BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 603 



There was an annual fair at Banff, and in 1845 Edward resolved 

 to exhibit his collection. So he brushed up his specimens, cleaned his 

 cases, of which he had about 300, and exhibited them, or rather had 

 them placed on exhibition, at Trades Hall. He made a small charge 

 for admission, and received quite a number of visitors. It took the in- 

 habitants by surprise, and they began to understand him; his strange 

 night-wanderings having been a matter of much wonderment and mys- 

 tification to the people of the town. He got a little money and with- 

 out much expense by showing his collection, and, being very anxious 

 to turn himself in some way so as to get relief from the drudgery of 

 the shop, and acquire time and means for more devotion to his favor- 

 ite pursuits, he formed the perilous resolution of trying Aberdeen as 

 a place of exhibition. This city was the old centre of northern intel- 

 lect, cultivation, wealth, and business, with two universities, filled with 

 professors and students, and a large, intelligent, and thrifty popula- 

 tion. Edward sot his collection into six carrier's carts there beincr 

 no railroads and started out with his wife and five children July 31, 

 1846, reaching Aberdeen on the evening of the following day. He 

 took a shop, advertised, and scattered handbills. Terms of admis- 

 sion, " Ladies and gentlemen, 6(7. ; tradespeople, 3d. ; children, half 

 price." The Aberdeen Journal thus noticed the collection : " We have 

 been particularly struck with the very natural attitudes in which the 

 birds and beasts of prey are placed; some being represented as tear- 

 ing their victims, others feeding their young, and some looking side- 

 ward or backward, with an expression of the eye which indicates the 

 fear of interruption. The birds are very beautiful, and the entomo- 

 logical specimens will be found exceedingly interesting." Edward ex- 

 pected a rush, but he was disappointed. But very few persons called 

 to see the collection, and these were chiefly stuffed-bird dealers, who 

 wanted to sell him specimens, or knaves with counterfeit monstrosi- 

 ties to dispose of. Some ladies called, to consult him about sick lap- 

 dogs, diseased cats, and a broken legged pig. One gentleman wished 

 him to come and cut off the front teeth of an old and favorite rabbit, 

 as they had grown so long that he could not eat; but only very few 

 came to see the collection, and of those who did come none could be 

 made to believe that the specimens were all collected and prepared by 

 a man who had to work all day to support his family. Professors of 

 the university came and told him that the inhabitants of Aberdeen 

 were not yet prepared for an exhibition of this kind, though the read- 

 er will observe that the incorporated town was seven hundred years 

 old and contained sixty churches, while its university had been operat- 

 ing on the Aberdonian mind for two centuries and a half! The fact is 

 that, notwithstanding all its "culture," Aberdeen was no more ap- 

 preciative of a true lover of Nature than Tom Edward's teachers had 

 been ; and he went out of Aberdeen in much the same way that Begg 

 pitched him out of his shop. He got in debt, became discouraged and 



