Geology. 271 



Bright (RICHARD) [1754-1840] 



The history of this interesting collection, now divided between the 

 Departments of Geology and Mineralogy, is somewhat complicated, so 

 that it is well to tabulate the names and relationships of those connected 

 with it. 



RICHARD BRIGHT, Senior 

 (1754-1840) 



Eichard Bright, Senior, lived at Ham Green, on the Avon, near Bristol, 

 in which city he was a merchant and banker. A commercial connection 

 with the mines of Cornwall made him an early collector, and in this he 

 was assisted by William Smith and Eichard Phillips. It was in the 

 fields adjoining his house at Ham Green that the now well-known deposits 

 of sulphate of strontian were first discovered. He took advantage of the 

 examination of caves in the Mendips and elsewhere to gather one of the 

 earliest series of the bones of extinct mammals. To these he added fossil 

 vertebrates from other localities, such as fishes from Monte Bolca and the 

 Lebanon, and even the remains discovered at the base of the Himalayas 

 a few years before his death. He was one of the founders of the Bristol 

 Institution (1822), and to it he presented some interesting specimens. 

 J. S. Miller, in his "Natural History of the Crinoidea" (1821), mentions 

 having used specimens obtained by Eichard Bright " from the transition 

 limestone on his estate near the Malvern Hills." 



Henry, the eldest son, who inherited Crawley, is not known as a 

 geologist, but he " had a turn for science and was a collector, especially of 

 chalk and flint fossils." 



The second son, Benjamin Heywood, went to live at Brand Lodge, 

 and when the railway from Malvern to Ledbury was made through the 

 Brockbury estate, he gave great attention to the cutting, and collected 

 many Silurian fossils. These were kept at Brand Lodge, and are specially 

 mentioned by Murchison, who borrowed many of them to figure in his 

 " Silurian System " (see p. 414 of that work). It is possible that these 

 were among the specimens handed over by Murchison to the Geological 

 Society ; but they have not been identified either there or in the British 

 Museum. 



The reputation that the third son, Eichard, gained as a geologist, 

 through studies at Bristol, in Iceland, and in Hungary (see Trans. Geol. 

 Sac.) was eclipsed by his fame as physician at Guy's Hospital and as 

 discoverer of the disease that bears his name. It is highly probable that 

 he contributed specimens to his father's collection, as he appears also to 

 have done to both the Geological Society and the Bristol Institution. 

 But this was only in his earlier years. 



The fourth son, Eobert, who remained in Bristol as a merchant, 

 cultivated art and literature rather than science, but is of interest because 

 it was to him that Rule sold the piece of Moa bone that he had brought 

 from New Zealand in 1839 the first portion of a Dinornis that came 

 to this country, and the fragment from which Owen inferred the 

 existence of this extinct race of gigantic birds. 



It thus appears that there were three Bright collections: the Bristol 

 one, chiefly minerals and vertebrates; the Brand Lodge one, chiefly 

 Silurian invertebrates ; and the Crawley one, chiefly Chalk invertebrates. 



