THOMAS EDWARD. 69 



we may certainly include Thomas Edward, and I should 

 like to dwell on this portion of his life. When in 

 Aberdeen he fondly hoped and expected he would meet 

 with some appreciation of his collection, and enough 

 money to permit of his henceforward looking to natural 

 history to find bread for himself and family. To him 

 it was drawing near the Rubicon, and the future was 

 full of promise, for were not the Aberdonians about to 

 come in hundreds, and pay their money to see what it 

 had taken him years to collect ? 



Edward had taken a shop in Union Street, which is 

 now one of the finest thoroughfares in Great Britain, 

 and on a Friday, in July, 1846, the six large carriers' 

 carts, containing his collection, and also the furniture 

 of their little cottage. His patient and helpful wife, 

 with their five children, accompanied the carts, and so 

 they in this way performed the journey to Aberdeen by 

 road, at which place they safely arrived. 



He at once got them in order, and issued his hand- 

 bills and advertisements. One of the handbills stated 

 that " the objects comprising this collection have been 

 collected in the counties of Banff and Aberdeen, and 

 preserved by a single individual, and that individual a 

 journeyman shoemaker. They have been exhibited by 

 him in Banff, to the delight and admiration of every 

 visitor — all being surprised at the beauty, order, and 

 multitude of the various objects — some going so far as 

 to doubt the fact of the proprietor being a shoemaker, 

 saying that it was impossible for a person of that trade 

 being able to do anything like what they saw before 

 them. 



