Astronomer & Soldier.- Peyton (John East Hunter, owner of Wakehurst Place, married Sophia Henriette Lindsay, son of John Joseph Wakehurst Peyton, 1841-1916) Notes [&] Diary, autograph manuscript, ephemera (including an photograph of the eclipse of the Sun at Cotina, Italy in 1905) and newspaper cuttings, some ephemera loosely inserted, together c. 250pp., numerous pp. loose, signed by Peyton and with his bookplate on front pastedown, original roan-backed boards, rubbed, corners worn, covers detached, lacks spine, sm. 4to, 1861-1916.

⁂ Peyton was a typical Victorian man of many pastimes, including an interest in geology and astronomy. After leaving the army in 1863, Peyton embarked on several projects including: joining the Royal Victoria Yacht Club; auction of Wakehurst Place; elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1870; climbing the Jungfrau with the famous guide Peter Eggar in 1875; boring in the Sussex Weald for fossils, and taking a balloon ride in 1879, "1300 feet, lovely view of Paris"; climbed Mont Blanc; sailed in the SS Garonne to Norway with Sir Norman Lockyer to photograph an eclipse of the Sun. In 1874 he discovered a new fossil crustacea, named Mecocheirus Peytoni by Sir Arthur Smith Woodward (1864-1944), palaeontologist, at the Geological Society's meeting, 1875. Peyton also records many of the main events of the day such as the death of General Gordon, the Boer War, death of Queen Victoria, assassination of President McKinley, Russian Navy firing on British trawlers in the North Sea [Dogger bank incident], Peary at the North Pole, Bleriot flying across the Channel, Amundsen at the South Pole, death of Captain Scott etc.