22 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Journal (19. 3.—June, 1838), it is stated that it was erected for the
purpose through the liberality of Lord Braybrooke, " assisted, amongst
others, by the late Jabez Gibson, Esq., the fruit of whose zeal is still
visible in many a valuable specimen. The huge elephant in the
centre, whose bulky form strikes the attention on first entering, was
presented by him in 1837, and on almost every table we find some
traces of his busy hand." Jabez Gibson was born on December
11, 1794, and died on February 23, 1838. In an obituary notice
which appeared in Wood's Naturalist (vol. iii., p. 283) we read
that :—
" In connection with this [Walden Natural History] Society, by the exertions
of five or six individuals, a museum has been formed that would do credit to any
town in the kingdom. By the industry of the curators and the liberality of
Mr. Gibson, some of the rarest objects in zoology have been placed there, and the
collection, especially of British birds and British and Foreign insects, is very
excellent."
GRUBB, Jonathan, of Sudbury, was born at Clonmel,
Ireland, on the 12th of January, 1808. He was educated at a
private school at Rochester, connected with the Society of Friends,
of which body he has been throughout life a prominent member.
In early life he carried on the business of corn-miller at Lexden,
near Colchester, but in 1842 he retired to Sudbury, where he still
resides. He has long been very widely known as a Temperance
advocate. Almost from boyhood he has taken a very warm interest
in natural history, especially ornithology, and several contributions
from him are to be found in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History.
In 1876, he contributed an interesting paper on the "Birds of My
Premises " (39) to the Friends' Quarterly Examiner, from which I
have made many extracts.
HILL, Rev. Walter Henry, was curate of Southminster
from January, 1832 to 1839, under Dr. A. J. Scott, the vicar, who
was Lord Nelson's chaplain, and whose life has been published.
As to who or what he was, I have been able to obtain very little
information, but he was evidently a good naturalist, and he con-
tributed a list of birds observed by him round Southminster to
Loudon's Magazine (12. vi. 452). Dr. Scott, who died July 24th,
1840, was succeeded by the Rev. G. C. Berkeley, brother of the late
eminent fungologist, who is, I believe, at present, the oldest beneficed
clergyman in the county. He writes to Mr. Fitch as follows :—
" Mr. Hill has been dead at least thirty years. He was drowned in some
trout stream when on a fishing expedition in either North or South Wales. It was