WHAT IT TAUGHT US THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. ' \ _ K V /* /V-- - ''. '' THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM: SHOWING HOW WE FORMED IT, AND WHAT IT TAUGHT REV. HENRY HOUSMAN, LATE FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. MEMBER CHICHESTER AND WEST SUSSEX NATURAL HISTORV AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, B.C. ; 26, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, s.v/. BRIGHTON : 135, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK: E. f: J. B. YOUNG & CO. TO THE REVEREND JOHN ELLERTON, M.A., RECTOR OF BARNES, Cfjts little 330ofc IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 2091 1 88 PREFACE. Y object in writing this book has been to point out the vast amount of pleasure and information which boys may obtain by forming a museum. Having myself formerly experienced the delight which such a collection is capable of affording, I am anxious to tell the boys of to-day how it was done, to encourage them to make a similar attempt. Many a schoolboy does not know what to do either with his spare time or pocket- money, so both are wasted, and he becomes a man and takes his place among the toilers of the world with no hobby to turn to for relaxa- tion in his leisure, with nothing to link him to the days of his youth, and to keep him fresh and young in heart as he combats with the anxieties of life. viii PREFACE. It has frequently surprised me to observe the amount of indifference to the things of nature which exists among the young men of the present day. The cause of this may be traced to the absence, in the days 'of their boyhood, of such pursuits as this little book records. Brought up with their eyes unopened to the wonders of nature, they pass through life in the same state of blindness ; leisure often hangs heavy on their hands, the country save for pur- poses of sport is voted dull, travel is deprived of some of its greatest charms, and wisdom at many entrances quite shut out. How completely all this is reversed in the case of those who have early imbibed an enthusiasm "for studying and collecting in any department of natural or historical science !- The following "Story of our Museum" is written, therefore, to show what can be done in the matter of collecting, when it is set about in earnest. The museum the history of which is herein recorded was commenced in the country and continued in London. It was formed by two brothers : the elder sleeps in a far-off land, under a monument on which public gratitude records how he served his country as " a good Citizen, a learned and incorrupt Judge ; " the younger tells this tale. In conclusion, I beg to express the obligation PREFACE. ix I am under to several friends who have kindly assisted me in bringing the work up to the scien- tific standard of the day ; to William, Jeffery, Esq., late President of the Chichester and West Sussex Natural History and Microscopical So- ciety, for revising the chapters on Shells ; to the Rev. James Fraser, M.A., for correcting some archaisms which had crept into the " Botanical Department ; " and especially to Joseph Ander- son, Esq., Jun., of Chichester, not only for bringing the chapters on Insects up to date, but also for writing an Appendix, full of valuable information, on butterfly hunting. H. HOUSMAN. CHICHESTER, October, 1 88 1. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. WOODCHESTER. Woodchester Its situation The vale of Rodborough Site of the Roman villa Was St. Paul at Woodchester ? The village Character of its inhabitants . . Pages 17 23 CHAPTER II. OUR MUSEUM. Early passion for collecting A museum begun Its effects upon the character Our books- Value of independent observation Description/ of the museum How fitted up and enriched 2429 CHAPTER III. BIRD-STUFFING. Results from shooting a Golden-crested Wren Joe Wise, the village naturalist We resolve to acquire the art of bird- stuffing A first attempt Miserable failure Sacrifice of the Golden-crested Wren Light breaks in Special difficulties How to be overcome 30 39 xjj CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. BIRD-STUFFING continued. Attitude of stuffed birds Grouping according to species How we shot a Kestrel Blackcock and Greyhen Goatsucker How stuffed birds should be exhibited List of our Stuffed Birds pa S** 4049 CHAPTER V. BIRDS' EGGS. Charms of birds'-nesting Not necessarily cruel How to blow eggs HOW to display them Nests Some of the most interesting 5 55 CHAPTER VI. SHRAWLEY. Shrawley Wood A paradise for boys Clearing out the well- trap Horrible suffering caused by steel traps Description of a Blackbird found in one Importance of boys learning how to handle a gun Fishing at Shrawley The Grove Lading the brook The butterflies of Shrawley Wood 56 63 CHAPTER VII. "BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER." A new acquaintance His manifold acquirements Story of the Hay -hen Learning to swim Duties not neglected for pleasure A happy boyhood ..... 64 68 CHAPTER VIII. FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. The fishing at Woodchester Reason of its excellence Taught experience by a Jack An invalid sleepy Jack Strange conduct of a Carp Hooking a large Perch Charms of "The Boys' Own Book" How we stuffed fish The four orders of fishes : Placoids ; Ganoids ; Ctenoids ; Cycloids Their appearance in geological time List of Fish caught at Woodchester 69 78 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER IX BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. Fate of most collections Origin of our own Fine hunting- ground for butterflies at Woodchester Shelsley Hill Scarce Copper Moths Death's-head Moths a nuisance Setting butterflies and moths The old method A new one sug- gested Its advantages List of Butterflies and Moths in our museum Pages 79 92 CHAPTER X. SEA-SHELLS. Curiosities in our museum A valuable present What we learned by arranging it The six classes of Mollusca Cephalopoda Story of an Octopus Gasteropoda Abun- dance of genera Pteropoda Dearth of examples Brachio- poda Recent specimens why so scarce Conchifera The Pholas Tunicata Value of the study of Shells . 93 107 CHAPTER XL FRESH-WATER SHELLS. Peculiar interest of land-shells Twofold divisions of land and fresh-water snails Cycladidse Peculiar feat of the Capped Cyclas Unionidse Bede on British pearls Dreissenidse Britain invaded by a mollusc Gasteropoda Queer place to discover a Nerite in Marsh-shells Valve-shells Planorbis Bubble-shells Fresh-water Limpets How our British shells were displayed What the collecting of them taught us List of Fresh- water Shells in our museum . 108 117 CHAPTER XII. LAND-SHELLS. Slugs not in favour Testacella How its character was vindi- cated Danger of being found in bad company Eleven genera of Snails Amber-snails Natural barometers Glassy Snails Their heartless behaviour Snailets An unenviable XIV CONTENTS. faculty Snails Mean conduct of an Apple-snail The unloved one Are Wood-snails and Garden-snails identical ? Why Southdown mutton is so sweet How to find Pygmy Snails Uses of collecting Snails A pin's head in a passion ! Bulimus Frequent at Selborne Marvellous power possessed by the Dull Twist-shell Chrysalis Snails Whorl- snails Moss-shell Close-snails Varnished Shell Agate, shells No accounting for tastes Cyclostoma Its beauty Method of walking Acme Discovery of a new Snail List of Land Molluscs in our museum . . Pages 118 134 CHAPTER XIII. THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. Why botany is repulsive Best to begin with the Linnsean system How to set about the study of flowers Our plan of collecting Specimens of each of the twenty-four classes The Natural system Exogens and Endogens Some Linnaean classes identical with Natural genera Course of study recom- mended Geographical distribution of plants Region of the Labiates Suggestion for the title of an unnamed province- How to dry and preserve plants List of some of our dried Flowers 135 153 CHAPTER XIV. FOSSILS. Abundance of fossils at Woodchester Fossil-fever Early inquiries Publication of the " Gallery of Nature " Wonder- ful revelations Beginning to collect fossils Oldhamia Eozoon Fossils of St. David's Trilobites Eye of Asaphtu Carboniferous flora Liassic monsters Ammonites Climate of England in the Eocene period Palaeozoic fossils Mesozoic Tertiary Prehistoric remains Plan of collect- ing changed Lingula Rhynconella Terebratula Reading the past by the light of the present List of our Recent and Fossil Brachiopoda 154 172 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XV. MINERALS. Of inferior interest to fossils Rock specimens Granites Basalt Metamorphic rocks Sandstones Limestones Coal Metals Copper Tin Bismuth Precious metals Lead Sulphur Rock-crystal Agates Precious stones Hy- drous silicates Educational value of minerals Mysteries of crystallization Pages 173 184 CHAPTER XVL AUTOGRAPHS. Autographs in British Museum Royal autographs Dr. Parr John Wilkes Sir Joseph Jekyll Scale of speakers in Parliament, 1826 Lord Erskine James Stanhope Amus- ing letter from Campbell Mendelssohn Nelson 185 197 CHAPTER XVIL POSTAGE STAMPS. Educational importance of a collection of postage stamps Their introduction Best way of arranging them . 198 200 CHAPTER XVIII. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. Woodchester classic ground Site of the Roman villa Early excavations Lysons' explorations Description of the villa Opening of the remains Description of the pavements Roman antiquities in our museum Influence of their study on our education 2OI 212 CHAPTER XIX. OUR COINS : BRITISH AND ROMAN. Discovery of a Roman coin Method of collecting coins Two ways of looking at coins The artistic Fluctuations in the art of coinage The historical British corns Disputed pas- sage in Csesar Roman-British coins Series of the Emperors who had visited Britain Of the usurpers Story of Carausius The Constantine family The later usurpers . 213 230 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. OUR COINS : SAXON AND ENGLISH. Minimi Sceattas Stycas Saxon coins English coins What does " s " in PAXS mean ? The Norman series Discovery of Henry I. penny Uninteresting character of groats The Tudor series Stuart and Hanover coins How we collected coins Their educational value The lessons our museum taught us Pages 231 242 CHAPTER XXI. CONCLUSION. Review of the subject Failure of our attempts to stuff quadru- peds Our Fox Lessons to be learned from collecting Hints to boy-collectors Exchanges Hunting in old curio- sity shops Caution not to collect too widely Is a little knowledge a dangerous thing? Importance of studying a new acquisition at once Value of a microscope Generosity in collecting Importance of accurate observation Reverence to be cultivated Duty before pleasure Effects of studying nature upon the character 243 254 APPENDIX A. On the Arrangement of Natural History Col- lections 255 264 APPENDIX B. How to collect Butterflies and Moths, with Notes on Preserving Larvae .... 265 272 INDEX 273 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. CHAPTER I. WOODCHESTER. N the spring of 1840 we returned, after an absence of some years, to Woodchester. This, like many another country village, is better known in these days than it was forty years ago. Now it has a railway station of its own, whereas at that time the Great Western had not got farther than Faringdon, in Berkshire, and when we travelled from London, the remainder of the journey from that town had to be posted. Now, too, it can boast of a post-office ; then the letters used to be brought from Stroud, some two miles and a half off, by an old woman, who, with the exception of a few carriers' waggons, formed our 1 8 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. only medium of communication with the outer world. Yet even then Woodchester was not nearly so obscure a village as many a larger one, for it was celebrated both for its cloth manufactories, to which George III. himself had once paid a visit, and for the remains of its Roman villa the finest of its kind in the kingdom.* The conformation of this part of the Cots- wolds, with its regular succession of hills and valleys, reminds one of a series of vast Atlantic billows suddenly arrested and transformed into fertile dry land. One of these depressions, running nearly north and south, forms the beautiful vale of Rodborough, through which passes the main road from Stroud to Bath ; and on its western slopes, about half way between the former town and Nailsworth, lies the village, or rather since it is in two divisions, the villages, of Woodchester. Stroud, the capital of the cloth manufacture of Gloucestershire, stands on a hill which forms the northern termination ot this valley, and although a large and busy town, a short time suffices for a pedestrian to ex- change the bustle of its streets for the quiet of the country. The Bath road, leading as I have said through the vale of Rodborough, is * Whether the lately discovered villa at Brading, now in course ot excavation, will surpass it in magnificence, remains to be seen. WOODCHESTER. 19 of singular beauty. At first it winds under Rodborough Hill, crowned with its useless though picturesque fort built, I believe, at the time when all England was daily expecting a Napoleonic invasion while to the right runs a stream, too small to be named, but large enough to be use- ful, as the various manufactories which have sprung up on its banks testify. It is blue bluer at times than the Mediterranean itself, but not from the same cause, since it is less indebted to the reflection of an azure sky than to the indigo and other refuse dyes of the cloth mills, which have so poisoned its waters that the trout, with which tradition says it formerly abounded, have long since disappeared, leaving their place to be filled by roach and eels, whose less delicate constitutions do not mind such trifles. About two miles from Stroud a side road crossing this stream by a small bridge forms the" directest approach to Woodchester ; and after passing a little brook which comes rushing down from the hills on the right, the visitor soon finds himself on a gentle eminence, close by the old parish church, and surrounded on all sides by enchanting views. This is classic ground, for he is now standing on the site of the famous Roman villa, where it is not impossible the Propraetor may have dwelt, and from whence he governed the whole island. Some, indeed, have 20 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. gone so far as to hint that the Emperor Hadrian himself made it his palace, but one always observes that no Roman site is ever allowed to lose prestige for lack of conjectures, on the part of local enthusiasts, as to the celebrities who may have paid it a visit. In fact, our dear old Rector had quite convinced himself, if nobody else, that St. Paul had preached, if not exactly in, yet at all events on the site of, his own church. " For," he would argue, " does not Clement of Rome say that the great Apostle went to ' the utmost limit of the West ' ? and was not Britain that utmost limit ? Therefore St. Paul came to Britain. But if he came to Britain, he would be sure to visit the Roman governor ; and since he lived at Woodchester, St. Paul would come to him here also ; and if he came, it would be for the purpose of preaching the gospel. Therefore at Woodchester, in the Propraetor's palace, on the site of which now stands the church, has St. Paul most undoubtedly preached ! " It was an innocent dream of the good old man's, and harmed no one, and I never heard that anybody was cruel enough to try to dispel it. Leaving the old parish church, the road, bear- ing to the left and skirting the rectory gardens noted for their fine ornamental trees takes a turn to the right, and if followed straight WOODCHESTER. 21 on up the hill would lead to an extensive plain, called Shelsley Hill, noted for its large quarries of building stone abounding in Inferior Oolite fossils, and for the magnificent view from the farther side, overlooking the valley of the Severn, and extending to the Malverns, and even to the Welsh mountains beyond. The finest point to enjoy this is an artificial mound locally called "The Tump," which, from its position and shape, I have no doubt is the burial-place of some Saxon chief. If, however, instead of following this road up the hill, we take the first turning to the left, after passing the cottages and schools which form a considerable part of this northern division of the village, ot " Near Woodchester," as it is called, we soon find ourselves in the fields again. Just on entering them there is a spring of clearest water, which gives the name of Frogmoor to the meadow, while on the left-hand side of the path stands the new parish church, conveniently situated midway between the divided districts of the parish. A little further on the road dips into a little valley it would be a combe in Sussex running up into a wooded hollow on the right. At the bottom we cross a bright little trout stream, coming down from the head of the valley, and forming a fine mill-pond on the left of which more by-and-by, when we come to talk about 22 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Roach and Jack. Immediately after crossing this stream, the path takes a steep ascent, at the top of which stands our old home, Woodchester House, nestling in its shrubberies and gardens. Skirting the front lawn, we soon find ourselves in "Far Woodchester," the southern and more populous of the two divisions of the village. Here is the post-office, the dissenting place of worship, and the big shop of the village, with its groceries, medicines and tobacco, butter, cheese, and other necessaries for the inner man on the one side ; and blankets, dresses, gorgeous neck- ties, and such like comforts for the outer man on the other. Still keeping to the right, after passing this universal store, as it would be called in America, the houses become fewer and farther apart, until they cease altogether, and we come to a secluded demesne, called Atcombe, lying, as its name implies, in a combe, down which runs a rivulet which forms the Atcombe ponds, our favourite perch preserves, and whose banks, fragrant with water-mint, afforded a congenial home to the moorhen and the kingfisher. The path, which passes between the head of the upper pool and the tail of the lower, joins a lane which, after wandering for a mile or two amid charming scenery of the truest rural type, leads to Woodchester Park, in our day belong- ing to Earl Ducie, but which has long since WOODCHESTER. 23 changed hands, and become a stronghold of the Romanists. Just before reaching the park gates, there used to stand its very ruins are now indistinguishable a tumble-down cottage, with a garden, in which was a little pond growing the finest water- cresses in the parish. Here lived a venerable old couple named Dix. William was ninety, and Penelope his wife we were very fond of grand names in Woodchester was five years older. Nothing pleased these dear old people so much as to pay them a visit, to taste their watercresses ; and when we went and took a cup of tea with them on a summer evening, their joy was touch- ing to see. Then old William would take down his shears and hobble to the pond, and cut such a dish of cresses as I have never seen or tasted since ; while poor old Penelope, deaf as a post, would lay her quaint old china on the clean coarse cloth, and think no honour she could bestow adequate to the occasion. Such is, or perhaps I must say was, Wood- chester ; of more varied beauty even than Sel- borne, lovely as that is, and far exceeding it in the interest of its antiquities ; while for genuine warm-heartedness its inhabitants could not be surpassed by any rustic population its very labourers were gentlemen. C.HAPTER II. OUR MUSEUM. [T the time of our return to Woodches- ter, I was eight, and my brother Frank three years older. What it was that awoke within us a passion for collecting and studying the natural history and antiquities of the neighbourhood I cannot say it must have been born in us, I suppose. Still, it would have been almost impossible for any lads of ordinary intelligence to have sud- denly found themselves in a lovely country, abounding with birds, butterflies, fossils, flowers, and Roman remains, without taking some in- terest in them. This, however, I can say, that the ruling passion grew within us quite spon- taneously, without any forcing or encourage- ment from without, one thing leading to another, until we found ourselves in possession of an assemblage of objects, which we called our OUR MUSEUM. 25 "specimens," and everybody else our " messes." These, however, soon became so intolerable, and interfered so decidedly with the cleanliness and tidiness of the house, that, as a compromise, a room was assigned to us, with the understanding that we should keep ourselves to it, but that if fossils or dead birds, etc., were found in the drawing-room or elsewhere, they would be in- stantly confiscated. Willingly agreeing to such terms, we took possession of our room at the top of the house with infinite satisfaction, and began to fit it up with home-made shelves and transformed packing-cases, and stuck over the door a card, on which was inscribed in capitals of the boldest description MUSEUM. All our spare time that is, when we were not out of doors occupied in hunting for new specimens, or in fishing, in which we were great adepts it was our delight to spend here, stuffing birds, arrang- ing, dusting, label-writing, catalogue-making, or reading. On looking back in after years to this period of our boyhood, I am sure neither of us has ever regretted the time thus spent. We may not have got through our Latin and Greek as fast as many other boys of our age that we made up for afterwards ; but we were learning to observe, to use our eyes and ears, and to acquire that indefinable love for all living crea- 26 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. tures and that sympathy with the past which, once gained, never leaves a man. Between us we have since visited every quarter of the globe, and, speaking for myself, I can truly say that one of the greatest charms of foreign travel has been that of carrying with one, into new fields of observation, the interest and the understanding of natural objects gained in the years of boyhood. The stock of books on our favourite subjects was, as may well be imagined, but scanty. It contained six volumes of the Naturalist's Library, viz., " British Birds," " Butterflies," and "Moths ;" White's " Selborne ;" Mudie's "British Naturalist ; " and Walton's " Angler ; " to which in course of time we added Waterton's "Wan- derings," and his delightful "Essays." We had also Mrs. Trimmer's two amusing little volumes on natural history. In the rectory library was an old edition of Buffon, which we sometimes borrowed when our own resources failed. On mineralogy and geology we had some cheap handbooks of the day, not very advanced indeed, and containing information which would be laughed at nowadays ; but we made the best use of what we had, and in course of time corrected and enlarged our knowledge as better works came within our reach. The appearance of Milner's " Gallery of Nature," which came out in numbers in 1846, was an OUR MUSEUM. 27 event in our lives, and from the latter chapters on geology we gathered our first definite idea of the wonderful interest and geological value of fossils. For flowers our only books were that charming work by Caroline A. Halsted, entitled "The Little Botanist," which to this day is quite unsurpassed as an introduction to the Linnaean system, and Hooker's " British Flora." As to shells, and especially the relation of the fossil to the recent species, we were entirely in the dark until the publication of Dr. S. P. Woodward's invaluable "Manual of the Mollusca." Upon the subject of coins and antiquities we had no books whatever, and had to be content with what light we could extract from our school histories. Such works as Wright's " The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," with its full description of our own Woodchester ; or Humphrey's " Coin Collector's Manual," had they been published in our day, would have turned our heads with joy, and given us no rest until we had devoured and digested every word of them. Boys of the present day have knowledge made easy for them, and are well- nigh overwhelmed with facilities for acquiring in- formation such as were never dreamed of in our youth. At the same time, if knowledge is got too easily, it is neither so much valued nor so lasting as when it is self- acquired by exertion 28 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. and independent observation. Besides, it gets lads into the habit of flying to books in the first instance for information, instead of hunting it out for themselves in the woods and fields. This weakens the power of original observation, and engenders a feeble leaning on second or third hand authority instead of carefully trusting to themselves to discover it. But provided the beautifully illustrated natural history books and periodicals of the day are judiciously used, and are not made the means of substituting a super- ficial smattering for a thorough grounding in the principles of science, the boy of the present day may make more progress in a month than we did in a year. On entering our museum, the chief object that met the eye was the large glazed case, four feet wide and five high, fitted with shelves, and full of stuffed birds. This was fixed on the wall about five feet from the floor, and under it were three shelves covered with paper trays, containing fossils and general curiosities. Beneath were the butterfly cases. On the other walls were fixed cases of birds. There was a bookshelf, with our books on natural history, and under it a shelf for the dried flowers and auto- graphs. The shells were in boxes on the floor. A disused workbox filled up with pierced trays held the coins ; and the birds' eggs were kept in some OUR MUSEUM. 29 large shallow boxes, two of each sort in a paper tray. The stuffed fish were displayed on thick cards hung upon the wall, and the Roman remains had a shelf to themselves. All the fittings of the room were made by ourselves, with the exception of the large bird- case, which was the result of a long and careful saving of pocket money, birthday presents, and Christmas-boxes. It was always a proud day for us when any visitor came and took the trouble to look at our collection, whilst our satisfaction in showing and explaining every- thing was unbounded ; and we always learned something by the remarks made during such visits, and not unfrequently received the present of a coin, an autograph, or some other valuable, and thus our museum grew. CHAPTER III. BIRD-STUFFING. S I have said, our museum took its rise from very small beginnings ; in fact, I think it may be traced to a Golden-crested Wren the smallest of British birds which our eldest brother, when at home during a winter vacation, shot in one of our fir trees. The little victim was so pretty, that it struck us it ought to be stuffed ; but who could perform the operation ? Now it so hap- pened that among the lads of the village was one Joe Wise, a " pointer " at the neighbouring pin manufactory, a curly-haired, merry young fellow of eighteen, with laughing blue eyes full of mischief and merriment, who was the naturalist of the neighbourhood, loving the woods and all that was in them, and spending his whole time when not at work in shooting birds and stuffing them. To this congenial BIRD-STUFFING. 3! spirit therefore we betook ourselves with our Golden-crested Wren, and perhaps it was the sight of Joe's room, hung round with cases of beautifully mounted specimens, that inflamed the desire already kindled in us to make a collection of stuffed birds. From that day we began in earnest. Seeing that birds could be stuffed, why should not we try to stuff them ourselves ? for to give eighteen pence, which the stuffing of the Wren cost, for every bird we in- tended to possess, was obviously out of the question. Had the " Hunting of the Snark " been out in those days, we should certainly have applied to bird-stuffing the words with which the butcher braces himself to the enormous task of adding two to one " ' The thing can be done,' said the butcher, ' I think. The thing must be done, I am sure. The thing shall be done 1 Bring me paper and ink, The best there is time to procure ; ' " and, like the undaunted butcher, we set about our task in the most difficult way possible. Instead, however, of paper and ink, we got turpentine and some coarse copper wire which a bell- hanger had left in the house, and proceeded to operate upon an unfortunate Wood-pigeon we had contrived to shoot. Every stage of the process bristled with peculiar and unheard-of difficulties. First, we essayed to skin the crea- 32 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. ture by making an incision down the middle from stem to stern, beginning at the beak, then down the neck, along the breast and stomach, till we could get no further. So far so good ; but the feathers would come off at every turn, and those that were left soon got hopelessly sodden and caked together with the blood, fat, and contents of the stomach into which the knife had dug. Still, nothing daunted, we went on, pulling the skin away from the flesh until we came to the legs. How to get them out was the question, but by our united efforts it was accomplished, first cutting them through at the hip, and then pulling the skin of the thigh from the flesh right down to the knee-joint, which we severed, taking away the whole of the thigh, bone and all. Both legs being thus served, we came to the tail, which puzzled us even worse than the legs. At last, getting desperate, we cut right through the abdomen, as low down as possible, and a precious mess was the result We then tied a string round the half-stripped carcass, and securing the other end of it to the door handle, we tugged the skin off the back, and so came to the wings. These we treated as we had done the legs, only the difficulties were greater, owing to the number of joints and turns which had to be surmounted before we arrived at the meat- less region, and in accomplishing this some of BIRD-STUFFING. 33 the long feathers came out, the others resolutely fixing themselves the wrong way. Skinning the neck was easy, seeing that the whole length of the throat had been cut open ; but the head was worse than all the rest put together. In skin- ning the eyes they burst, and deluged all the head-feathers with a liquor composed apparently of dirty gum and frog-spawn. At last, a vigorous cut right through the base of the beak, causing the upper and lower mandibles to fall asunder, completed the first part of the operation. By this time we felt the profoundest respect for the character and attainments of Joe Wise. Melancholy and abject in the extreme was the spectacle which that skin presented ! Without, however, stopping to cry over it, we entered upon the second stage of the process. How was the skin to be preserved ? Pepper and salt had been the original idea, but on reflecting that insects abhorred turpentine, we inferred that this would prove still more effectual. Whereupon we began to lay this on and rub it in as thick as we could, until not our room only but the whole house reeked with the smell, and in fact hints were thrown out that day at dinner, that if we were to transfer the scene of our industry to the tool- house at the farther end of the garden We changed the subject. The anointing accomplished, next came the D 34 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. crowning difficulty how to get some appear- ance of life, however remote, into this miserable, sodden, half-naked skin. We began by cutting six lengths of copper wire, and thrust two up the legs, two through the head and tail respec- tively, and one through each wing, and with much ingenuity and labour contrived, with the aid of a pair of pincers, to twist the interior ends into a knot in the middle, and the creature once again stood on its legs. Then we stuffed tow into the skin, and when it would hold no more began to sew it up, beginning under the chin and continuing down to the tail. We then walked over to Stroud, and bought a pair of glass eyes, but found it no easy matter to induce them to stop in their places when we had got them. One would seem tolerably firm in its socket, but the instant we began to insert the other it seized the opportunity of tumbling out again ; but by dint of perseverance and gum, we at last persuaded both to stick in. The various wires were then bent into position, and finally, fastening the ends of the wire which protruded through the soles of the feet on to a piece of board, enjoyed our triumph. But we could not conceal from ourselves it was a pitiable object to behold. What few feathers had survived the operation, were either blood-stained, grease- stained, or turpentine-stained ; the head would BIRD-STUFFING. 35 rot stay at the end of its wire, but dropped down to the breast ; no art could hide the gash from chin to tail ; the skin of the thighs clung tightly to the wires, and no persuasion of ours had any effect in inducing the ruffled plumage to lie down, the quills of the wings setting the example by sticking straight out ; the expres- OUR FIRST ATTEMPT '. sion of the eyes was ghastly. We considered Joe Wise altogether a superior being. Such was our first essay in taxidermy, but at all events, it taught us what a difficult art it is, and how much we had to learn before we could hope to succeed in it. We should have liked to have had lessons from Joe Wise, but he did not choose to disclose the secrets of an art which brought him in considerable profits, so there was 36 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. nothing for it but to go on trying until we did succeed. Suddenly a brilliant thought struck my brother Frank. " Let us cut open the Golden-crested Wren, and see how it has been stuffed ! " No sooner said than done. We care- fully detached it from its spray, and then un- stuffed it. It was about the best lesson we could have had, for are not all the fine arts learned by studying masterpieces ? It showed us many of our mistakes. We observed in the first place that, in the skinning, the incision had not gone higher than the top of the breast, the neck not having been opened at all. Next, that the interior ends of the wires were not fastened by twisting together, but by being firmly imbed- ded in a neat, semicircular piece of cork. This had been done by the wire being pushed through the cork, the end turned into a hook and drawn back ; the skull had been left in, with the exception of the hinder part where it had joined the neck, and the cavity where the brains had been, filled with a piece of cork, so that the wire passing through it held the head firmly in any required position. Then, again, the thigh-bones had been left in, and an artificial thigh made by winding a little cotton wool round the bone ; and finally, that fine cotton wool, not coarse tow, was the material employed for stuffing ; and that arsenic, not tur- pentine, was the preservative agent. Happening BIRD-STUFFING. 37 to be in Joe Wise's room soon after this, we observed that his newly stuffed specimens were all carefully bound round with thread, so that every feather was brought into its proper posi- tion, and kept there till dry. Our next attempt, which was upon a Starling, was much less unfortunate ; the sacrifice of the Golden-crested Wren had not been in vain, and by carrying into practice the lessons it taught us, our progress became rapid. Later on, we attempted Waterton's method, which dispenses with wires altogether, but could make nothing of it ; the skin without such supports becoming a bag, which no art of ours could transform into a bird. One thing, however, we learned from his " Essays," namely, to use a solution of corrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine instead of arsenic or arsenical soap, and the specimens so treated still retain their original beauty, whilst those for which arsenic was em- ployed soon became meat for moths. After all, perhaps the most difficult thing about bird-stuffing is the skinning, which re- quires a vast amount of practice to do properly. Almost every species presents special difficulties of its own. In some, like the Tree-creeper, not only do the feathers come off almost if you look at them, but the skin is so excessively delicate that it tears like wet tissue paper. It 38 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. takes much practice to skin a Bullfinch without the white feathers over the tail coming off in your hand. The head of the Owl is so large that the neck must be slit up, which seriously endangers the success of the operation. The plumage of water-fowl and all sea-birds is apt to get oily, and the utmost care must be taken to prevent a single feather touching the flesh or the inside of the skin. This, indeed, is necessary for all birds, as the awful spectacle of the Wood- pigeon taught us, and we soon learned the necessity of inserting plenty of cotton wool as fast as the skin is separated from the .flesh. Then, again, it takes some time to skin the eyes, so as neither to allow the eyeball to break, and the crystalline humour to wet the plumage of the head, nor to cut the eye-hole so as to make it larger than nature intended. These and a hundred other points can only be taught by experience, but the art is in itself so fascinating in its results, that it is worth any amount of toil and perseverance to acquire. It has besides another advantage, that of teaching a boy to use his fingers with skill, strength, and delicacy. If any boy should feel inclined to stuff birds, he should begin on the easiest, those of a good size, and which have strong skins and firmly attached plumage, like starlings or the thrush family ; and if he is resolved not to be discouraged BIRD-STUFFING. 39 by any number of failures, and to take every opportunity of learning what museums or other collections afford, he may be assured of success, and that before long he will be sur- rounded by an assemblage of beauties, each with its own little history, -which, it may be, will be the ornaments of his home and the companions of his leisure hours, when the days come in which the real business of life will no longer leave him leisure to roam the woodlands and observe his feathered favourites in their natural haunts. Books. I do not know any book on Bird- stuffing ; in fact, it is an art which can hardly be taught, save in its first principles, by a book. " Notes on Collecting and Preserving Natural History Objects," edited by J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., F.G.S. (Bogue), is full of general information, but it does not include taxidermy. CHAPTER IV. BIRD-STUFFING continued. HE poetry of bird-stuffing consists in setting up the specimens in proper attitudes, such as represent faith- fully their natural instincts and habits. Formerly, the operator I will not call him artist thought his task accomplished when his specimens, whether Hawks, Woodpeckers, or Swallows, stood on a spray of wood or a bit of board, with their heads turned regardant to the spectator. Such abominations the national and most of our local museums * have by the mile, though many exquisite examples of a higher art are gradually being introduced. From the first we conceived a horror at giving our birds the conventional attitude, and would no more have thought of making climbers, like Woodpeckers, the Nuthatch, or the Tree-creeper * See Appendix A. BIRD-STUFFING. 41 stand on a spray like a Sparrow, than we should of representing a Moorhen in the act of running up a tree, or a Dove eating a mouse. We ac- quired sufficient knowledge of carpentering to make our own cases, and Tom Collett, the village glazier, one of our firmest friends, put in the glass. As far as was practicable, we put birds of the same genus together. The Tomtits made a very pretty family group. In one corner was the nest of the Long-tailed Titmouse, which had been cut, branch and all, out of a hawthorn bush. One of the old birds was in the act of entering the nest, while the other had apparently just arrived with a grub in her mouth, thus suggest- ing that the nest contained the young. A pair of the Great Titmouse were conspicuous in front, and a pair of Coles on one side, while a couple of Blues were busy searching for insects on a mossy branch of apple tree on the other. The Bearded Titmouse was the only one of the family we never saw at Woodchester. We were rather proud, too, of the Finch case, containing the House Sparrow, Mountain Sparrow, Chaffinch (and nest), Mountain Finch, Goldfinch, Siskin, two of the Redpoles, and Mountain Linnet. The Wagtail group was another success, and likewise the Buntings. But the chef cfceuvre of all was unquestionably the pair of Kestrels which occu- pied the place of honour in the middle of our 42 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. museum table. The male bird sat upright on a thick branch, sleek and satisfied ; while just below, on the ground, the female the larger of the two was tearing up a mouse, whilst the ground was strewn with pellets cast up after former meals. I forget how we came by the male bird, but the capture of the female was a triumph. On the southern side of the Atcombe valley was a fir wood wherein, according to tradition, flocks of Crossbills had from time to time been seen in former days. Exploring this wood one day, we discovered at the farther end of it a cave, and in this cave evidences that it was the roosting-place of a Kestrel. Below the ledge on which the bird passed his nights, the ground was strewn with pellets such as all birds of prey throw up. They consisted of the fur and bones of mice, and shards of beetles, and other indigestible substances, while the loose feathers lying about revealed plainly enough what particular bird of prey it was which had chosen this cave for its home. It was one thing to discover the Kestrel's lair, but quite another to catch the Kestrel himself. After much deliberation, we agreed to lay the gun on a couple of forked sticks fixed in the ground, and pointed so as to cover the spot where the bird roosted, and then, by means of a long string tied to the trigger, to fire it when BIRD-STUFFING. 43 he had gone to roost. No time was lost in put- ting this barbarous gunpowder plot into execu- tion. A calm evening it was winter-time was chosen, the stakes were fixed, the gun laid upon them accurately pointed, the string tied to the trigger, and we, with the other end of it in our hand, concealed ourselves behind a bush. We had not lain there long before there was a sudden rush of wings, and the bird swift as lightning darted into the cavern. Now was the time ; but, cautious as we were, the movement of the string was perceived, and the suspicious bird flew out again. Frank then, taking the gun into his hands, crouched behind a tree nearer the entrance to the cave, while I stopped where I was. We had a long time to wait, but at last the bird glided again into the cave. Frank rushed from behind the tree ; the startled bird again flew out. Frank fired, and although the Kestrel was just disappearing in the twilight over the firs above the cave, we saw it was hit. Putting down the gun, Frank dashed after his game, and in a few minutes I heard the joyful cry, "I've got him," and he soon reappeared, struggling through the bushes with the bird in his hands. A single shot only had struck it, but that had broken its wing. For a lad of fourteen, it was a wonderful feat ; but I had seen him, some time before this, take 44 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. the great heavy double-barrelled gun out of the hands of John Wormington, the head keeper at Shrawley, and bring down a swallow which was circling far overhead, in a style that made the good man stare. All our skill was exerted in the stuffing of a specimen obtained with such difficulty, and Joe Wise himself gave the finishing touches. It was a female, and, as I said, was placed in the act of tugging, with half-spread wings, at a mouse, while her mate was sitting by. Receiving one day a present of game from the moors, we were allowed to operate upon a splendid Blackcock and Greyhen. These, the cock standing up on the look out for danger, the hen sitting on the grass beside him, made a noble pair, and matched a brace of Partridges placed much in the same attitude. Once, while visiting my eldest brother in Kent, I found, not the nest indeed, for the bird makes none, but the two eggs of a Goatsucker, or Nightjar, laid on a smooth spot amongst the stones which they so much resemble, under a bush in an oak wood. Soon after I got the parent bird, which became one of the ornaments of our museum, as she crouched along, not across, a thick branch, with her vast mouth shut not open for visitors to look down her throat, after the manner of the bird-stuffers. These two points I had particu- BIRD STUFFING. 45 larly noticed, namely, that when at rest on a tree, this bird sits upon the branch lengthwise, and not crosswise, and that she does not sit, like an idiot, with her mouth open ; yet in every museum I have seen, the reverses of these two acts are insisted on. As to the Swallow tribe, they had for convenience' sake to stand, which, though not the attitude most suggestive of their habits, is allowable, since they do perch occasion- ally, especially when making arrangements for their autumn migration. With the Swift it is otherwise ; he never sits either on ground or tree, and we accordingly had to represent him in the act of flying, by passing a strong wire from the extremity of the wing into the side of the case. This setting-up of birds naturally is, as I began by saying, the very poetry of the art. It must be learned direct from nature. The most skilful bird-stuffer, if he does not follow the birds into their haunts, and observe them there, will fail in the most important point of all. Hence it is that most London-stuffed birds, though often marvels of mechanical skill, are seldom pleasing to look upon. The artists have no time for the woods and mountains, and so can only place their specimens in con- ventional attitudes. Then there is another thing required for carrying out this principle 4 6 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. thoroughly, and that is space. If every species is represented, as in theory it ought to be, by the male and female, nest and eggs, with appropriate surroundings, it would require a large apartment to exhibit even the British series, and many a gallery to illustrate the ornithology of all countries. Cases against the wall are the worst possible places to exhibit such a collection in ; the specimens ought to be in glass cases, .round which the visitor can walk, and study them from every point of view. But as I am not writing to tell other museums what they might do, but only to record what we did in our own little museum, [ must stop, especially since I have said more on this subject in another place.* The following is a list, so far as I can remember it, of the birds we had in our museum. The asterisk marks the species of which we had eggs. English Name. Latin Name. Locality. Peregrine Falcon... Hobby Falco peregrinus Caldy Island Shrawley * Kestrel tinnunculus Atcombe Wood Accipiter nisus M^oodchester Asio otus Short-eared Owl ... * Barn or White Owl * Red-backed Shrike * Spotted Flycatcher * Blackbird accipitrinus Aluco flammea Lanius collurio Muscicapa grisola . . . * Ring-Ousel Yorkshire Missel-Thrush visci vorus Woodchester * See Appendix A. BIRD-STUFFING. 47 English Name. Latin Name. Locality. Fieldfare Turdus pilaris Woodchester >j Yorkshire Brighton Downs ii > Woodchester Sussex Woodchester * * Yorkshire Woodchester Ditto, caught in a factory Woodchester * Song-Thrush iliacus Water-Ousel Cinclus aqualicus * Stonechat Saxicola rubicola * Whinchat \Vheatear . cenanthe * Redbreast Erithacus rubecula... Ruticilla phcenicura.. Philomela luscinia ... Sylvia atricapilla cinerea.. Redstart * Nightingale * Blackcap * Whitethroat * Golden-crested Wren Regulus auricapillus. . Sylvicola trochilus . . . ^ ^ sibilatrix * Willow Wren * Wood Wren * Chiff-chaff * Wren TroglodytesEuropseus Motacilla flava. ........ Yellow Wagtail * Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis * Meadow Pipit (Titlark) * Skylark Alauda arvensis * Woodlark arborea * Great Titmouse..... Parus major ater * Blue Titmouse Marsh Titmouse .... * Long-tailed Tit- cserulens palustris ......... ^ caudatus * Yellow Bunting Reed Bunting Emberiza citrinella... schomiculus ... ir.ilaria * Common Bunting... nivalis * House Sparrow Mountain Sparrow. * Chaffinch Pyrgita domestica ... montana ......... Fringilla ccelebs , Carduelis elegans ... * Goldfinch Mealy Redpole ... * Linnet canescens ! Linota cannabina ... Coccothraustes chloris Pyrrhula vulgaris ... Sturnus vulcaris * Bullfinch * Starting.... THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. English Name. Latin Name. Locality. * Jackdaw Corvus monedula. . .... Woodchcster * Rook frugilegus * Carrion Crow * Magpie Pica caudata * Jay Garrulus glandarius. . . * Swift Cypselus apus * Martin Hirundo urbica ' * Night-jar Caprimulgus Euro- Kingsdown, Kent * Nuthatch Woodchester * Common Creeper . . Kingfisher Certhia familiaris ... Picus viridis " Greater spotted major Shrawley Lesser spotted . . minor Cuculus canorus ...... sington Gardens Woodchester Blackcock... .... Yorkshire * Red Grouse Lagopus scoticus Perdix cinerea.. Phasianus colchicus... Woodchester * Wood-pigeon - * Turtle-dove ... Columba oenas Vatiellus cristatus ... Oyster- catcher Hsematopus ostra- The coast * Heron Shrawley Wood Woodcock Scolopax rusticola ... * Water-Rail Rallus aquaticus Woodchester * Corn-Crake * Moorhen Gallinula chloropus... Little Grebe (Dabchick) * Puffin..., Podiceps minor Fratercula arctica . ii The coast Considering we had no opportunity of getting sea-birds, and but very few of the marsh or water-fowl, this list is not so bad. Now and BIRD-STUFFING. 49 then we had a present from a distance, as the Grouse, Ptarmigan, and Ring-Ousel from the Yorkshire moors testify, as well as the Puffin, which came somewhere from the coast. The Selborne list contains one hundred and fifty- one species, whilst ours only shows eighty-eight ; but White's ground being so much nearer the sea, and the South Downs being in the direct line of migration, may well show a more exten- sive fauna. That district, moreover, has long been watched by experienced naturalists, whereas the above list is only the result of the leisure hours of a couple of schoolboys. Books. "British Birds in their Haunts," by the late Rev. C. A. Johns, B.A. (S.P.C.K.). CHAPTER V BIRDS' EGGS. HERE may be some lads who have not collected butterflies, but there can be but very few indeed, if they have lived any time in the country, who have not made some collection, however small, of birds' eggs. Birds'-nesting by which I mean finding nests, not pillaging and destroying them has an irresistible charm for any boy of average pluck and intelligence. The season for it is the loveliest of the year. Everything has just awakened from the winter sleep " For, lo, the winter is past ; The rain is over and gone ; The flowers appear on the earth ; The time of the singing of birds is come ; And the voice of the turtle is heard hi our land ; " * and the boy as he plunges, released from his * Song of Solomon ii. u, 12, BIRDS' EGGS. 51 books, into the budding woods or sunny meadows, finds himself in strange harmony with the world thus awakening to love and joy around him. He feels almost a bird himself, and if he cannot fly he can sing, and add his voice to the general chorus. This is the time for birds'-nesting, and a pleasant thing it is for him to match his wits against the instincts of his feathered fellow-creatures. It is worth while lying a long time among the furze, to wait till the shy, ever-suspicious Stonechat or Yellow- hammer unconsciously betrays the secret of her newly-built nursery, or to watch for the Starling to point out which of all the many holes in the tall elm she has taken possession of for the season. The charge of cruelty against birds'-nesting is utterly unfounded provided, of course, that you pursue it as every brave and tender-hearted English boy should. Remember that one pair of eggs is as good as fifty to illustrate most species, and look much better ; and if you take them out of different nests, or even out of the same if there are four or five in it, the parent birds will be neither the wiser nor the worse. It is not the loss of her eggs but of her young which fills a poor bird's heart with terror and despair. You may take an egg out of the nest of a hen without exciting any resentment, but just try to rob her of one of 52 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. her chicks ! It is only coarse-hearted black- guards that will think of tearing a nest of eggs, or, worse still, of young ones, out of a bush ; and such young tyrants deserve a sound thrashing for their pains. Would that they always got it ! Such a hard-fisted young Roman ploughboy it was that Virgil makes the author of the poor nightingale's lament : " Qualis populea mcerens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur foetus, quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detraxit ; at ilia Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrat, et mcestis late loca questibus implet." "Georg.," iv. 510-514. " Thus Philomela, lamenting beneath the sad shade of the poplar, All her young ones bewails, which the hand of the hard-hearted ploughboy, Spying, has ruthlessly torn still unfledged from their nest ; but the mother Weeps the long night, and pours from her seat in the thick- spreading covert Notes of despair which fill all the vale with tuneful com- plainings." Happily there is no necessity for causing grief such as this, even in the bosom of a bird, in order to form a collection of birds' eggs. It need involve no cruelty, while it calls forth just those qualities every boy should possess a keen eyesight to detect the whereabouts of a sup- posed nest, patience in waiting for the old birds to return and reveal the exact spot, and self- restraint in helping himself to the treasure when BIRDS' EGGS. 53 actually within reach. Great care is necessary in taking the eggs home and blowing them, and for the following recipe, embodying the latest ideas on the subject, I am indebted to a friend. If you have to climb a tree for eggs, the safest way to descend with them is to have a box with compartments a cocoa-nut cut in two and hinged with a piece of leather, slung round your neck, makes a capital contrivance. The eggs are dropped into the spaces singly, and secured with cotton wool. If, after blowing, the egg does not look quite clean, as often happens if it is a little set, inject with a small syringe a few drops of camphor-water, and shake out the contents when dissolved. The best way to blow eggs, large or small, is to use the " drill," * after making a small hole in the side with a needle, and then suck out the contents. In case, however, they are a little set, use the blow-pipe in the following way. First pierce a hole in the side with a needle, and pick away the white membrane, which other- wise will hinder the operation. Hold the egg, hole downwards, between the finger and thumb of the left hand, when some of the white will ooze out. Then put the blow-pipe to your mouth, and blow a strong current of wind just * To be bought at the naturalists' mentioned at p. 91. 54 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. underneath the hole, which will bring out the contents. If the egg has got dirty by staying in the nest and by coming in contact with the feet of the bird, wash it well with soap and water using a nail-brush, if necessary when it will become as clean and pure as when laid. With regard to the arrangement of eggs ; in large museums, where space is no object, there ought to be no separate collection of them at all. Each species of bird should be arranged naturally* in company with its nest and eggs ; but in small private museums this, of course, is seldom feasible. We made paper trays, fitting into drawers, each tray containing two eggs, the name and locality being neatly written on a separate slip of paper pasted against the farther side of the tray. We never attempted to collect nests which large museums should do with the exception of those of one or two species, namely, that of the Long-tailed Tit- mouse and of the Golden-crested Wren. These were small enough to go in the case with the birds themselves, and formed, with them, charm- ing groups of family bird-life. We often wished for a Kingfisher's nest, which is constructed of bones of the fish upon which the parent birds have preyed ; but we wished in vain, for it is an * See Appendix A. BIRDS' EGGS. 55 exceedingly difficult matter to dig it out uninjured from the Bole in the bank where it is built Some of the nests of foreign birds are most remarkable and curious, such as those of the Tailor-bird and of the Bower-bird ; but these did not come within our range. The nests of Humming-birds are also most lovely, and perhaps the very per- fection of beauty of bird-preserving would be attained by representing a group of these little winged jewels sitting upon and fluttering around a well-made imitation of some tropical flowering shrub, containing their nests with the eggs. In the catalogue of our stuffed birds, pp. 46- 48, those of which we had the eggs are marked with an asterisk, so that it is unnecessary to draw up a fresh list. As to books on birds' eggs, it is obvious that any good work upon birds must of necessity contain a description of their nests and eggs, making any work specially on the subject totally unnecessary. There is, however, a little book called " Nests and Eggs of Familiar Birds," by H. G. Adams, which contains good coloured illustrations. CHAPTER VJ. SHRAWLEY. lO many of the events of our boy days, when we were forming our museum, were inseparably connected with Shrawley and its glorious wood, that some account of these is necessary to make my narrative complete. To look forward to a visit to our grandmother, at Shrawley, was the supreme, the crowning happiness of our lives. Her house, the " Wood House," as it is called, stood in a small park on the edge of Shrawley Wood a forest of between four hundred and five hundred acres, abounding in noble oak trees, with an undergrowth of the small-leaved lime. Imagine what it must have been for a couple of boys like us to have such a domain to roam in I John Wormington, the head keeper, was our firm ally, and one of our choicest pleasures was to accompany him in his rounds, and listen to his innumerable stories about the wood and SHRAWLEY. 57 its inhabitants. Next to Joe Wise, we con- sidered him the most remarkable man in the world as he was, and doubtless is (for he still holds the situation of head keeper), one of the kindest. It was a great thing to see him clean out the well-trap. This is a pit some three feet deep, lined with brick, dug at the junction of several lines of fencing extending a hundred yards or more in various directions into the wood. The pit is covered by a double lid, each half so nicely balanced that the moment any animal, finding itself in a corner, essays to proceed through the narrow alley which it sees before it, it must needs pass over the apparently safe surface of the trap-door. The consequence may be guessed ; and scarcely a day came but some wanderers of the previous night were in the well, awaiting the tender mercy of the keepers. Small, indeed, was the measure in which it was meted out \ to them. Hedgehogs, weasels, stoats, rabbits it was all the same ; and Dante's famous inscription over the gates of Tartarus would have been equally appropriate over that deceitful pitfall : " Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate." "All hope abandon, ye that enter here." And even in these days the result would be the same, for not one keeper in a thousand knows his friends from his foes, and both alike 58 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. perish in one blind and indiscriminating con- demnation. The only animals that ever did receive their liberty after making acquaintance with the bottom of that snare were the foxes which occasionally blundered into it. They, of course, were turned down again, for Shrawley Wood was a famous fox cover ; and although the hounds, owing to its vast extent, could seldom get them out of it, it was of course a consolation to the county in general, and ourselves in par- ticular, to know they were in it. I only wish that these well-traps were in more general use, and that every gamekeeper could be fined five pounds, plus costs, for every time he was dis- covered setting or causing to be set one of those abominable contrivances called steel traps. The torture inflicted by this suggestion of Satan is terrible, yet, as it goes on in lonely corners and unfrequented woods, no notice is taken of it. But those who have found, as I have, some poor creature held fast by a couple of broken legs, struggling in vain to tear itself away from the agony of those iron teeth, can form some idea of the anguish endured. The refinement of this cruelty consists in the length of time the victim may be enduring it, for it may be days be- fore the keeper happens to visit that trap in his rounds ; and till he does come the miserable creature has to suffer on in its agony, aggravated SHRAWLEY. 59 by the inflammation which must accompany the terrible laceration of the trap, and accompanied, no doubt, by the fever-thirst which always sets in under such circumstances. There is not a more glaring inconsistency in the whole ad- ministration of justice, than that the law should be down on a man for carrying a fowl heels up, or for driving a donkey with a sore back, and yet take no notice whatever of the im- measurable amount of torture endured every day in the year, all over the country, by the innocent victims of these infernal contrivances. Not very long ago, in a cover near Lyme Regis, I discovered a poor little hen Blackbird in one of these rat-traps. She was seized by the thighs, both of which were smashed to a mass of inflamed quivering jelly, her beautiful eyes saying as plain as any words, " What have I done to deserve this terrible torture which I have been enduring so many, many long hours ? " I wrote to one of the daily papers on the sub- ject, hoping that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would take it up, but they did not. If vermin has to be destroyed, in the name of mercy let it be caught in a trap that kills outright, or in one in which it can live without pain till knocked on the head ; but to allow traps which keep it for an indefinite time in agony is a shame and a sin. 60 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. We were also very fond of going out shooting with our uncle, the Rector, just the man a boy loves to be with, full of spirit and fun, and from him we learned our wood-craft how to draw the most suspicious Hawk within shot by imitating the cry of its young ; how to stalk the watchful Heron as he stood knee-deep in the Lower Pool ; how to handle a gun a most im- portant matter with boys, who ought never to touch one until they have received such train- ing. He showed us the best places for fish and how to catch them, and if we happened to be there in winter, he would generally find us a mount when the hounds met at the Wood House ; and knowing, as he did, every inch of the coun- try, by keeping close to him, and following him either over or through everything, we were seldom far off at the finish. The fishing about Shrawley was superb, and I believe it is still better now, a fine new lake covering many acres of ground having of late years been made in the wood. A rivulet enters the wood at the northern end and forms the Upper Pool ; leaving this, and wandering for some distance through ozier beds, it spreads out into the Lower Pool, and then, turning eastward, finds its way to the Severn, which forms the eastern boundary of the wood. The Upper Pool was our special favourite, for SHRAWLEY. 6l it abounded with Perch, which, as everybody knows, are not particular as to who catches them, or how they are caught. Our uncle had a spot cleared for us in the underwood under the oak trees by the edge of the pool, and here we used to spend the summer after- noons, nestling among the ferns and flowers, and pulling the Perch, both large and small, out of the water. If we wanted Jack, we went to the Lower Pool, but they did not run large about five pounds was the usual weight. But a neighbour kindly gave us leave to fish in his large Pike pools, where we could drift among the acres of water-lilies in a punt, and troll all day. Once I caught a Perch there weighing over two pounds. Better still, however, than fishing was the sport of lading the brook. Adjoining the gardens of the Wood House was the grove, one of those delicious spots where the foreign Rhododendron, the exotic Pine, and Laurel lux- uriate in company with the native Oak, Beech, and Birch. To wander here in May, when the ground was gemmed with Bluebells and^ Prim- roses, and the air sweet to the nostril with the scent of Hawthorn blossom, and to the ear with the note of the Cuckoo, Thrush, and Chiff-chaff, was to experience a joy that can never be for- gotten. At the head of the grove was a trout pond, fed by a merry, warbling little stream, 62 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. that, on leaving it, wandered a winding way through the grove till it passed into the great wood beyond. It was full of Trout, which ought by rights to have been in the pool above, and once a year or so they had to be caught and returned to their proper home. This was grand fun. Attended by two or three keepers armed with spades and buckets, we, that is, our uncle and our two selves, made our way to the stream. Selecting some bend where there was a likely hole, a stank* of clods was thrown across the stream just above, and another just below. Then we set to work to bale the water out of the hole. Presently the speckled fins of the Trout would be seen as they shot wildly about in terror at the unwonted liberty which was being taken with their privacy, and with gentle yet firm grasp we caught them one after another in our hands and transferred them to the bucket, which, when full, was emptied into the pool above. The Eels were the greatest fun, for to catch an Eel in your hand in the water is a feat which requires practice, but we soon learned the art of passing the middle finger over them and then holding tight, for if you attempt to grasp them in the hand, they are sure to wriggle This local term, though not in Walker, is a genuine word, and is probably cognate in its origin with "stand," "stick," "stack," etc. SHRAWLEY. 63 out again before you can land them. When one hole was exhausted, the stanks were cut through, and we went on to another. The sport had its penalties notwithstanding, for the nettles stung furiously and the briers tore fiercely ; but who cares for such trifles as these ? It is astonishing what large Trout are sometimes found in a little stream, where one would think they had not room to turn. I once caught one in this way which weighed two pounds and a quarter : he did not revisit his native pool. Another great charm which the wood had for us was its butterflies. To see the great Fritillaries, both dark-green and silver-washed, sailing from flower to flower in the open spaces, added yet another charm to this enchanting woodland. The part where they used to be most abundant is now covered by the new lake, and whether the plant they used to feed on in their cater- pillar state has disappeared in consequence, or any other misfortune has befallen them, I cannot say, but upon my visits to the same locality of late years not a Fritillary was to be seen. But in those days, when we returned to Woodchester after a summer holiday at Shrawley, we were sure to have many new butterflies, as well as birds, to add to our museum. CHAPTER VII. " BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER." NE summer evening during our first year at Woodchester, as Frank and I were catching roach in the brook the mill-stream, that is, running along the bottom of the Rodborough Valley a young man of about sixteen, with a younger brother, were fishing on the opposite bank. We struck up an acquaintance, which soon deepened into a friendship. His name was John H , and he lived at the picturesque old house close to the church, called the Priory. Before we parted for the evening, he invited us to fish in the Priory pond, the best Trout preserve in those parts. John was a keen lover and observer of nature, and being older than ourselves by several years, was able to help us a good deal in our museum. In bird-stuffing " BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER." 65 he was a pupil of Joe Wise, who had made an exception in his favour to his usual rule of not giving lessons. For the next few years we three were the closest of friends, rambling to- gether, gun in hand, over the country, shooting specimens to stuff, and always ready for any adventure which had a spice of risk or danger in it. It was a treat to see John stuff a bird ! Although a strongly built, powerful young man, he had a touch more light and delicate than any woman's ; in fact, I have often observed that exquisite delicacy of touch is only acquired by the really strong weak muscles have not the necessary self-control. With him the bird he was stuffing seemed to understand just what was required of it, and to do its best to please him, while with us it did everything it could to oppose and aggravate us. Skilful also was he as a carpenter, and he never begrudged any time spent in helping us to transform rough packing-cases and boxes into shelves and ca- binets for our museum. John dearly loved a joke. One day he came into the museum with a grave and important look, as though he had just made some as- tonishing discovery. "Just look at this," he said, uncovering a newly-stuffed bird : " did you ever see anything like it ? " No, we never had seen anything like that, and we proceeded to F 66 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. compare it with the plates in the " Naturalist's Library." There was nothing in the least like it there, so it was evident that John had discovered an entirely new British bird ! How we envied him the glory, making particular inquiries as to the precise locality where it was shot, in order that we might search it, in the hopes of shooting the mate ! It was about the size of a Hedge- sparrow, in fact, a good deal like a Hedge-sparrow about the head and body, but then the tail was so extraordinary it was bright red. We then turned to Eyton's " Rarer British Birds," which had been lately invested in ; but no, there was nothing like it there. John proposed to call it the Hay-hen, because it was shot near a hay- rick ; and then, with a glow of pleasure at the thought of oiir giving its scientific name to a new British bird, we further insisted that it should be proclaimed to the ornithological world as Accentor Johnii. At this John could contain himself no longer, but, bursting out laughing, gave the tail a touch, and off it fell. In an instant we saw the trick ; the rascal had stuck a Redstart's tail on to a Hedge-sparrow's body, and then called the mixture a Hay-hen ! Still, no wonder we were puzzled, but I don't think we should have been caught in the same trap twice, and for some time afterwards we regarded with suspicion birds new to us, and took care " BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER." 6/ that their tails were tight before accepting them as genuine. It was John who taught us to swim an accomplishment we were not long in acquiring, for we took to the water like young Moor- hens, and often in summer time we would go off in a party before sunrise to the splendid pools one might almost call them lakes in Lord Ducie's park, and after revelling in the clear deep water, be back in time for break- fast and school. For let not any boy that reads this book think that we did nothing else besides roaming about the country, or that our education was allowed to be neglected for fish- ing or shooting and bird-stuffing. Nothing of the sort. We were hard at work at our lessons from nine till one every day in the week except Sunday, and no museum or anything else was thought of until the first duties connected with school had been done. However, this arrange- ment gave us the early mornings, the whole of every afternoon, and generally some time in the evening, after the lessons had been prepared for the next day. Of course there were occa- sional whole holidays, which we appreciated thoroughly, and the museum was always the richer for them. And with this union of moderate work and not immoderate recreation, our boyhood sped 68 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. on towards manhood, just as a river speeds towards the sea ; in fact, boyhood is to manhood very much indeed what the river is to the ocean. The merry stream, shallow it may be, but very pure and sweet, flows gaily along through its restraining banks, rejoicing in the rough tur- bulence and excitement of its ever - varying career, now for a while pursuing a quiet course under the shadow, now bursting out into the joy of fretting rapid and plunge of waterfall, until, as it goes forward it calms down, the banks get less flowery, its waters are taught to bear burdens, and it begins to find it has a work to do in the world that it is made for other purposes than only to sparkle and warble and be played with. And then at last it finds itself a part of the great ocean, with still heavier burdens to bear, and other storms to endure and larger liberties, kept pure no longer by innocence and ignorance of evil, but by the mysterious gift of salt of a higher and more enduring power. CHAPTER VIII. FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. OODCHESTER is, or at all events was, a fine place for fishing, and with the exception of Salmon, most of the ordinary fresh-water fish were to be found within the limits of the parish. This abundance of fishing water was owing to the number of cloth and other mills in the neighbourhood ; for each of these had its own mill-pond, and these mill-ponds, being fed by some clear little stream making its way down the hillside to the larger brook in the valley, became admirable preserves. Had any pains been taken with them, these ponds might have abounded with Trout ; but they were left to take care of themselves, and, in consequence, the coarser fish, such as Roach and Perch, ob- tained an easy victory over the shy and fastidious Trout. In fact, as I have already said, there was 70 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. only one Trout pond in the parish that in the Priory fields and this did not keep its name long, for Tench and Gudgeon managed to find their way into it, and when the water was let out at last, there were only two or three Trout left. Still, there were plenty of small Trout in the streams, but they were more easily caught with the hand than the hook. There were Pike in some of the ponds, but we did not trouble them, at all events at first, and for a long time our ambition did not soar beyond Roach and Perch. Just below the orchard in front of our house, to the left, was a deep quiet pool, stocked a little too liberally with Pond-weed, and fringed with Elms and underwood, among which a tangled path ran round it. This, being so near home, became our usual fishing ground, and a pleasant thing it was on a sunny spring day to sit among the Primroses and May blossom, and watch our floats pulled under water by the shy game. At first, as I said, the Roach with which this pond abounded were the objects of our humble ambi- tion, but one day an event occurred which gave us loftier aspirations. While fishing for Roach with our usual caddis bait, we observed a small Jack lying motionless in the water close by. Without considering the weakness of our tackle, we took off the caddis worm, and substituting FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. 7 1 a Stickleback bannie in the Gloucestershire dialect swam it in front of the Jack's nose. There was a dash a splash a crash and we found ourselves standing disconsolate, with a broken rod, minus the line ! But " experience teaches," as the proverb says, and thus we dis- covered that what will hold a Roach won't hold a Jack. In course of time we became ardent Pike-fishers, though I cannot remember catching one weighing over five pounds. One was caught not very far from us which weighed eighteen pounds, and that is the largest I ever heard of in the locality. Talking of Jack, I once caught one under very curious circumstances at Shrawley. In the lower Shotgrove pool, seeing a long thin 'Jack lying just under the surface of the water, I tried him with a live Roach, and passed it temptingly before his nose, of which allurement he took no manner of notice. Concluding he was a sleepy Jack, I thought of another way of waking him up, so putting a large Salmon-hook on the line, I threw it over him, and when it touched him struck sharply. Up he came, tail foremost, but making a very feeble resistance, when, to my surprise, I discovered he was totally blind, his eyes having the appearance of being withered away. Whether he had been bullied by a Frog, like the one mentioned by Walton, 72 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. which the Bishops Dubravius and Thurzo saw with their own eyes operated upon by this piti- less Batrachian, I cannot say, but he was as blind as a brickbat, and apparently in the last stage of consumption. Another curious circumstance happened to me when fishing in the Upper Pool at the same place. As the water was weedy, I was using particularly strong snap tackle, with a Roach as bait. Suddenly something seized the bait, and, after a short tussle, I numbered this something among the " landed gentry," when it turned out to be a Carp, weighing over four pounds ! It is the only instance I ever knew of a fish, generally so shy, to forget itself and the capabilities of its soft, toothless mouth, so far as to try flesh diet : it must have been uncom- monly hard up for a change. The bait, I well recollect, had been taken in good earnest, for the hooks were firm in the back of its mouth, so that it was not a foul an accident which may befall any fish of an inquiring disposition. So it happened to the largest Perch I ever caught. While spinning with a Minnow, a dead weight, which at first I took for a sunken bough till it began to move away, was suddenly felt on the line. After a long play, I got my friend at last to the surface, when the facts of the case were revealed it was simply a big Perch hooked by the dorsal fin. I suppose he had come out to FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. 73 inspect the Minnow, and, disliking its looks, turned back again, but not allowing for out- side hooks, managed to get one of them into his back. It is astonishing the difficulty there is in playing a fish hooked foul in this way ; one seems to have no power over him, while his power over you is increased tenfold ; it is like riding without reins, the propelling power being unfettered, with the guiding apparatus gone. At this period of our lives " The Boys' Own Book " was our favourite oracle, and the chapter on fishing, with the correct portrait of every catchable fish, afforded us all the information we wanted, besides a good deal we didn't want. Still, it is just the book which a boy loves for a companion, and he sleeps all the better knowing it is tucked under his pillow, ready at hand should he awake too early. After the fishing department of the book, the swimming came next in our affection. All was eagerly devoured, including even the very indigestible statement that you cannot open your eyes when diving, owing to the pressure of the water ; and although our own experience did not confirm this, like all boys, we attributed it to something wrong either with our eyes or the water we swam in as, of course, everything so seriously stated in a printed book must be right. Our fishing did not contribute much to the 74 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. treasures of our museum, still it did contribute something. Fish are not difficult to stuff, and we soon managed to do it, after our manner, which was as follows : Having settled which side of the fish we wished to preserve, we turned it over, and made an incision, following the lateral line, on the other side, separating the skin from the flesh, as with a bird. The head had to take its chance, for no art of ours could prevent it assuming the appearance of some- thing between a mummy and a ham. When the first part of the operation was over, with a pair of scissors we cut away all the skin on the side where the incision had been made, so that only half the head and of the skin remained. This, having plentifully deluged it with the solu- tion of corrosive sublimate, we sewed to a piece of stiff cardboard, stuffing the inside with cotton wool as the sewing proceeded. When dry, it was varnished, and the name and place of capture were written underneath, and the speci- men hung up in our museum. Perhaps the card might be further adorned with some appropriate painting and dried grasses, but we had not time for everything. This way of preserving fish, though of course not to be compared with the beautiful .works of the art one sees in the fish- ing-tackle shops, is effective, and quickly and easily done. One thing, however, must not FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. 75 be forgotten, and that is, before beginning operations, to cover the side to be preserved with tissue-paper. It sticks firmly as the fish dries, and prevents the scales coming off which, in the case of the Cycloids, like Carp and Roach, they will do at a touch. When the sewing to the card is finished, the thin paper is easily sponged off, leaving your specimen as perfect as when taken out of the water. The colour on the fins of some species, like the crimson on the ventral fins of Roach, may be touched up with advantage by means of a little paint. I mentioned just now the word Cycloids, and as I always recommend boys, and girls too, never to pass over a difficult word when reading without thoroughly understanding it, since they may not know exactly what it means, I will explain it. There are four orders of fishes, determined by the form and structure of the scales. This is the arrangement of Agassiz, and I dou't think it will be easily improved upon. His foar orders are : I. PLACOIDS, from 7rAa (gen. TrXaicoc), "a broad plate." " The fishes of this order," says " The Gallery of Nature," " are irregularly covered with large or small plates of enamel, sometimes reduced to mere points, like the shagreen on the skin of the Shark, and the prickly, tooth- 76 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. like tubercles of the skin of the Ray." The next time you pick up a dead Dog-fish on the sands, examine its scales, and then you will know what a Placoid is like. II. GANOIDS, from -yavoe, "splendour." Fishes of this division have massive, tile-like scales, bril- liantly enamelled outside. Fishes of this and the foregoing order may be said to wear their bones outside instead of inside, for their interior skeletons are of cartilaginous rather than of bony structure. In earlier geologic times they were very abundant, but have now almost died out. Sometimes, however, in museums you may see the Bony Pike from North America, which is one of few surviving members of this second order. It looks as if it were enamelled, or covered with hard, shiny tiles. III. CTENOIDS, from icrae (gen. KTWOQ), "a comb." Look at one of the scales of the next Perch you catch, and observe its serrated or toothed outer margin, and you will at once understand the force of the term Ctenoid. IV. CYCLOIDS, from KWK\OC, "a circle." These scales are smooth on the exterior edge, and generally very loosely attached to the skin, as you must have found out whenever you caught a Carp or Roach. These, then, are the four orders of fishes, and it is not a little curious that they severally appear FISHING AND FISH-STUFFING. 77 to have been introduced into creation in the order in which Agassiz has arranged them. As Hugh Miller so charmingly writes : " The earliest fishes firstborn of their family seem to have been all Placoids. The Silurian system has not yet * afforded trace of any other verte- bral animal. With the Old Red Sandstone f the Ganoids were ushered upon the scene in amazing abundance ; and for untold ages, com- prising, mayhap, millions of years, the entire Ichthyic J class consisted, so far as is yet known, of but these two orders. During the times of the Old Red Sandstone, of the Carboniferous, of the Permian, of the Triassic, and of the Oolitic systems, all fishes, though apparently as numerous individually as they are now, were comprised in the Ganoidal and Placoidal orders. The period of these orders seems to have been nearly correspondent with the reign, in the vege- table kingdom, of the Acrogens and Gymnogens, and with the intermediate classes, their allies. At length, during the ages of the chalk, the Cycloids and Ctenoids were ushered in, and were gradu- ally developed in creation until the human period, in which they seem to have reached their culminating point, and they now many times * This still holds good, A.D. 1881. t Now called the Devonian system. J I.e., composed of fish, from ix^s, " a fish." 78 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. exceed in number and importance all other fishes. We do not see a Sturgeon (our British representative of the Ganoids) once in a twelve- month ; and though the Skate and Dog-fish (our representatives of the Placoids) are greatly less rare, their number bears but a small proportion to that of the fishes belonging to the two pre- vailing orders, of which thousands of boatloads are landed on our coast every day." * Fish caught at Woodchester or its neigh- bourhood, most of which were preserved in our museum Three-spined Stickleback .. Perch Gasterosteus spinulosus f Perca fluviatilis Miller's- thumb Cottus gobio Gobio fluviatilis Tench Tinea vulgaris Chub Cyprinus cephalus Leuciscus rutilis Dace Cobitis barbatula Pike Esox lucius Salmo fario Sharp-nosed Eel ., Ansmilla acutirostris Books. " The Natural History of British Fishes," by Frank Buckland (S.P.C.K.), is by far the best introductory book on the subject. It is full of information most pleasantly told, and every fish is illustrated by a capital woodcut. Crouch's " British Fishes " is a luxury. * "Testimony of the Rocks, "p. 60. t Yarrell's nomenclature is given. CHAPTER IX. BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. HE pursuit of butterflies offers so irresistible an attraction, they are so easily kept, and so pretty, that most boys have at some time or other begun to collect them. The end of such col- lections is generally much the same. Unless there are proper cabinets to keep them in and these are expensive the poor creatures in their boxes and drawers soon get dusty and dilapi- dated. First the antennae get broken off, then the wings, the bodies become infested with mites, and at last they are thrown away in disgust. We were fortunate in inheriting a collection from our eldest brother, who died a few years before our return to Woodchester : it consisted of two. cases one containing butterflies and moths, the other beetles and flies. Still, as our meadows 8O THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. and hills furnished a rich variety, we went on making our collection as full and complete as possible. Some species, indeed, we were never lucky enough to catch or even to see on the wing, such as the Bath White, Purple Emperor, Camberwell Beauty,* and White Admiral,f but most of the not very uncommon species we caught either at Woodchester or Shrawley. Our collection was headed by a Common Swallow-tail called common, I suppose, by way of a joke, for it is one of the most local of British insects. I never saw one on the wing in England, though I have caught the Scarce Swallow-tail in abundance, both in the neighbourhood of Quebec and in the south of France, where it is called Le Flambe. The Clouded Yellow, being generally found near the coast, we never ob- served at Woodchester, though we once caught a fine specimen so far inland as Buckingham- shire. Our own gardens supplied us with most of the Whites, such as the Large, Small, and Green- veined ; and our dear old gardener, John Lynn,J would forgive us rushing through his cabbages if * When visiting Canada, in 1863, I found the city of Toronto positively swarming with Camberwell Beauties in the month of July, the chrysalises being on every hedge and paling. I have also frequently seen them at Barcelona, and in Switzerland. + Since found in abundance in Sussex. J The most faithful and affectionate of servants. He died in i860. BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 8t we were hunting Whites he well appreciated the attention their caterpillars paid to his vegetables ! The Orange-tip, though not by any means common, occasionally made its appearance, and was always looked upon more especially the female in the light of a prize. Our single specimen of Wood White, rarer still, was caught in Shrawley Wood. One season the meadows by the brook on the road to Stroud quite swarmed with the Black-veined White, or Haw- thorn butterfly, but I never saw it either before or after that one season. Of the showy Fritillary genus we had six species Greasy, Glanville, Pearl-bordered, Queen of Spain, Dark-green, and Silver-washed, all the larger ones from Shrawley Wood. Our set of the Vanessa group was com- plete, with the exception of the Purple Emperor ; the White Admiral was in our brother's col- lection, and it was not until last year (1880) that I ever caught or even saw a living specimen. I have already said that through the northern division of the village a road runs at right angles from the main road in the valley, past the rectory, and straight up the hill, through ex- tensive beech woods, till it opens on to the breezy expanse of Shelsley Hill. These woods, especially the one on the right, afforded famous butterfly hunting, and here we used to find the smaller Fritillaries, Marbled White, Speckled G 82 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Wood, and some of the Skippers. Shelsley Hill itself was an elevated table-land, abruptly ter- minating on its western side in a steep cliff overlooking the wide valley of the Severn. The whole plain, with the Tump on the edge of the western cliff, reminded one of Caesar's descrip- tion of the scene of his parley with Ariovistus, " Planities erat magna et in ea tumulus terrenus satis grandis ; " * but the tumulus was precious in our eyes as affording at the proper season a certain find for the Grayling butterfly, besides being a favourite haunt of that world-wide species, the Painted Lady, while both large and small Heaths were plentiful all over the plain. Of the Hair-streaks we had the Brown, Purple, and Green; but the only member of the Lycaena family we ever possessed was the Common Cop- per. It is thirty-six years, I believe, since the Scarce Copper was captured in England, so it may fairly be counted as extinct, and the foreign specimens which are sometimes purchased as British by unwary buyers, may be distinguished by the form of the orange band in the hind margin of the under side of the lower wings. This, in the true English Copper, is of the same breadth throughout; in Continental specimens it tapers to a point Our other hills afforded * " There was a large plain, and in it a mound of earth of considerable size." "Bell. Gall.," i. 43. BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 83 the more common of the Blues, as well as the Brown Argus, and that little creature with the large name, the Artaxerxes butterfly. So we had every opportunity, with such a neighbour- hood for hunting, supplemented by the glorious woods of Shrawley, of making a very fair col- lection of the British species. Of the larger and more showy moths we had a tolerable number, but of the little ones, the Tineae and Tortrices, we knew nothing. They have come into notice since our day, owing to the admirable works of Stainton and Wilkinson on the subject. We had several of the Hawk- moths, including the Eyed, Poplar, Lime, Privet, Elephant, and Humming-bird. I recollect being taken when a very small boy to the studio of Sir Francis Chantrey, in Pimlico, to see a mo- nument to one of my aunts. While the great sculptor was showing his work to. the rest of the party, I had espied a Lime Hawk-moth asleep upon a block of marble, and confess, with compunction, that the capture of the insect afforded me far more delight than all the treasures of that wondrous studio. The Death's-head was a species we never found in those days, though they are by no means uncommon in some localities, and in certain seasons. I know a house in Dorsetshire where the inmates are sometimes positively 84 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. annoyed by the fluttering of these tremendous insects under the verandah on an autumn evening. As boys, we were of course contented with the ordinary method of laying out and displaying butterflies and moths, but 1 have long been convinced that the method is wrong wrong because unnatural. We used to go out butter- flying armed with a net, a box or two lined with cork, and some pins. Having secured a victim in the net, we gave its body a pinch two or three if the first did not do the business, rubbing off the down more or less by the pro- cess, and as likely as not some of the legs. Then sticking a pin sideways through the thorax, it was transferred to the box, and so with the others we caught ; and if the pins ran short, two or three butterflies had to share the same one On reaching home, we set them by first pinning them through the back to a piece of grooved cork, and then spreading the wings out and fixing them down to the cork by slips of card- board, broad at one end and tapering to the other. In this position the insect remained till dry, when it was transferred to the cabinet, and set in a row with others of the same sort. Now, it is only necessary to observe a but- terfly alight on a flower or on the ground, to convince any one that such a method of display is glaringly unnatural. A butterfly never lies BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 85 on a flower on its stomach, as it is made to do in a case, but stands delicately on its feet, and it is just this standing on its legs which in a dead specimen gives all the appearance of life. Then again, in nature, the wings are never or seldom stretched rigidly out, parallel to the ground, but are raised or deflected at different angles; sometimes always when at rest closed outright, showing only the lovely under surface. Lastly, butterflies do not, so far as I have observed, pitch on a smooth piece of cork covered with paper, but on flowers and leaves. So then there are three points to be observed if we are to transfer the insect in all its charms from the forest to the museum : I, it must stand on its legs ; 2, it must stand with its wings in a natural position ; and 3, it must stand on some object consistent with its habits all which points can be gained with a little attention and trouble. First, as to the killing. Give up the finger- and-thumb business altogether, and when you have got your prize in the net, transfer it alive into one of those round chip boxes which you can buy for a few pence the dozen at the chemists'.* Directly the lid is put on, and the poor thing finds itself in the dark, it will remain * For this recipe, and many other valuable hints respecting the preservation of insects, I am indebted to my friend Joseph Anderson, Esq., jun., of Chichester, a distinguished collector. 85 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. perfectly quiet till you get home. Then dip a camel-hair brush in chloroform ; just raise the lid, insert the brush ior a second or two, close the box for two or three minutes, when the in- sect will be quite stupefied ; remove it to a bottle half filled with sesquicarbonate of ammonia, where it must be left for five or six hours, or even longer if very large. If killed by chloro- form only, the limbs becomes rigid so quickly as to hazard the laying it out properly ; while if killed with the ammonia, you can leave the specimens all night if you like, and put them in position next day, when they will still be per- fectly fresh and limp. Then as to the setting up. Have nothing to do with slips of card. Having carefully trans- fixed the butterfly with a long " entomological " pin, fix the pin deeply in a cork setting-board, about three, or for large specimens four, inches square ; raise the body of the insect so far up the pin that the legs may stand in a natural manner on the board. Then place four large pins into the cork, as represented in the cut, and from the pin behind to the corresponding one in front attach two threads (i:e., one thread doubled), one passing under the wings, the other over. By raising or depressing the pins, the wings are easily brought to any required angle, and by these means you can impart to the insect the BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 87 exact position and appearance of life. The legs are more difficult to manage than the wings, and if not moved gently, may come off, and then the specimen is spoilt Si THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. When the insect is perfectly dry, you can proceed to the third and last stage of the operation, which is to take away the threads and setting pins, and fix the pin which passes through it firmly in an artificial flower or leaf, and then, with a sharp pair of pliers, to nip off the pin as close as possible to the body of the insect. You will then have " a thing of beauty," which, if carefully guarded under a glass shade, will be "a joy for ever." The only objection I can anticipate to this method is the obvious difficulty it leaves in the transfer of a specimen from one collection to another. The flower, or whatever else it may be placed on, must go with it ; still, this drawback is small compared with the immense advantage of preserving the insect in its natural attitude. A group of butterflies of the same class, say the Fritillaries, or the Blues, on a group of suitable flowers, some with expanded wings as if drinking in the sunshine, others with them closed as if wishing to escape observation and so showing the under sidej has a most charming effect, and would be as suitable for a drawing-room as for a museum. To make such a group entomologically perfect, the caterpillars of the various species should be exhibited upon the plant which they feed on, and the chrysalises suspended in appropriate positions. Any one who has once seen a group BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS, 8 9 of butterflies thus arranged will not easily re- turn to the old rank-and-file arrangement, the only plea for which is that it takes up less space. It would be impossible, moreover, to give the minute species the Tortrices and Tinese the benefit of such a natural arrange- ment. Of the preserving of caterpillars I know nothing, but that it can be done was abun- dantly proved at the Entomological Exhibition at the Royal Aquarium in 1878, when most of the butterflies exhibited by Lord Walsingham were accompanied by the caterpillar exquisitely preserved and placed on the leaf which formed its food when living.* LIST OF OUR BUTTERFLIES. Swallow-tail Papilio machaon Rhodocera rhamni Clouded Yellow Pale Clouded Yellow Black-veined, or Haw- hyale Aporia cratsegi Large WTiite Pieris brassicse Small White Green-veined White napi Euchloe cardamines Wood White Marbled White Arge galathea Speckled Wood Pyrarga egeria Wall Meadow Brown Ringlet hyperanthus * See notes on preserving larvae, p. 271. THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Limenitis sybilla Pyrameis cardui atalanta lo Vanessa polychloros urticae Grapta C. album Argynnis Paphia Aglaia Adippe Lathonia Euphrosyne Melitaea cinxia Athalia Artemis Nemeobius lucina Thecla betulae quercus rubi Polyommatus phloeas Lycsena argiolus alsus Corydon Alexis Mgon Age'-tis Painted Lady Large Tortoiseshell Small Tortoiseshell Silver- washed Fritillary .. Dark-green Fritillary ... High -brown Fritillary ... Queen of Spain Fritillary Pearl-bordered Fritillary.. Pearl-bordered Likeness.. Duke of Burgundy Fritil- Brown Hair-streak Purple Hair-streak Green Hair-streak Azure Blue Little Blue Chalk-hill Blue Common Blue Silver-studded Blue Artaxerxes Hesperia alveolus tages Chequered Skipper Laree Skinner . svlvanus The first book for a beginner to get is " British Butterflies," by W. S. Coleman (Routledge), price one shilling. While mastering this, he can be saving up his pocket money for that admirable BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. work, Newman's " History of British Butterflies and Moths." Dr. Knagg's " Lepidopterist's Guide," one shilling, is a very useful little book, full of information for young collectors. Ento- mological pins and all other materials necessary for making a collection of insects can be bought at any naturalist's shop. Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster, Charing Cross, or Messrs. Cook and Son, Museum Street, can be confidently re- commended. MOTHS. Green Forester Six-spotted Burnet-moth ... Narrow - bordered Five- spotted Burnet-moth Eyed Hawk... Poplar Hawk Lime Hawk Privet Hawk Elephant Hawk Humming-bird Hawk Broad-bordered Bee Hawk- moth Goat-moth Wood Leopard Buff-tip Puss-moth Emperor Drinker Lappet-moth Scarlet Tiger-moth Clouded Buff Cream-spot Tiger-moth Wood Tiger-moth Ruby Tiger-moth Cinnabar-moth Crimson speckled Footman . Procris statices Zygaena filipendulae lonicerse. Smerinthus ocellatus populi tilise Sphinx ligustri Chcerocampe celerio Macroglossa stellatarum fuciformis Cossus ligniperda Zeuzera zesculi Pygsera bucephala Dicranura vinula Satumia carpini Odonestis potatoria Lasiocampa quercifolia Callimorpha dominula Euthemonia russala Chelonia villica Arctia fuliginosa plantaginis Euchelia Jacobseae Deiopeia pulchella 9 2 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Broad-bordered Yellow Un- derwing Large Sword -grass moth ... Buff Arches Herald-moth Angle Shades Gamma-moth Burnished Brass moth Red Underwing Brimstone-moth Swallow-tail moth Magpie or Gooseberry moth. Green Silver-lines Scarce Silver-lines White-plumed moth Triphsena fimbria Calocampa exoleta Gonophora derasa Gonoptera libatrix Phlogophora meticulosa Plusia gamma chrysitis Catocala nupta Rumia crataegata Uropteryx sambucaria Abraxas grossulariata Halias prasinana quercana Pterophorus pentadactylus Books. The Rev. J. G. Wood's " Common British Moths " (Routledge), price one shilling, is a good book to begin with. The young col- lector can afterwards go on to Newman's work. CHAPTER X. SEA-SHELLS. HEN boys are making a collection in earnest, not for the sake of hoarding, but of acquiring information, it is surprising how much kind help they receive from their friends. Everybody has something or other of little interest or value to the owners, but which, if transferred to a boy's museum, becomes of real educational im- portance. We were continually receiving pre- sents of various kinds, and although we set no great store on what are called " curiosities," we found a place for them if offered, and learned what we could from them. We had a piece of mummy cloth, some wheat, and a bit of bread rather stale, by the way taken out of an Egyptian tomb believed to be of the time of 94 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Joseph; things valueless enough in themselves, but of interest to us, as helping to make the history of that patriarch, and of the sojourn of his family in the house of bondage, a tangible reality, and not merely a bare fact of Bible history. Some flint arrow-heads from the field of Marathon gave us an interest in that splendid victory of Miltiades which our school-books would never have done. An en- graved cornelian seal, found among the ruins of Nineveh, was a connecting link between us and the city of Jonah's visit. A model of a North American canoe and of a pair of snow- shoes helped us through the geography of the West. So also some bark of the Lace tree. a Vegetable-ivory nut, a fruit of the Mahogany tree, pieces of Coral, and many such like " curiosities " each taught us something, and served to give some distant part of the world a new interest in our eyes, and increase our little store of knowledge. But the most valuable present we ever received for our museum was a choice collection of shells from Mauritius. To sort and arrange these was a delightful work for winter evenings, and with the help of Dr. Woodward's invaluable "Manual of the Mollusca," we at length got them into order. Perhaps from not having had any share in the .SEA-SHELLS. 95 collecting of these shells, perhaps also from the little real information that a mollusc's vacated home of itself conveys, this department of our museum did not hold the first place in our affections. To us they were curiosities, admir- able for their beauty of form and colour, rather than a part of the great world of life around us with which we could sympathize, and which had lessons to teach ; and I can truly say that it was not until we were captivated by the study of geology that we began to understand the true place of recent sea-shells in the system of nature. I would advise every young student of natural history to begin with geology, and let the other branches spring from it. On this point I shall have more to say when I come to speak of our fossils ; at present I will confine myself to re- cording what the arranging a quantity of foreign shells taught us. I must begin, then, by confessing that before the arrival of this collection we were as ignor- ant of even the rudiments of conchology as of Chinese. The first discovery we made was that the study of shells, apart from their occupants conchology, in fact was no longer esteemed a science at all, and that the best authors, such as Dr. Woodward, look upon a shell as part of an animal, and therefore aim at describing, where possible, the whole animal, and not merely its 96 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. protecting case. Hence the title of his book is not "A Manual of Shells," but of " the Mollusca," giving, in fact, greater prominence to the living inhabitant than to the mere shell, however curious or beautiful it may be. So it was a true instinct after all which induced us to think but lightly of a collection of vacant abodes so long as we knew nothing about the creatures which formed them for their habitation and defence. We then learned that the molluscan world is arranged in six classes I., Cephalopoda ; II., Gasteropoda; III., Pteropoda; IV., Brachiopoda; V., Conchifera ; VI., Tunicata. Starting from this, we began to sort our collection into six boxes ; but when this was done, we were sur- prised to find the boxes intended to contain Classes III. and VI. empty, one specimen only in box No. IV, only three or four in box No. I., while boxes II. and V. (the former especially) were overflowing. On turning to Dr. Woodward's Manual, we soon discovered the reason, namely, that the Tunicates (Class VI.) have no solid outside shell at all ; that the Pteropods (Class III.) are scarcely ever found except floating on the open ocean ; that the Brachiopods (Class IV.) have well-nigh died out of the living creation; and that the Cephalopods (Class I.) have, with a few exceptions, things for shells which we had not recognized as shells at all, but taken them SEA-SHELLS. 97 for some foreign " curiosities," which had slipped into the collection by accident. Enlightened by these discoveries, we began to feel our way onward, guided by the meaning of the words employed to distinguish the classes, finding for the first time, the practical value of what litt'e Greek we knew. KvV^ ^ Cuttle-fish. I. CEPHALOPODA. Derived from K/>aAr), " the head," and TTOUC (gen. TTOOOC), " a foot." It is easy enough to comprehend that this class contains such of the mollusca as have their feet, i.e., their walking and swimming organs, attached to their head. Any picture of a Cuttle-fish explains this II 98 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. at once. They possess the further peculiarity of wearing their shells not outside, but inside their bodies, in the shape of a bone. The only mem- bers of the family who rebel against this fashion are the Nautilus and Argonaut, who prefer the more general custom of wearing their shells out- side, on the decus et tutamen * principle. The Cephalopods have other and most interesting peculiarities. Their powerful feet, or rather arms, are provided with suckers, from which there is no escape save by cutting them away bit by bit ; and in some species the head, with its two great eyes, is armed with a beak like a parrot's, capable of inflicting serious wounds on any creature un- happy enough to be seized in that terrible embrace. When I was at Gibraltar in 1867, a story was told me of a soldier who, while bath- ing, saw a large Octopus floating into Rosia Bay, and, for the fun of the thing, dived under it, and came up with the beast on his shoulders. In an instant he was clasped by its horrible arms, while the beak began to dig into his flesh. It was with difficulty that he got to land, and the creature had to be cut away piece by piece before the rash experimentalist could be freed from its embrace. He never played tricks with an Octopus again. * The motto suggested by Evelyn to prevent the clipping of the larger coins of Charles II., the words being at once an "ornament and protection" to the pieces. SEA-SHELLS. 99 Our only representatives of this class were some Cuttle-fish bones, a Nautilus, and some odd-looking coiled shells, which we could not make out for a long time, until we discovered they were the interior shells of a species of Cuttle called Spirula Icevis. II. GASTEROPODA. Here again the derivation " belly," and TTOUC, " a foot," taught A Gasteropod (Catnmtm Snaif). us that molluscs of this class crawl on their stomachs a performance which the first Snail we could catch in the garden was ready to go through, though more for its own safety perhaps than for our instruction. This class includes all the spiral shells of which we found the greater and by far the most showy part of our collection to consist. We discovered Strombs, though not the large species so dear to lodging-house keepers, but some delicate Seraphs, and a pair 100 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. of Scorpion-shells ; some Murices, including a perfect Murex tenuispina ; a Frog-shell ; some Spindle-shells, amongst them the long-beaked species, Fusus colus ; many Buccina or Whelks, a pair of Auger-shells to wit ; plenty of Purples, a Helmet-shell, two lovely Harp-shells, and a grand display of Olives of all shades of colour and variety of pattern. We found also a quantity of Cones, but not a single Pleuro- tomaria. There are only three specimens known, as we afterwards learned, of recent Pleurotomaria, one of which, " found dead," was shown me by a well-known geologist in his private collection at Scarborough. We had Volutes, Boat-shells, Mitre-shells ; Cowries in abundance, including, of course, the common Money Cowry of the Pacific and Eastern seas, of which Dr. Woodward says sixty tons were imported into Liverpool in 1848, to be again exported for barter with the natives of Western Africa. Naticae had we, and Pyramids, Cerites, Melaniae, and a quantity of Turritellae ; Top- shells also, and the pretty Trochi, or Hoop- shells, which are world-wide in their distribution. Conspicuous, too, were a pair of Ear-shells the Ormer of the Channel Islands with their ex- quisitely iridescent interiors. There were also many Violet-shells, though, from their extreme fragility, most of them were broken ; Limpets SEA-SHELLS. 101 large and small ; and that strange compound shell composed of eight plates, the Chiton, in- cluded by Dr. Woodward among the Mollusca. Nor must I forget the Tooth-shells (Dentaliuni), which, in our ignorance, at first we labelled " teeth of some marine animal." I shall reserve the land snails, or air-breathing molluscs, for the next chapter, as they formed a distinct branch of our museum. III. PTEROPODA. After hunting through our collection, wt could not find a single shell we could conscientiously exhibit as a representative of the wing-footed class (TTTJI/OOV, " a wing," and Pteropods. The reason, however, became clear as we read in the " Manual : " " This little group consists of animals whose entire life is passed in the open sea, far away from any shelter, save what is afforded by the floating Gulf- weed, and whose organization is specially adapted to that sphere of existence. In appear- ance and habits they strikingly resemble the IO2 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. fry of the ordinary Sea-snails, swimming like them by the vigorous flapping of a pair of fins. To the naturalist ashore they are almost unknown ; but the voyager on the great ocean meets with them where there is little else to arrest his attention, and marvels at their delicate forms and almost incredible numbers. They swarm in the tropics, and no less in Arctic seas, where by their myriads the water is discoloured for leagues. They are seen swimming at the surface in the heat of the day, as well as in the cool of the evening. ... In high latitudes they are the principal food of the whale, and of many sea-birds. Their shells are rarely drifted on shore, but abound in the fine sediment brought up by the dredge from great depths." * This description explained the absence of these fragile ocean wanderers from our collection, so we passed on to discover what illustrations it con- tained of the succeeding class. IV. BRACHIOPODA (from flpaxiw, the upper part of the arm, and TTOVG). Had it not been for one solitary specimen, this division would also have been, like the bellman's map, "a perfect and absolute blank" in our museum. The one shell which represented it was unlike any other in the whole lot, both as to shape and substance. In shape it was like an elongated spoon growing * Woodward's "Manual of the Mollusca," p. 202. SEA-SHELLS. 1 03 on a footstalk which, in its dried condition, looked like a withered tendon ; in substance it seemed made of horn rather than of shell.* By-and-by, when we began to take up geology, we looked upon this strange form with more reverence than at first, for we discovered it was one of the last lingering representatives of the family which of all shell-fish was the first to appear in creation a family which had survived every geological change which had taken place from the inconceivably remote ages when the first fossiliferous rocks in Britain were deposited, to the present day ; it was the Lingula anatina of the Indian seas. Afterwards we obtained a few other recent Brachiopoda, of which more by-and-by when we come to the fossils. V. CONCHIFERA. Why this class should alone be called " the shell-bearers " (KOJKT), " a shell," and pa), " to bear "), seeing that all the other classes, save the sixth, do the same, we did not at first understand. I suppose, however, that it is because they are bi-valve, i.e., have two shells, whereas all the others have but one. The oyster is a familiar illustration of a bivalve. In this class we found our collection could amply compensate for its meagreness in the last two ; at the same time, these Bivalves were seldom so interesting or so beautiful as the Gasteropods. * See fig. p. 167. IO4 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. The most attractive were the shells of the Pearl-oyster, which, by the way, is no oyster at all, but an Avicula ; and the Pectens, " the butterflies of the sea," of different sizes, some of most beautiful colours ; some fine Pinnae, with the byssus attached, out of which substance a pair of gloves, in the British Museum, has been /fff" Bivalves (Oysters). made. We had a splendid Ark-shell, Cockles Venuses, Mactrae, Tellens, Razor-shells, and Pholases,* whose method of boring into hard rock so long puzzled the naturalist. It is now ascertained that the animal performs the feat by rasping the rock with its shell. * See fig. p. 105. SEA-SHELLS. 105 VI. TUNICATA (tunica, "a tunic"). As crea- tures of this class have no shell whatever, either inside or out, they were not to be looked for in a general collection like ours. I suppose glass models could be made of them, but the only place to gain a good idea df them is an aquarium, where they are most in- teresting objects, and might well be taken, with- out any violent stretch of the imagination, for the pitchers of the water-fairies hung upon the walls of their deep-sea caves, save that the stream of water issuing from the orifices shows that they are sharers with ourselves of the breath of life. The study of shells is admirably calculated to edify ((zdificare) the faculty of patient, accurate obser- Pho]as . vation and comparison. The points distinguish- ing one species from another are often so minute 106 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. and delicate, as for instance, the foramina of the Brachiopods or the hinge-teeth of the Bivalves, that the habit of looking for minutest shades of difference calls forth that nicety of observation without which it is impossible to make real advance in any branch of natural science. Then, again, it sweetens geography. Distant localities will no longer appear to the schoolboy a catalogue of dry names, if they are associated with his shells. Let him be given a Paper-nautilus from Amboyna, and if he is a boy worth his salt, he will not go to bed that night until he has hunted Amboyna out in his books, and learned all he can about the island his beau- tiful treasure comes from. And I can assure him that in the course of arranging and cataloguing our shells, many a distant little island or seldom- heard-of sea became as familiar to us by name as the ponds of our own parish. The infor- mation thus acquired lies deep and indelible in the memory, while much that is obtained by painful and laborious processes fades away with disappointing swiftness. Books. There are, I believe, several useful little books introducing the subject of sea-shells to the beginner. Professor Duncan's "The Sea-Shore" (S.P.C.K.) is sure to be good, but I have not read it. Gosse's " A Year at the Shore " is SEA-SHELLS. IOJ charming ; but I should advise all beginners to start at once with Dr. Samuel Woodward's " Manual of the Mollusca." This work, as its author tells us, was six years in compiling, and it is a perfect treasury of molluscan and geo- logical knowledge. Once, when fossil-hunting in Catalonia examining, in fact, the Turritella beds of Montjuich, at Barcelona, I found a couple of Spaniards similarly engaged, and comparing their specimens with a book they carried with them. Entering into conversation with them, they showed me both fossils and book, when, to my surprise, I found the latter was the French edition of my late friend's Manual. CHAPTER XI. FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 'ORGEOUS as many of our foreign sea-shells were to look upon, we really took more interest in the humble land-shells of our own dis- trict ; for these our own eyes had discovered, our own fingers had captured, and our own observa- tion had taught us something about the manners and customs of the beings who lived in them. A calcareous district like the Cotswolds was amply provided with snails too much so, John Lynn, our gardener, thought ; but to me at that time, as well as in later life, they proved an un- failing source of interest, and the object of many a pleasant ramble among the hills and woods. When summer days are gone, summer birds departing, and summer flowers fading ; when butterflies are getting scarce, and fish ceasing to bite ; then it is that snail-hunting begins. FRESH-WATER SHELLS. IOQ In the autumn the snails have completed their year's growth, and are at their full size and beauty. One advantage of hunting for them is that it goes hand-in-hand with other pursuits, and fills up any odd time not better engaged. It gives an additional object for country walks, and you cannot go fossil-hunting or fern-hunting without being drawn into the very localities where the best land-shells are found. Some- times, too, when travelling, if one has to wait at some out-of-the-way junction or station, the time passes more quickly and profitably if spent in a search in some neighbouring lane or pond for molluscs, than in dawdling upon the platform, reading the advertisements. The science of snails is not difficult. They lie in two self-evident divisions A, the water molluscs, and B, the land molluscs. A. The first class of the fresh-water shell- fish belongs to the Conchifera, or Bivalves ; the second to the Gasteropoda, or Univalves. The former are further arranged in three families : I., the Cycladidae (Sphaeriidae of Scopoli) both terms referring to the subglobular form of the shell ; II., the Unionidae, or fresh-water Mussels ; III., the Dreissenidae. I. CYCLADIDAE. No one need have any difficulty in. finding the Horn-coloured Cyclas (Cyclas cornea) ; the difficulty would rather be to 110 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. find a pond or stream which does not contain it. The Capped Gyclas (Cyclas lacustris) is almost as common, and in confinement it has been observed to sink from the surface of the water to the bottom, " not suddenly, but gradually, as if it were lowering itself by a thread attached to the surface of the water." In fact, it appears to be a family feature of the Cycladidae to spin a thread or filament in order to moor themselves to the water plants among which they spend their lives. Sometimes, when looking for a Cyclas, which is about half an inch long, one meets with a shell of much the same appear- ance, only about half the size. This is the Pea- shell (Pisidium), a division of the Cyclas family, of which there are six British species ; the dis- tinction between the two genera being that Cyclas has only one respiratory syphon, while Pisidium has two. II. UNIONID.E. The shells of Unios, and the closely allied Anodons, made a grand show in our museum, especially those of the Swan-mussel, which is sometimes eight or even more inches in breadth, and from four to five inches long. The interior has all the charming iridescence of mother-of-pearl. One of the Unios, Unio mar- garitifertis, is the Pearl-oyster of Britain : it is, however, a northern species, and we never recognized it in Gloucestershire. Bede, in the FRESH-WATER SHELLS. Ill description of Britain with which he prefaces his " Ecclesiastical History," says of our island : " It has the greatest plenty of salmon and eels; seals are also frequently taken, and dolphins, as also whales ; besides many sorts of shell-fish, such as muscles, in which are often found excellent pearls of all colours red, purple, violet, and green, but mostly white. There is also a great abundance of cockles, of which the scarlet dye is made ; a most beautiful colour, which never fades with the heat of the sun or the washing of the rain, but the older it is, the more beautiful it be- comes." * We can only conclude either that the true breed of these muscles was exterminated for want of an Anglo-Saxon " Pearl Preservation Society," and met the fate which threatens our own prized " natives," or that we have lost the art of producing "excellent pearls," for British pearls nowadays are not worth the fishing for. III. DREISSENID.E. This family, named after M. Dreissens, a Belgian druggist, has only one representative in this part of the world, but that one is a tyrant and usurper. He has come and quartered himself upon us without the slightest invitation, having got his passage from Eastern Europe by some low, underhand contrivance. It is believed that he came as a stowaway in a timber ship, and having once obtained a * Bede's "Eccl. Hist.," Bk. I. ch. i. (Bohn's translation). 112 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. footing in our docks and canals, has treated them as if they were exclusively his own. As the presence of this invader was not noticed till the year 1824, it may be his migration took place shortly before that period ; but once arrived, he proceeded to colonize the country he had usurped with the utmost alacrity. By 1833 he had pene- trated into Scotland, four years later had got as far west as Birmingham, and then may be said to have fairly conquered Britain. Not content with lining the beds and sides of our canals and reservoirs a liberty which might have been pardoned, seeing it did no great harm to any one he must needs intrude into the very water-pipes and cisterns, and has even been found in the streets of London after they have been flushed with water from the New River.* The only invasion which can at all be compared with this is that of the infamous Canadian Water- weed, Anacharis alsinastrum, which, introduced as an honoured guest into our aquaria, pro- ceeded to choke up our canals and ponds, and make itself a national nuisance. B. The second class of our fresh-water shell- fish belongs, as I said, to the Gasteropoda, or Univalves, and is arranged in two orders (a the Comb-gilled (Pectinibranchiates), and (b) the Lung-gilled molluscs (Pulmonobranchiates). * Jeffrey's "British Conchology," vol. i. p. 48. FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 113 (a) I. Of the former there are three families the Nerites (Neritida), the Marsh-shells (Paludi- nide> " fish," aavpa, " a lizard ") at full paddle power, opening his terrific jaws to snap up some luck- less Ganoid which he had marked for his prey ; or the sight of the Plesiosaurus (7rXr/a through an aperture (foramen) in which passes the cable, or byssus, by which they moor themselves to rocks. Appearing 168 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. first in the Lower Silurians, they became the prevailing form of shell-fish * throughout the Palaeozoic age ; holding a conspicuous place in the Mesozoic, where some species attained a large size ; flourishing in the days of the Chalk ; after which the family is suddenly reduced in circumstances but not extinguished, for at the present day two species are still brought up by the deep-sea dredge the one in the Arctic seas, the other off New Zealand. Dr. Woodward numbered the fossil species at two hundred and fifty, and more have been ascertained since his Manual was written. The Rhynconella psitta- cea, in our museum, is a black shell, and, like the Lingula, Discina, Crania, and Terebratula, which have survived a long series of geological changes, of a horny consistency, Although not starting in the race of existence so early as the Lingulas and Rhynconellas, the Terebratulas are a more showy family, dating from the Devonian age, attaining a vast variety of size and form, very possibly of colouring also, during the whole of the Secondary period ; attaining in the Oolites an extraordinary beauty of pattern ; while the Terebratula grandis of the Crag is as long though not so deep as a Hen's egg. Two - or three species still exist, one of * Although I use this popular term, I am perfectly aware that no mollusc ought properly to be called a fish. FOSSILS. 169 which, the Terebratula caput-serpentis, was kindly given us by Dr. Woodward himself. Of the Cranias and Discinas, both extending from the Lower Silurian ages to the present, we had a few specimens, but their flat, scaly shells are not conspicuous, while in numerical force they are very inferior to the three extensive families I have been speaking of. Our aim, then, became latterly solely to collect these three the Lingulas, Rhynconellas, and Terebratulas and by exchanges, and now and then a purchase, we were able to form an interesting series. The recent species vve had of course to buy, and, placing them at the head of each series, traced the family back in order of time as far as possible. Thus the recent shells gained a tenfold interest by being ex- hibited as living representatives of families which dated so far back in time ; and from a study of these present forms we were enabled to form a better conception of the past. Of course in a large museum every family of shells might be thus displayed, thus abolishing the ordinary divorce between the past and pre- sent ; and enabling us to read, on a large and complete scale, the present with the past, and to judge of the extinct by the recent. I/O THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM RECENT AND FOSSIL BRACHIOPODA IN OUR MUSEUM. I . Terebratula. Terebratula caput-serpentis British Seas Southern Ocean Coralline and Red Crag Lower Greensand Ditto Ditto Upper Chalk Cornbrash Bradford Clay Great Oolite Inferior Oolite Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Middle Lias Ditto Ditto Carboniferous Limestone Devonian sella oblonga , lachrymosa cornea obovata impressa plicata perovalis quadrifida cornuta virgoides ,... hastata . 2. Rhynconella. Rhynconella psittacea octoplicata concinna serrata..., Lycettii perovalis plicatella tetrahedra . subtetrahedra... . acuta .. spmosa ... inconstans acuminata pugnus ... Greenland Upper Chalk Great Oolite Inferior Oolite Ditto Ditto Ditto Middle Lias Ditto Ditto Ditto Lower Lias Carboniferous Limestone Ditto FOSSILS. I/I Rbynconella latecosta ... nucula Wilsoni borealis Strickland! Lewisii lacunosa deflexa cuneata Salteri Buchii Barrandii nasuta Middle Devonian Upper Ludlow Aymestry Limestone Wenlock Limestone Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Woolhope Limestone Caradoc 3. Discina. Discina lamellosa reflexa nitida - rugosa rugata . Recent seas Upper Lias sands Coal measures Upper Ludlow Wenlock Shale Forbesii I Wenlock Limestone 4. Lingula. Lingula anatina . Beanii mytiloides cornea Lewisii . parallela . Ramsayi . pygmsea . Davisii . East Indian seas Upper Lias sands Coal measures Lower Devonian and Upper Ludlow Aymestry Limestone Llandovery Sandstone Llandeilo Upper Lingula Flags Lingula Flags Besides several species in each family which \ve had difficulty in getting named. One species from the Holly-bush sandstone of Malvern still remains undescribed. 1-J2 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Books. Professor Page's " Handbook of Geo- logy " is the best for beginners. The Rev. T. G. Sonny's "Manual of Geology" (S.P.C.K.), though more elementary, is very good, and only costs one shilling. Then get Lyell's " Elements of Geology " for a more extended view of the whole subject. Most students will naturally turn their attention more particularly to the forma- tion of their own neighbourhood, which will ren- der works on particular systems or formations necessary, such as Murchison's " Siluria." CHAPTER XV. MINERALS. BEFORE the " Gallery of Nature " had thrown such a wonderful light upon our fossils, we used to regard our minerals with no small pride and satisfaction. It is true we did not know any- thing about them beyond their names, but they were all more or less pretty. Some indeed, like the copper ores, were exceedingly showy, and therefore we gave them a conspicuous place in our museum, where they filled up three or four shelves. But when the above-mentioned book revealed to us the wonder and the mystery of fossils, the minerals soon sank to a secondary- place in our affections. We found them want- ing in just that very particular which gave so absorbing an interest to fossils, they had no life-story to tell. They might be pretty and showy, they might represent many and most im- 1/4 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. portant branches of commerce and industry ; but for all that, a Trilobite which had actually crept along the bottom of the primeval ocean, a Lin- gula or Rhynconella which had been engaged in the struggle for a place in the world in the very twilight of the earth's creative morning, and whose descendants had maintained it through all the vicissitudes of geological time to the present hour ; a Fern that had actually formed a part of the wondrous picture we loved to draw in imagination of the tangled swamps of the Carboniferous age, was fraught with a far in- tenser interest than the most gorgeous mineral which had never drawn the sacred breath of life. Our eldest brother, from whom we inherited a collection of butterflies, had also left a small cabinet of minerals ; and when we began to form our museum, we found them a valuable addition by way of making a display. After- wards, when in London, we sometimes attended the sales at Messrs. Stevens's auction-rooms, where, for a small investment, we often secured a lot which filled our pockets with minerals and our hearts with joy. When we began to collect fossils in earnest, we never neglected to bring home specimens of all the rocks we met with in our explorations, in order to become familiar with the various forma- tions we read of in geological books. These MINERALS. 175 were arranged in two divisions : the igneous and the aqueous, or unstratified and stratified those which had been ejected from the bowels of the earth by volcanic agency, and those which had been formed by the accumulation of sediment at the bottom of the sea. In the first of these groups we put granite, both red and white, choosing such specimens as exhibited most distinctly the three minerals, quartz, felspar, and mica, of which it is com- posed. It is the peculiar colouring of the felspar which gives the warm rich hue to red granite. Syenite, so named from Syene, in Upper Egypt, is a species of granite in which hornblende takes the place of mica. The Malvern Hills are com posed of it, and from that locality we obtained many beautiful specimens, some of them coated with greenish epidote. Of other rocks of a kindred nature, we had diorite, or greenstone, the ornamental serpentine from Cornwall, and, hardest of all, porphyry ; also felspar, both in its crystallized and decomposed states. In the latter it is called kaoline, and is the substance of which porcelain is made. Our specimen was given us in the porcelain manufactory at Wor- cester, where it may be seen in every stage of its transformation, passing from friable rock to powder, from powder to mud, from mud to clay, from clay to porcelain. The name kaoline 1/6 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. is said to be the English equivalent of the Chinese word kanling, = a high ridge, the name of a hill where the porcelain clay is dug. Basalt, a remarkably hard and compact rock, sometimes assumes, when cooling, a columnar appearance, forming, that is, huge crystals, as may be seen at the Giant's Causeway, Staffa, and also on a smaller scale near Dudley. Sometimes the stream of molten basalt forced its way through the sedimentary formations in veins, causing singular changes in the strata. Near Dudley there is, or was some few years ago, a remarkable illustration of the effect of an intrusion of basalt into a mass of coal. Wher- ever the molten stream had touched the coal, it had converted it into coke, and the basalt itself had assumed a white colour, as though, in de- stroying the coal, it had destroyed itself. A specimen illustrating this is in my cabinet. Of the sedimentary or aqueous rocks, the first group comprises what are called meta- morphic rocks, that is, those which, although of sedimentary origin, have been so changed by heat and other causes, as to appear as hard and crystalline as those of true volcanic origin. Of these we had specimens of gneiss, mica, slate, and marble. Pure white marble cer- tainly does not look as if it had once been mud, but that it was there is no doubt. It has been MINERALS. 177 purified and changed by fire and other agencies. Surely this is one of the parables of nature ! Of sandstones we had specimens of the Cara- doc, the Old Red or Devonian, Millstone grit, New Red or Trias, and Greensand, which latter owes both its colour and name to the presence in its composition of green particles of sand of a chloride mineral. We had also examples of Conglomerates, that is, of rocks formed, not of sand, but of pebbles compacted together. When these pebbles are small the mass is called Con- glomerate ; when large and water- worn, Pudding- stone', when angular, Breccia. Limestones occur throughout the whole geo- logical series, and their family feature is the presence of carbonate of lime. Our museum contained specimens from the Llandeilo, Wen- lock, Aymestry, Carboniferous, Oolitic, and Eocene formations. In addition to these, we had several sorts of Coal Anthracite, or non- bitumenous coal ; Peacock-coal, showing iri- descent colours ; Cannel-coal, so compact that it can be turned in the lathe, and made into ornamental articles ; Curly Cannel ; Lignite, or vegetable matter only partly mineralized, from the Miocene beds of Bovey Tracey ; Common Coal ; Bitumen ; a bottle of that mysterious liquid, Petroleum ; and the small part of the branch of a tree converted into jet. Also a piece N 1/8 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. of Amber a fossilized vegetable gum with an insect in it. All these were included under the general term " rock specimens," forming a sort of neutral ground between fossils and minerals. But it was when we began to arrange and classify minerals proper that our difficulties began. To understand them thoroughly you must know not only chemistry, but also the intricate science of crystallography, of both which subjects we were profoundly ignorant. Notwithstanding, we managed to fill a quantity of paper trays with illustrative specimens. Beginning with the metals, there was a string of Native Copper, like a miniature cluster of grapes; a flat piece of the same metal from that wonderful district on the southern shores of Lake Superior, where the veiy rocks seem in places turned into copper too mas- sive and tough to be worked ; Red Oxide, or Ruby Copper, and Black Oxide ; Cuprite ; some beautiful pieces of Malachite, or Green Carbon- ate of Copper, for which Russia is so famous, both the solid or botryoidal and the fibrous varieties ; and also Azurite, or Blue Malachite a most beautiful mineral. Together with these were the Arseniates and Phosphates of Copper, Olivenite, Copper Glance, Copper Py- rites, and Tennantitc. MINERALS. 179 Of Tin the chief attraction for visitors which this island of ours seems to have had in early times we had some Black Crystals, Pyrites, and Cassiterite, or Tin-stone, from the Cornish mines. Then came Bismuth, used in making solder, because it melts sooner than any other metal ; the showy Arseniate of Cobalt ; then Zinc- blende ; Cadmium, a mineral often associated with Zinc ; and the common variety of Calamine, or Carbonate of Zinc. After these, ores of Manganese and Antimony, both white and red the latter a very pretty mineral, looking like tufts of the finest hair. Our specimens of the precious metals were limited to a little Gold sand, a small string of Native Silver, and some grains of Platinum the heaviest known substance. Of Lead we possessed several pieces of Galena (Sulphide of Lead), showing its remarkable crystallization ; and some Minium, or Red Oxide of Lead. Of Iron, Pyrites ; Magnetic Iron ore ; Haematite, or Red Iron ore ; Pisolitic Iron ore ; common Iron-stone from the Car- boniferous formation ; and some Iron ore show- ing a crystalline structure. After the metals came a specimen of Native Sulphur from Vesuvius ; Gypsum from Stafford- shire, including the finer variety known as Ala- 180 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. baster, Selenite or Crystallized Gypsum (Hydrous Sulphate of Lime), and Fibrous Gypsum or Satin Spar ; then Barytes, or Heavy Spar ; Fluor Spar a beautiful group of large cubic crystals ; Fluor Spar. Calcite, or Calcareous Spar ; Stalactites and Stalagmite, the residuum of infiltration of water through calcareous soil (at Gibraltar, where ornaments are made of it, they call it " congealed water ") ; and Aragonite, a prismatic species of Carbonate of Lime. Next in order came Rock- crystal a very pure piece from Switzerland ; Quartz, Smoky Quartz ; and a specimen of that lovely stone Rose Quartz, showing the most delicate blush-rose colour (I well remember our picking it up in an old muddle-shop near Drury Lane) ; also Chalcedony, Carnelian, and a beau- tiful series of Agates, which we found on the beach at Brighton, including what the Brighton lapidaries call Landscape, Moss, Sand Agates, MINERALS. l8l and Madrepores ; also Jasper and Blood-stone the latter deriving its name, so it is said, not from its blood-red markings, but from the power which was once attributed to it of staunching blood. Our show of precious stones, as may be guessed, was not extensive ; comprising, in fact, only a Topaz in the rough ; a crystal of Emerald ; a piece of rock containing the very rare and beautiful crystals of Dioptase, (only found, I believe, in the Kirghese Steppes, Siberia) ; Garnets ; and a group of crystals of Amethyst Garnets. (from a, " not," /w0uw, " to be intoxicated," the gem being supposed to possess power to prevent intoxication). Among other anhydrous silicates, as they are technically called, we had examples of Labrador or Refracting Spar ; Obsidian, or Volcanic Glass, looking like a chip off the bottom of a black wine-bottle ; Lapis-lazuli, one of the most lovely blues in nature, and from which that most expensive of paints, ultramarine, is made. Its value is about five guineas the ounce, but 1 82 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. happily, the artificial ultramarine, price sixpence per ounce, does well enough for most purposes. Then came Mica, Epidote, crystals of Augite, Hornblende, and that peculiar substance called Asbestos (from a, " not," afitwvfu, " to ex- tinguish "). Few persons, seeing it for the first time, would take it for a mineral, as it is more like fibrous wood, or compressed hair. The Asbestos. Chinese, so Dana says, considered Asbestos cloth to have been manufactured of the hair of " cer- tain rats that lived in the flames of certain volcanoes." One can only surmise that these " certain rats " must have lived upon toasted cheese, and were hunted with fire-dogs. Still, for all that, rat-hunting in the interior of a volcano must be warm work ! Last of all, as examples of Hydrous Silicates, we had Talc in plates, Chlorite, Steatite or Soap-stone, and Heulandite bought, by the way, at a sale of Mr. Heuland's minerals. Such was our display of mineral specimens ; not very extensive, it is true, but at the same time it taught us things which perhaps we could not MINERALS. 183 have learned otherwise. We learned to regard, with admiration and reverence, the inorganic things of the earth, as fossils taught us to regard the organic ; to realize that there was a world of beauty in the depths of the earth as well as on its surface, although of another description ; but perhaps the lesson which impressed us most was the inexplicable wonder of the instinct of matter. The instinct of mind, or organized living creatures, is wonderful enough ; but, really I think what I must call perhaps very unscien- tifically the instinct of inorganic substances, is more mysterious still. For example, why should one substance in- variably assume the form of crystals of one form, and another substance a different one ? What is there in the nature of Fluor Spar to make its crystals have their opposite sides and angles equal ? Why, if Columnar Basalt is fused, as has been proved by experiment, should it, cooling, return to its prismatic form ? Why should some minerals insist on having a square prism as their base ? In fact, what is the instinct of matter which has laid down and cannot dis- obey the laws of crystallization ? These are marvels and mysteries which throw a wonderful charm about the study of minerals, although they may not, like the fossils, have been fellow-sharers with ourselves of the breath of life. 1 84 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Books. " Mineralogy," by James Dana, A.M., one of Weale's Rudimentary Series, price two shillings, is an admirable introduction to the study of minerals. Sir Charles Lycll's "Ele- ments of Geology " is more useful for an ex- planation of rocks. "Manual of Mineralogy" (S.P.C.K.). " In Search of Minerals " (S.P.C.K.). " Crystallography," by Henry Palin Gurney, M.A. (S.P.C.K.), is amply illustrated with wood- cuts, and forms a trustworthy guide to the study of crystals. CHAPTER XVI. AUTOGRAPHS. course of time a small collection of autographs formed part of our museum. First one friend offered us a few, then another; and, since we never refused anything, we got a book, folio size, with blank leaves, into which we put them, and thus, by degrees, we obtained nearly a hun- dred, some being of no inconsiderable interest. It seemed to give a greater distinctness to .the celebrated personages we met with in history, or read of in the papers, to see what their own hands had written. And in reading letters written by men who have made their names immortal, one seems to be admitted almost into their presence, to hear their voice, and see their face. When in London, we loved to mingle with the crowd that was always gathered before the 1 86 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. autograph cases of the British Museum, and gazed with wondering curiosity upon the " marks " of the great Saxon and Norman kings. There was William the Conqueror's, who could use his sword better than his pen ; another " W m -" written by the hand that wrote "Othello; " young Edward the Sixth's diary ; Nelson's rough draft of the plan of the battle just commencing off the cliffs of Trafalgar ; and many another treasure forming an actual part of the history of England ! In contemplating these and other letters bearing the great names in literature, it is impossible not to feel one's self nearer the writers than if one only read the same things in print. Once we summoned up courage to enter the mysterious private recesses of the Library, and asked to be shown the Rowley Manuscripts, in poor Chatterton's writing. One thing, indeed, always struck us when in the British Museum, and that was the wonderful kindness and courtesy we invariably met with from the officials of the various departments. No matter what our errand was whether to ask the name of some rubbishy coin we had picked up, or of some common fossil or insignificant insect had we been young princes we could not have received greater consideration and courtesy. Sometimes the gentleman whom we favoured with our little inquiries would take us from case AUTOGRAPHS. 1 87 to case, from specimen to specimen, teaching us more in one delightful hour than we could have learned from a month of reading ; in fact, very often teaching us what was not at the time to be found in any book at all. But to return to our autographs. We had an official document, signed top and bottom with " Charles P. ; " that is, so we concluded, Charles II. Also three or four signatures of George III. to state papers of different dates ; and it was melancholy to see the difference between the poor, weak autograph written during his malady, and the grand, bold, king-like " George R." of an earlier and happier date. These were all our royal autographs. Of the poets we had only two, one of them being a franked envelope of Byron. Among other franks we had Sir G. C. Lewis, Sir Hans Sloane, Lord Brougham, the great Duke of Wellington, besides a host of titled nobodies. The following is a slip in the neat, clear hand of the celebrated Dr. Parr : " There is one Fault in George's Latinity, for Qtiando is never reflexive. We may begin a Sentence with Quando, but we cannot say, 'dies,' or ' Tempus quando.' Lowth, in his famous Verses on the Death of his Daughter, has fallen into this Error : " 'Quando iterum tecum.' etc." 1 88 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. The following invitation to dinner, in the hand- writing of John Wilkes, is, to say the least, out of the common : " I do not like either of the bow-zvood children the elder is too grave, the younger is too wicked, and has forgotten all the promised subscriptions to the Sunday schools at Ken- sington Gore. He has forgotten even the orthography of the celestial seats above, and talks only of a safe haven, where I shall never see him, and therefore would make much of him here below, and in consequence expect him to dine next Sunday at the Gore, between three and four. "thursday, Nov. 16." We had found, amongst a lot of old papers which had been given us, some amusing manu- scripts of Sir Joseph Jekyll, who was Master of the Rolls, if I recollect right, in the early part of the present century. Here is one : "ON MR. GREENWOOD'S GREEN DOOR IN SOUTH AUDLEY SQUARE. " To tell a Man's Door by inscribing his Name Was a Custom establish'd of yore, But my Friend has contrived with his Green and his Wood How to tell a Man's Name by his Door. " J. J-" AUTOGRAPHS. l8q Another is entitled "A FAMILY DINNER. " Tho' thy Dinner, dear Viscount, was shabby enough, Part ragged, part raw, part rotten, part tough ; Tho' thy small single Fish, well accustom'd to Shore, Hath not seen the blue Sea for a fortnight or more ; Tho' thy Lamb was as green as the Grass it had fed on, M And thy Beef had an Odour enough to have sped one ; Tho' thy Cutlets were cut from some dropsical Cow, And thy Cook had not heated the Carrion quite through ; Tho' thy Pickles were sweet, tho' thy Cheese it was mited, Tho' thy Wind-Falls call'd ' Peaches ' the Pigs would have slighted ; I never enjoyed a more exquisite Treat ; Thy Wit made such ample amends for thy Meat. " "ON A LADY AT BATH DETECTED IN STEALING A BULBOUS ROOT. " For love of plants, which has the juster claim Darwin the Bard, or Bath's light- finger'd dame ? Decide the cause, Judge Botany, we pray Be his thy Laurel, and be her's thy Bay ! " But this is the wittiest : " When I was confined to my Room at Paulton's last Month by the Gout, and my Nephew to his Bed by Illness ; we could not meet. J. J. " Willy, severe and tantalizing is it When Neighbour Toe and Neighbour Hip can't visit 1 Two Bipeds make a Quadruped a Bore When Quadrupeds have not one Leg in four 1 " The Chelsea Pensioner at Martial Ease Gets Shade and Legs from his Horse-Chestnut Trees, IQO THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. The Greenwich Pensioner on Oaken Stumps, Like Witherington displays no doleful Dumps, Laughs at the long-lost Leg and Timber-Toe And quids the King's Tobacco ' Quid pro Quo.' Then why should you and I, dear Will, look glum, Tho' left, as Lilly sings, Supine in uui ? " Ye Shades of Paulton's, Beeches, Larches, Oaks ! Why do you treat two Cripples with a Hoax ? Within your Bark lie Legs commode and fair ' To waste their Toughness on the Desart Air ; ' How many useless Limbs you wave on high, . For fifty Hospitals a full Supply ! Useless are Legs to you who never stalk A single Step from old Lord Mendip's Walk. " Useless are Arms to you who ne'er indite The tuneless Trash that Album Poets write. Ohj would your Nymphs afford one decent Crutch Such as the Belgians found would bang the Dutch, Or lend me but one pair of decent Pegs To run as well as did those Dutchmen's Legs, I'd build an Altar in each sacred Grove The Haunt that /ifowpshire /fawadryads love Where they their Bacon cure, and gaily rove : Ten Legs of Pork the Sacrifice should be To Nymphs who granted but one Pair to Me ! " In the same handwriting is a table, which possesses considerable interest as showing the oratorical merits of the principal statesmen at a critical period of Parliamentary history only six years before the passing of the first Reform Bill. AUTOGRAPHS. 191 SCALE OF SPEAKEES IN PARLIAMENT, SEPT., 1826. B ^ B B 9 "SK g v. "- bo V- O .3 B ormat 1 M B "II .3 'I i Forte. a rt B G ^ AH o '" W i i u Lord Lansdowne 3 X X X Statement 3 Lord Liverpool 5 Lord Lauderdale 2 X X X X X X X z Statement 5 Attack 2 x x x X X x __ Philippic! 6 Lord Holland ... 3 X X X Pleasantry 3 Lord Harrowby 4 X X X X _ Precision 4 Lord Carnarvon 2 X X Energy 2 , x x x x x x Peel 6 x X X X x X Arrangement 3 x X X X x X X Statistics 6 x X X x Philippic 4 Macintosh 4 X X x X Perspicuity 4 x x X x X 2 3 7 14 14 6 7 4 / | Melville ) 1 Lords < Bathurst > Mediocrity I Sidmouth Defective Lords Lords Damley Calthorpe Westmoreland King j Dulness J Vulgarity It would seem from this table, evidently carefully prepared by one familiar with Parlia- mentary life, that the two indispensable requi- sites for an orator are information and argument. Whatever else the great statesmen of that day might lack, they all possessed these two. Next in importance are enunciation and conciliation, both of which, however, Lord Brougham is described as wanting. Only six have marks for special eloquence. The following letter of the Hon. Thomas Erskine, afterwards Lord Chancellor of England, 1 92 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. upon the death of his wife,* is very touching It has neither address nor signature : " Your affectionate letter found me upon the bed of misery. Tho' her health was, to the view of others, plainly upon the decline, God, for some inscrutable reason, never permitted me to see it, or even to consider it as a possible event ; so that it fell upon me like a stroke of thunder, but unhappily not with its mortal effect, for it has left me living. I can say nothing of what I feel ; language has nothing that can touch it or approach it. Her whole soul was devoted to me in a manner quite unutterable. If she fell short in anything towards others, it was because there was no room in her mind for anything but me. I engrossed all her whole being, and it was my duty to have given up the world and all its con- cerns, and have lived only for her. But ' she knew, thank God, how truly I loved her, and I hope is able to see at this moment how impos- sible it is that I can ever be happy without her. I am afraid you will not be able to read what I have written. Remember me kindly to Mrs. and your worthy host. " Lincoln's Inn Fields, " Sunday, Dec r - 29 th , 1805." * Frances, daughter of Daniel Moore*, Esq., M.P. She died December 22, 1805. AUTOGRAPHS. 193 How thoroughly characteristic of the man's loving nature is the following ! MY DEAR , No man ever was more affectionately attached to you than I am. That you may de- pend on. If you are at Chambers to-morrow, call upon me ; if not, I will come to you on my way from Buckingham House, about three. " Yours most faithfully, "T. ERSKIXE. "Feb r -6, 1806."* The following is the transcript of a letter in an official hand, but signed by James Stanhope, Secretary of State, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the reign of George I. : "Whitehall, Jan. 23, lyijj. "S r> "I receiv'd yesterday by a flying Pacquett, the favour of your letter of the 18, with my Lord Southerland's letter to yourself. I have laid yours before the King, who is very well satisfied with your great zeal and application in his service, and very glad to hear that all the necessary preparations for the Execution of your project are in such forwardness. Having nothing at this time in Command from his Maj ty , I am * Two months before his elevation to the peerage. O 194 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. only to wish you all possible success, and that nothing may fall in to obstruct our receiving good news from your parts. " You will have see his Maj ty ' 3 speech to both houses, and their warm and vigourous re- solution upon it. In persuance of which such orders are given for augmenting the Number of forces both here and in Ireland, as We hope will be sufficient to defeat the designs of the Pre- tender's friends in either of these Countries. "The King approves of what the E. of Southeriand has done in relation to Seaforth, whose submission is accepted of, provided he surrender himself at Inverness, and remain there upon his parole, of which by his Maj tles orders I have writt to the Earl of Southeriand. " I am, Sir, " With great haste, "Your most faithful humble serv*' "JAMES STANHOPE." The following letter from the poet Campbell, on his rheumatism, is amusing : " Clarence Club, " 29th Dec r , 1840. "Mv DEAR AYRTON, " It would give me the greatest plea- sure to dine with you but my Doctor has strictly forbidden me to be out after dark. Every time AUTOGRAPHS. 195 I have disobey'd this injunction my rheumatism has got worse. Of late I have taken more care of myself and I have reduced a rheumatic com- plaint which was once up to the scorching point first of all down to the groaning and now at last down to the grunting point or pig rheumatism. "Wishing however to eschew even grunting and walk only by daylight, " With best regards to all at home, " Yours very truly, " THOMAS CAMPBELL." Everything connected with Mendelssohn is so interesting, that, scrap as it is, we set great store on the following conclusion of a letter to William Horsley, the celebrated composer. It is written in a beautifully neat and clear hand, very like that of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, of Brighton : "With a thousand wishes for your and the whole family's health and happiness, " F. M. B." The last copy which I shall make from our autographical curiosities will be read with more interest than any of the others. We bought it at the sale of the Nelson correspondence by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, April, 1853. It is the only autograph we ever bought, and cost 196 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. us eight and sixpence. It is the latter half of a letter, addressed "Lady Hamilton, "Merton, " Nelson and Bronte. Surry." and runs as follows : "however, what I have will be certain. I am glad Haslewood has rented Merton farm to Linton for another year it will give me time to think about my own affairs for God knows I have never done that justice to myself which I ought all my time and thoughts have been for the Public. I have not been so well as usual these several days past and I sincerely hope my successor is upon his rout for if they force me to stay here the Winter I shall certainly go home instead of coming out in the Spring, but a Spanish War which I fear it will be will produce plenty of Candidates. I think Lord Keith will try. God Bless you my Dearest beloved Emma. Kiss dear H a for me. " Ever for ever, " Yours most faithfully and affectionat 7 ' " NELSON and BRONTE." I need say nothing more about autographs ; but I can assure any one who wishes to make a collection, that in getting up the history and AUTOGRAPHS. 197 lives of the celebrities whose writing he may acquire, he will be taught many things he might never learn any other way, and will find it a delightful way of increasing his store of general information. CHAPTER XVII. POSTAGE STAMPS. T was not until long after all the other departments of our little museum were formed that a corner was made for postage stamps, and perhaps they would never have been added at all had I not happened to pick up for fifteen pence at an old book-stall, Oppen's " Postage-Stamp Album," very fairly furnished. The mania for collecting stamps is quite a thing of late years, but if intelligently indulged in, may be made the vehicle for conveying a good deal of information. It is the easiest and pleasantest way of acquiring a knowledge of contemporary history and geography, and if a collection of the coinage current in the various countries from which the stamps issue accompany the album, the gain will be all the greater. Of coins I shall have something to say in the next POSTAGE STAMPS. 199 chapter, but as our collection did not include many foreign ones, I may take this occasion of mentioning that they are very useful on two accounts : first, by giving one a nearer ac- quaintance with European and other rulers ; and, secondly, by making one familiar with foreign currency a very necessary branch of information when one comes to travel. Foreign coins are easily obtained ; everybody who goes abroad generally has some on his return, and is pleased to give them to any lad who will value and make an intelligent use of them. With a few examples of the money and the stamps of each country, it is impossible not to gain some acquaintance with its history and geography. Postage stamps, I need hardly say, are of very modern invention. They were first issued in London on the loth of January, 1840, and for ten years were only used in England. They were adopted in France on the ist of January, 1849 ; the Tour and Taxis Office introduced them into Germany in the following year ; and they are now used in at least sixty-nine countries or states in Europe, nine in Africa, five in Asia, thirty- six in America, and ten in Oceania. More than fifty different stamps may . be counted in the United States. Tasmania possesses its own ; also Hayti, Natal, Honolulu, and Siberia. The best way to arrange stamps in order to 200 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. extract the most information from them is to get Oppen's inexpensive Album, and aim at filling it up. At the same time, they are not things to spend much money upon. Do it by exchanges. People are always pleased to give boys and girls the stamps off their foreign letters, and most boys have schoolfellows whose fathers have correspondents abroad, and no father will refuse to save the empty envelopes for his son or his son's friend. Never refuse duplicates of stamps, or of anything else you may be collecting, as they are always useful for exchanges. As you go on filling up your album, collect all the main facts of each country or state as it comes before your notice. Look it out in the map, and if you have a coin of it as well, try to understand it especially the meaning of the arms, if any, on the reverse. In this way geography will lose that dryness which it must inevitably have for every schoolboy, if it consist merely of a string of strange names and unre- memberable dates. CHAPTER XVIII. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. T is no great wonder that we early imbibed a passion for antiquities ; the wonder would have been had we not done so, seeing that Wood- chester was itself classic ground. The remains of one of the finest Roman villas ever discovered were the pride of the parish, and traces of the conquerors' residence abounded on all sides. Well as these conquerors could choose the most advantageous situations for their camps and towns, they had an equally keen eye for the best sites for their villas and palaces. Any one who has seen Bignor or Brading must have been struck by this, and it is equally evident at Woodchester, the site there chosen being the choicest in the neighbourhood. It is a level space on the western shoulder of the wooded hills which enclose the romantic vale of Rod- borough. As you stand there, looking down on 202 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. the valley, you see the brook, which, although now tarnished and discoloured by the refuse dyes of the cloth-mills, must formerly have ap- peared from this standing-point as a sparkling thread of silver winding among the willows as sweet a spot as where the warlike god discovered poor Silvia : "umbrosse salices volucresque canorae Fecerunt somnos, et leve murmur aquae ; " Oviu, Fast., iii. 17. " Where birds invite, and warbling streams "Neath willow shades, to quiet dreams ; " while opposite rose in graceful outlines the wooded hills of Rodborough, where now stands the picturesque mansion to which the late Earl Russell retired towards the close of his busy life. On the left, beyond the present Priory, a bright little brook has worn for itself a narrow gorge between the meadows, and runs to the larger brook of the valley, prattling of the home it has just left in the upland groves ; while behind lie the sheltering beech woods of Woodchester. One can fancy the wealthy Roman, probably some successful soldier who had seen many countries, repeating to himself, as he chose this spot as the site for his villa : " Purse rivus aquas, silvaque jugerum Paucorum et segetis certa fides mese Fulgentum irnperio fertilis Africas ; Fallit corte beatior I " HORACE, Car., iii. 16. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 203 " A limpid stream a grove of modest size Prospects of plenty ; fairer far a prize Than his who rules 'neath Afric's- scorching skies ; More blest my lot ! " Here, on the very spot afterwards selected for the site of the Parish Church, one of the largest and most sumptuous villas of Roman Britain was erected. In digging the founda- tions for the Church and adjoining Priory, many remains of the villa must have been dis- covered, but they were probably regarded with superstitious horror, and immediately destroyed as heathen abominations. For, as Mr. Wright * tells us, " the early Saxons imagined that all statues and busts were implements of magic, and that the dangerous spell could only be broken by breaking them " a superstition not yet wholly departed from country places. In later times the remains seem to have attracted some attention, and Mr. Wright mentions some old drawings made on former partial openings, but it was not until Mr. Lysons took the matter in hand, that any discoveries of importance were made. The excavations undertaken by this dis- tinguished antiquary, extending from 1793 to 1796, resulted in a complete or nearly complete disinterment of the whole villa, and the bringing * See " The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., M.R.S.L., etc., from which valuable work many of the above details are taken. 204 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. to light of its beautiful mosaic pavements. It was unfortunate that the very ground covering the most important parts of the ruins should have been selected for the parish churchyard, as the village sextons have actually broken through the tesselated floor of the grand hall of the palace in digging graves. The following is Mr. Wright's picture of the general view of the villa before its fall : " It covers an area of five hundred and fifty feet by above three hundred feet. The approach was by a level platform from the south, with outbuildings on the left, if not also on the right. Here the visitor approached apparently a long dead wall, with the grand portal in the centre. On passing through the entrance gateway, he found himself in an immense court, about a hundred and fifty feet square, with masses of buildings on each side. In front of him was another gateway, which led him into a second court, ninety feet square, surrounded on three sides by a gallery, or, as the ancients called it, cryptoporticus, which was, no doubt, either closed in, or capable of being closed in, as the hypocausts * under it show that it was intended to be warmed. Opposite the gate by which the visitor entered was probably another portal, that led him * I.e., flues. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 205 through the northern cryptoporticus into the grand hall, which was decorated with every kind of ornamentation, and perhaps with a fountain or basin of water in the middle. It is possible that beyond this there was another small court, surrounded by buildings, the foundations of which lie under the churchyard and church. It is useless to attempt to give any explanation of the mass of rooms which surround these different courts. It seems reasonable to suppose that the more elegant and private apartments were those built round the inner court. The apartments round the little side court were, perhaps, as Lysons supposed, baths and rooms for purposes connected with them. Perhaps those on the other (western) side of the court were rooms for recreation and conversing, and they seem to have been adorned with sculptures, and perhaps with pictures, ornamental pottery, and plants." We had not returned to Woodchester more than two or three years, before it was announced that the Roman pavements were to be un- covered a proceeding which only took place at rare intervals, when money was wanted with more than ordinary severity for parochial purposes. ' Of course, at the disinterring of remains so extensive, so beautiful, and so historically interesting, a perfect antiquarian fever broke out and infected the whole neigh- 206 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. bourhood, and no one had it more severely than we two boys. For weeks together, while the excavations were going on, we thought and talked of nothing by day, dreamt of nothing by night, but the " pavement." All the other departments of our museum were neglected in the rage for antiquities. At school the only subject we could at all keep our minds to for five minutes together was Latin ; but in this, inasmuch as it was the language of the men who had built and inhabited the villa, we made astonishing strides that summer. Even in Bible reading our favourite chapter, Lev. xi., gave place to the Epistle to the Romans, which we diligently read, in the hopes that it would contain some allusions to the "pavement." Our spare time was no longer spent in fishing or butterfly hunting, but in observing the progress of the excavations in the churchyard, watching, as eagerly as any robin for worms, for fragments of pavement, bits of pottery, lumps of brick, or anything else which the spades of the labourers might throw up. Our dear old Rector must have had a hard time of it in answering the incessant questions with which we were teasing him ; but the good old man, who was himself no mean antiquary and scholar, fully entered into our enthusiasm, and most patiently told us all he knew. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 207 Although this was so many years ago, I can perfectly recollect the general effect when the pavements were at last fully exposed. The central point of attraction was, of course, the pavement of the great hall of the villa in the churchyard. For details I must again refer to Mr. Wright, who thus describes them : " This pavement consisted of a central circular compartment of about twenty-five feet in dia- meter, consisting of an outer border formed of a Vitruvian scroll, edged on each side by a guil- loche, and enriched with foliage proceeding from a mask of Pan, having a beard of leaves. Im- mediately within this border was a wide circular band containing representations of twelve dif- ferent animals, on a white ground, with trees and flowers between them. Within this circle was a smaller band, separated from it by a guilloche and a border of acorns, and containing representations of birds on a white ground. Among them was a figure of a fox. On the southern side was a figure of Orpheus playing on the lyre. This band was bounded internally by a twisted guilloche, and within was a central hexagon, about ten feet in diameter. This centre had been entirely destroyed long before the time of the opening of the villa by Lysons, but some old drawings, made on former partial openings, show that the field was covered with figures of 208 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. fish and sea monsters. I am inclined to think that it was a little lower than the rest of the pavement, and formed the floor of a shallow reservoir for water. The circular compartment I have been describing was inclosed in a square frame, consisting of twenty-four compartments, enriched with a great variety of guilloches, scrolls, frets, and other ornaments, edged on the inside with a braided guilloche, on the outside with a labyrinth fret, between a single fret and a braided guilloche. In the four angular spaces between the great border of this gorgeous pave- ment and the great circular compartment were the remains of female figures, two of which appear to have occupied each space : they had evidently been naiads. At the four inner corners of the square were found sufficient indications that they had once been occupied by columns, which had no doubt supported the roof, which was probably vaulted. It was found that the pavement was supported by a hypocaust, or system of flues, intended to warm the room." Besides this magnificent pavement in the churchyard, two smaller ones were uncovered in the Priory orchard, adjoining the churchyard. One of these was a representation of two boys holding up a basket of fruit and leaves, with the words BONVM EVENTVM under them, in large letters. Bonus Event^ls ) or " Good Luck," ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 2CK) was naturally a favourite god with husband- men " Eventus belli non ignarua ; " VARRO. " Not ignorant of Good Luck " and he had an altar to himself and his obviously near relative, the Goddess Fortuna so Mr. Wright tells us at Caerleon. Perhaps of all the gods and goddesses, these two have the greatest number of worshippers at the present day ! In the other pavement, filling the opposite corner of the apartment, the words completing the inscription were partly visible, though much dilapidated. Originally they were BHNH* COLITE, so that the entire sentence was "Wor- ship well Bonus Eventus." None of the other parts of the villa, extending far into the field south of the churchyard, were uncovered at the time I am speaking of : they consist merely of masonry, without any tesselated pavements to attract the interest of the public. The uncovering of these pavements enriched our museum with a variety of articles, which later on we should have thought poor rubbish, but which at the time were inestimable treasures. These were fragments of pavement, some con- taining as many as ten or twelve tesserae cemented together, and handfuls of single cubes, * The use of the Greek H for the Latin E is common in Roman inscriptions P 210 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. white, slate-coloured, and red, of sizes varying from an inch to about a quarter of an inch square ; also a piece of the inside of one of the flues, with the soot still clinging to it, looking as if it had gathered there only the day before. One of our finds was very interesting : it was a piece of brick, bearing the impression of a finger and thumb, and set one a-thinking how many ages ago had the hand which had taken up that bit of clay before it was burnt turned into dust ! Perhaps the impress of that finger the texture of the skin was exactly preserved was the only trace now remaining of some sturdy Roman brickmaker ; and yet, perhaps, even the rich lord of the villa himself has not left so much as that ! We had also many small shards of pottery, one bearing the letter R. We would have given our cars for a Roman vase the one in the rectory, for example, which was found long ago, and, as tradition said, full of coins but Roman vases are not dug up every day, even in chesters* and it was not until many years had elapsed that we actually found our- selves in possession of a pair dug up at Regnum, the modern Chichester ; and also what is far rarer, a perfect little lachrymatory of green glass, * The word Chester, which forms the ending of the names of so many places where the Romans established themselves in this country, comes to us from the Saxon ceasfer, which, in turn, is a corruption of castrtim or castra, "a camp." ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 2 1 I found near the same place. We discovered it in a curiosity shop, where it was described as a tear-bottle ; for the old idea that the vasa itn- guentaria was for bottling the tears of mourners, instead of holding perfumes, is not yet dispelled. Our only other antiquarian treasures were, so far as I can remember, something we were pleased to label " A Roman axe," and a stylus from York. Of the prehistoric period, indeed, we had a splendid flint implement and a flint arrow-head : the former was eight inches and three quarters long, and seven inches and a half round the thickest part. It was found in Sussex. Poor, however, as was the Roman department of our museum, it gave, as I said, a great zest to our study of Latin and mythology. The various figures in the mosaic pavements made Keightly sweeter than any book of fairy tales, for therein we found the stories of Pan and of Orpheus, who evidently inherited his taste for music from his mother, the sweet-voiced Calliope, and how the rivers forgot to flow, and tigers lost their savagery by the charm of his lyre affording so picturesque a subject to the designers of the old mosaic pavements. When we heard other boys say they hated Latin, we looked at them with surprise and com- passion. We loved it, and our love for it dated from the day when we first gazed in astonish- 212 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. merit and delight at the uncovered remains of the Roman villa at Woodchester. Books, "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., M.R.S.L. (Trubner and Co.), is a gold-mine of information upon the antiquities of our island. CHAPTER XIX. OUR COINS: BRITISH AND ROMAN. DID not mention our coins when speaking of Roman antiquities, as the subject deserves a chapter to itself. It was not for some con- siderable time after several other departments of our museum were begun that we were bitten by the coin mania. It happened thus. One day, as we were poking about the church- yard while a vault was being made, lying on the soil from which the turf had been removed, we espied a coin. We took it home rejoicing, washed it and scrubbed it, but could make nothing of it, save that it was a small brass or bronze, was very fairly preserved, and seemed to be Roman. As we happened to have a friend in London, an intelligent lad, and, like ourselves, fond of collecting, and who was ac- 214 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. quaintcd with Mr. Roach Smith, the celebrated antiquary, we sent our treasure to him for in- terpretation, and in due time it was returned, with a full description, announcing, to our de- light, that it was a small brass of Constantine the Great, struck at Lyons. On the obverse was the bust of the Emperor, with his name round it ; and on the reverse two Roman soldiers stand- ing on either side of an altar, with the words FLOR EXERCITVS, and some other letters. This was the foundation of our collection of coins, which in time grew to very respectable dimen- sions. Our dear friend and tutor, the Rector's youngest son, had a miscellaneous assemblage of coins, which he kept in an old sock, and on great occasions, or when we had got through our lessons earlier than usual, he would turn them out for our inspection, and, what was more to the point, give us some of the duplicates. Anything that might be given us we gratefully accepted, and before long found we had several dozens of coins of one sort or another, though the majority consisted of halfpennies and farthings from James II. downwards ; bat gradually we began to fly at higher game, and to look out for early English pennies and groats and large or first brass Roman. Coin collecting is necessarily slow work, and it was years before we got any that a practised collector would have deigned COINS. 2 1 5 to look at. Sometimes, at Messrs. Stevens's sales in London, we would buy " a speculative lot," as the auctioneer termed it, and it served our purpose well enough, for it was sure to con- tain many things we hadn't got, and duplicates were always useful for exchanges. Perhaps our entire collection, at its best, was worth very little from a money point of view ; but if it did nothing else, it taught us history, for no sooner had we acquired a fresh coin, than we never rested until we had extracted from our school books all we possibly could of the king in whose reign it was issued and how could any detail of that king's reign fail to interest us, seeing that it was connected with a face we saw every time we opened our coin drawer ? In this way each of our coins became, as it were, a nucleus round which the facts of history arranged themselves. There are two ways of looking at coins : they may either be regarded as monuments of art or as evidences of history, and it is difficult to say which is the more interesting. To examine a series of coins say, those illus- trative of English history, beginning with the rude copies from the Greek of the Britons, and passing on to the splendid first brass of Claudius, Hadrian, and Severus what a contrast is there shown between the rude art of the conquered and the splendid civilization of the conquerors ! 2l6 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. Then, as we pass to the coins of the lower empire, that is, from the reign of Gallienus, how surely is the decline of the empire reflected in the decline of the coinage, until we come to the paltry brass money of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. And when specimens of the Anglo-Saxon mint take the place of the Roman, what wretched objects of art they are, compared with pieces struck many centuries before in Greek and Roman mints ! At all events, it is a suggestive fact that the Anglo-Saxon coins improve, while those of the later Roman empire grew worse and worse. The penny of Cnut or Harold II. is a higher work of art than most of the pennies of the Heptarchy. After the Norman Conquest the coinage declined. I can- not but think that a portrait was attempted, even if not achieved, on the Anglo-Norman pennies, but from the introduction of groats in the reign of Edward III., up to the time of Henry VIL, all desire to represent the likeness of the king seems to have departed, as a thing hopeless to attempt the same stiff conventional full-faced bust doing duty for all, the noble Henry V. and the villainous Richard III. alike. But in the eighteenth year of Henry VIL (1503) art awakens ; a portrait of the sovereign again appears on the coins, and by the time of Crom- well it attained, in the hands of the celebrated BRITISH COINS. 2 1/ Thomas Simon, a perfection which no succeed- ing engraver has been able to surpass, possibly not even to equal. The other way of looking at coins the one which offered still greater attractions in our eyes is to regard them as historical evidences and witnesses of the times to which they belonged, as actually parts of history ; and the longer we collected, the deeper were we impressed by the feeling that we would confine our coins exclu- sively to such as illustrated English history only. Finding, however, that this, restricted though it was, threw open too wide and expensive a field for collecting, we reduced it still further by re- solving to keep only one coin of each reign. This we soon found was much more satisfactory than gathering together a miscellaneous assem- blage of anything or everything in the way of a coin, and set before us an end which we might well hope in time to attain. Eventually our series of coins illustrative of English history, and by which I may almost say we learned English history, lay in four divisions British, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, English. I. The British was a very small department indeed, as it never contained more than three specimens, and at last only one. These three were the generous gift of a friend in Sussex, who had spared neither expense nor trouble in 2l8 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. securing all that came to light on the neigh- bouring coast, where, from the numbers that have from time to time been discovered, it would seem that a British mint had formerly existed. They were all of gold, small in size, but wonderfully well preserved. The first, which we did not part with, was of the earliest type known, and therefore singularly appropriate for heading the series. On the obverse, or convex, side were those rude markings which numis- matists have discovered to be the imitation of a Gaulish copy of a gold stater of Philip of Macedon ; on the reverse, or concave, side was the figure of a horse, with a great star or sun above and another beneath it, and some in- describable object touching its breast. Its date may be about 1 50 B.C. The second was an in- scribed, and therefore later coin. Obverse, the letters COMF., i.e., Comii filius "the son of Comius ; " reverse, a horse and the letters TIN. The third, also inscribed, bore on the obverse side the letters TINC, i.e., Tincomius ? and on the reverse a Medusa's head. This Comius and the chief, the first four letters of whose name TINC. we are alone certain of, were apparently the con- temporaries of Caractacus, the son of Cunobeline, or, as Shakespeare spells it, Cymbeline. Accord- ing to Professor Rhys it should be spelt Cara- tacus ; and, as Mr. Wright thinks, it was through BRITISH COINS. 219 the feuds between the sons of Cunobeline and the sons of Comius in the days of Claudius (41- 54 A.D.), that Britain became an easy prey to the imperial troops under Aulus Plautius. Interest- ing as these two latter coins were, yet inasmuch as they did not bear the name or likeness of any recognized British sovereign, and, moreover, as they were worth at least two pounds each, we exchanged them for others of the series, reserving only the first and most ancient one. With these gold coins before us, more parti- cularly the earliest, the light is cast upon that well-known passage of Caesar respecting the British coinage. It runs as follows : " Utuntur aut sere, aut nummo aereo, aut taleis ferreis ad certum pondus examinatis pro nummo" ("De Bell. Gal.," v. 12) "They use either brass, or brass money or iron bars, ad- justed to a certain weight, for money." This is the reading of some manuscripts, and is adopted by Professor Long, but not without misgivings, as the awkwardness of nummo czreo coming directly after cere strikes him as it must strike others.* But instead of cereo, some manuscripts have nummo aureo, " gold coin," which certainly seems preferable, and is corroborated by the fact that * Professor Long remarks that the words attt cere seem to be unnecessary. It has been conjectured that instead of them we should read aut auro, but this reading is not supported, so far as I am aware, by any MSS. 220 THE STORY OF OUR MUSEUM. British gold coins of a date anterior to the land- ing of Caesar are actually in existence. At the same time, we must bear in mind that, at the period of the Roman Conquest, two dis- tinct races were settled in Britain the abori- ginal Celts (the short-heads), who dwelt in the interior and more remote parts ; and the more civilized Belgae (the long-heads), who had appro- priated to themselves the rich fertile districts of the south-east, where they could hold ready communication with their kinsfolk on the other side of the Channel.* Now, it is ascertained beyond doubt that the earliest British gold coins are not the work of the Celtic aborigines, but of the Belgic colonists, and that they took as their pattern copies of Greek gold struck in Gaul. So that either reading of the above famous passage is strictly consistent with what we know of the early history of our island, only if nummo