-fixed sorrow we are not, however, left to conjecture, for Mr. Waterton thus explains it in his brief autobiography.— In 1829 I became the happiest man in the world; but it pleased Heaven to convince me that all felicity here below is no more than a mere illusive, transitory dream, and I bow submissive to its adorable decrees. I am left with one fine little boy, who looks up to me for light; I trust that I shall succeed in imparting it to him.” But before quitting Walton Hall, and all its various and characteristic attractions, one kind word of grateful farewell is due to its talented, learned, classical, and benevolent proprietor, whose collections and works on natural history have instructed and delighted so many less gifted than himself. The mild character of this accomplished student in nature is easily discovered in his different works, "veluti descripta tabella vita Senis." The Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews have extended the knowledge of two of his most important works; his "Wanderings in South America," and his "Essays on Natural History." Strongly attached to the faith of his ancestors, he displays in his museum several manifest expressions of his own religious views. liberal-minded Protestant will quarrel with Mr. Waterton for these demon- Rectory, Rotherfield Grey's, Oxon. But still Mr. Waterton's is a green old age, and he still possesses the energies of stout manhood, and even now would climb a lofty tree with as much agility and courage as when wandering amid the forests of Guiana in the days of his youth. This "viridis senectus" Mr. Waterton owes to his temperate habits of life. He told me that during forty and seven years he has never even touched malt liquor, and has taken no wine for sixty-five years, and that the same number of years have elapsed since he indulged in any alcohols. No strations of personal sentiments on matters of Church belief, to make which he is fully entitled by the constitutional law of our free country. His "mitis sapientia," learned converse, and benevolent manners, and most amiable deportment, fully reconciled my mind to some characteristic arrangements. It was impossible to be in Mr. Waterton's company without being sensibly impressed by the conviction that a cause of early grief (the death of his estimable lady) still dwells heavily upon his heart, and renders him the constant though silent mourner over an irreparable loss. This evidence of a deeply-rooted and unsolaced sorrow (delicate as the mention of it must be) engaged all my warmest sympathies in the mental sufferings of this good and amiable man. I carried away with me the certainty that there is no balm but that of the Cross for a heart bruised and crushed like his-that still "hæret lateri lethalis arundo," that his, in short, is no "His saltem accumulem!" MR. URBAN, W. M. K. 21, Green Street, Grosvenor Square. IN a communication I had the honour of addressing you, under date of February, 1819, and inserted in your Number for the following month, it is virtually, though not expressly, stated that Lieut-Gen. William Byam, founder of the Transatlantic family of that name, in the island of Antigua, was a son of Dr. Henry Byam, whose epitaph, at Luckham, in Somersetshire, is, at the same time, given. Now, Sir, misled by appearances (Dr. Henry having, indeed, a son of the same name, like age, and answering in every respect save that of identity), this is an error, which, for the sake of myself, that of posterity, and your excellent miscellany, I now feel myself bound to correct. Subsequent inquiries of a searching description having placed it beyond doubt that the individual above named was the son, not as had hitherto been supposed, of Dr. Henry Byam, but of his younger brother Edward Byam, another dignitary of the English Church; and, such being the case, perhaps you would kindly open your columns to a few additional particulars concerning a gentleman who has hitherto escaped that historical notice which may be properly awarded to his place and position in society. The Rev. Edward Byam was born at Luckham, the residence of his father, the Rev. Lawrence Byam, incumbent of that parish, in the year 1584. At the age of sixteen, and in the year 1600, he entered at Exeter college, Oxford, where his elder brothers Henry and John had gone before him. In 1612 he was presented to the vicarage of Dulverton, in the county of Somerset, and, marrying at Walton, in the same county, shortly afterwards, Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Eaglesfield, rector of the same, and prebendary of Wells, he was father of a numerous family of sons and daughters. In the hope of providing more amply for their maintenance, he in 1625 embarked for Ireland, where he presently became precentor of Cloyne, the dignity in that cathedral next to that of Dean. He remained fourteen years in Ireland, where the younger portion of his children were born, and where he himself died, at Kilwillen, on the banks of the little river of St. Bride's, in the county of Cork, in the beginning of June, 1639, and was interred in the chancel of the neighbouring church of Castle Lyons, on the 6th of the same month, as appears by a funeral certificate found amongst the papers of that eminent antiquary Archbishop Pocock, and still preserved in the British Museum. "Edward Byom, late of Castlegones, in the county of Cork, clerk, son of Lawrence Byom. "The said first-mentioned Edward took to wife Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Englefield, of Somersetshire, in the kingdome of England, by whom he had issue six sons and five daughters, viz. Lawrence, eldest son; William, second; John, third; Henry, fourth; Barry, fifth; and Arthur, sixth son: Sarah, eldest daughter; Margarett, second; Elizabeth, third; Joan, fourth; and Ann, fifth; all as yett unmarried. "The said first-mentioned Edward departed this mortall life at Killwillin, in the said county, about the 6th of June, 1639, and was interred in the parish church of Castlegones aforesaid. "The truth of the premisses is testified by the subscription of the said Elizabeth, relict of the said defunct, who hath re turned the certificate into my office, to be there recorded. Taken by Thomas Preston, esq. Ulvester King of Armes, the first of February, 1689." To the horrors of the pillage and massacre of the Protestants which shortly after ensued, viz. in and subsequent to the month of October, 1641, the remaining portion of the family was for the most part exposed; and, of five sons which remained behind in the country after the withdrawal of two for the army in England, scarcely a vestige can be discovered a few years subsequent to the Restoration, insomuch that in the multiplicity of wills registered in the Prerogative Court of Dublin, from the age of Elizabeth to the present, not one appeared on the index in this name; and the only one which it was ascertained should have appeared was by a clerical error recorded under the Irish name of "Bryan," instead of the English, or rather the Welsh one of " Byam." Of the two sons drawn off for the army in England, the one, John, then an ensign, "Vexillifer," died in garrison at Bridgwater, where he received sepulture, "12 January, 1644;" and his elder brother, William, was at the same period a captain of horse in the same garrison; and of him, the more especial object of the present remarks, perhaps you will allow me henceforth more exclusively to treat. In the year succeeding this, in which his conduct was the theme of much commendation on the part of the Court Gazette, viz. in July, 1645, both Cromwell and Fairfax came before the place, and, after a storm and desperate resistance, in which one portion of the town held out after the other had ca pitulated and was in flames, the whole, little better than a heap of ruins, was compelled to surrender; and, favourable terms having been rejected at the time they were to be obtained, now none other save quarter were to be had, and those alone conceded. Such of the late garrison as had borne the rank of officers were escorted to London, and lodged in the Tower, the was Gatehouse, and other prisons of the metropolis, in which, to prevent a longer detention than it were possible to avoid, after a surrender or composition for their properties, many of the officers accepted the only terms offered for their enlargement, which a pass "to go beyond seas," which, however, after the example of what had been conceded to Ragland Castle, and other royalist garrisons in England, was freely tendered without any conditions. Thus liberated, Col. Humphry Walrond, Major Byam, and others of the late royalist garrison of Bridgwater, retired to Barbados, in which island discomfited royalists having assembled from all parts, to the amount of many thousands, the Parliament, in 1651, thought proper to fit out an expedition, under the command of Sir George Ayscue, for their reduction. A division having been effected in the royalists' camp by the defection of the force under the control of Sir Thomas Modiford, a leading man of his party, after a resistance of six months' duration, and protracted into the year 1652, the governor, Francis Lord Willoughby, of Parham, was compelled to think of a surrender, and amongst others appointed Major Byam a commissioner on the part of the crown, to treat of terms with other commissioners, at the same time appointed on the side of the Parliament. After a display of no mean or unstatesmanlike qualifications, articles between the two parties were at length concluded, which by writers of every shade of political opinion are admitted to be "alike comprehensive and honourable;" but hardly were the Parliamentarians in possession of the island, when, contrary to the tenour of the said articles, which promised full indemnity for all past political opinions and actions, they proceeded by separate additional acts to the banishment of Lord Willoughby, Major Byam, and all those by whom the late treaty had been concluded. Thus enforced to seek a new asylum, the subject of this memoir, with a wife he had of late espoused, Dorothy Knollys, arrived on the main of South America, where he was, by the unanimous suffrages of the recently founded colony of Surinam, composed chiefly of royalists, chosen their goGENT. MAG. VOL. XXIX. vernor; an office to which in like manner he was annually re-elected for six successive years, when at the Restoration, in virtue of a royal proclamation, commanding all officers to occupy their present offices until further orders, he became governor for the crown, and was afterwards more formally installed in the same by a separate and express commission from his Majesty. He afterwards continued in command for six years more, until by the treaty of Breda, in 1667, the colony was formally ceded to the Dutch in exchange for New York, on the continent of North America, when Major, by this time Lieut.-Gen. Byam, was once again to seek a home, and, with his wife and infant children, he sailed to Antigua, an island ceded in perpetuity to Great Britain by the same treaty that surrendered the former possession of Surinam. In Antigua his posterity has remained to the present day, one of his own name, "William Byam," being still a member of her present Majesty's council for the island. The general, after a while occupying in a district of his new habitation a post analogous to that he had so long filled in his preceding abode, being in fact (as documents in the Register's Office still testify) governor of the island, died about three years after his last change, in or about the month of December, 1670, in the 48th year of his age, and, as is strongly suspected, of what is usually termed a "broken heart," wrought by his numerous vexations and grievous disappointments, together with the little oil of consolation poured into a wounded spirit by a Master for whom he had so often risked his life, and had otherwise served with a fidelity and devotion scarcely surpassed in those days, when so many were found ready to sacrifice themselves at the shrine of what they conceived to be their bounden duty, and for the purpose of preserving unstained their allegiance to their earthly sovereign. And now, Sir, fearful I have already too much trespassed on the limits of your valuable columns, I shall conclude by appending the following extract from the Matriculation Register of the University of Oxford, in relation to three of the sons of the Rev. G |