THE MUSEUM AND ZOO AT TRING. 

 . 



I AM one of the fortunate and favoured individuals who have 

 had the honour of being personally conducted by the owner of 

 the Museum and Zoo at Tring, almost needless to say the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild M.P., over the priceless Natural History 

 Collection located in the Museum ; and the animals in the grounds 

 at this quiet secluded Hertfordshire village also claim our attention 

 in this sketch. 



Although the first month of the year, when the most hopeful 

 of us do not expect congenial surroundings, it was a glorious 

 morning when I alighted at Tring, the soft South- West wind 

 being tempered with brilliant sunshine; mornings that give 

 to this fair land of ours a beauty almost divine, and, had it 

 been moonlight, I might have expected to see Titania and her 

 graceful attendants sporting on the green. The sun had not 

 long flashed its golden-red beams across the dew-spattered mea- 

 dows, ere the birds broke forth in jubilant song, Blackbird, 

 Thrush and soaring Lark ; while the voices of several harbingers 

 of Spring sounded pleasantly from a belt of woodland as 

 I was being driven towards the park, a distance of about 

 two miles. One could not help noting the extreme mildness 

 of the weather. In the gardens Primroses and Violets were in 

 bloom; Buttercups and snow-white Daisies the flowers of our 

 childhood peeped out here and there in the hedgerows and 

 fields, the golden cups harmonising to a nicety with the glorious 

 green pastures. 



One can hardly believe, when walking up the old-world High 

 Street, that within a stone's throw almost there are Zebras and 

 Kangaroos ; Cassowaries and Great Bustards ; Sacred Cattle and 

 Emus; Pelicans and Barbary Sheep; Giant Tortoises and other 

 various living creatures ; and, contained in the Museum, what is 

 probably the finest private Natural History Collection in the 

 whole world. 



