22 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



Society's operations. The old Museum on College Hill 

 was formed by the same Society, though later on 

 transferred to the Corporation of Shrewsbury. After 

 coming into the estate in 1855, Eyton built a large 

 museum at Eyton Hall, and amassed here a marvellous 

 collection of skins and skeletons of Birds from all parts 

 of the world. Most of the skeletons were prepared and 

 mounted by his own hands, and he issued in 1858 a 

 catalogue of these, a copy of which is in the Reference 

 Library at Shrewsbury. Later on (1871-8) he published 

 a large work, entitled " Osteologia Avium," illustrated 

 by drawings made from the skeletons in his museum. 

 He also wrote several other works on various subjects . 

 An ardent naturalist and sportsman, Eyton was always 

 most ready to help any who took an interest in his 

 pursuits, and visitors came from far and near to see him 

 and his collections. His friendship for Darwin continued 

 to the end of his life, though he was strongly opposed 

 to his theory of Natural Selection, and was much vexed 

 at finding some of his own observations on the habits of 

 pigeons used by Darwin in support of that hypothesis. 

 He died October 25, 1880, and his collections were then 

 dispersed, but the shells were presented to the Shrews- 

 bury Museum. 



William Franklin was born at Serne Abbot, Dorsetshire, 

 in 1814. At an early age he was brought by his father, 

 a hatter, to Shrewsbury, and there started in business as 

 a hairdresser. His fondness for wild Birds and Animals 

 led to the wish to preserve them, and a travelling 

 journeyman gave him his first and only lesson in the 

 mystery of skinning, preserving, and setting up specimens. 

 It will be easily understood that his difficulties were 



