president’s address. 
677 
Roman Catholic ; Henry Bryant, the two Forbys, Charles 
Sutton, and William Kirby were clergymen of the Church of 
England ; Mr. Brightwell early united himself with the 
Congregational Church at the Old Meeting House. 
The front doors of 29 and 31, Surrey street, are under the 
same portico. From 1818, tili his death in 1868, Mr. Thomas 
Brightwell occupied No. 31, and was on friendly terms with 
his “ distinguished and courteous neighbour.” Some of the 
best specimens for Mr. Brightwell’s microscopical work were 
obtained from an old brickyard containing a pond within a 
stone’s- throw of this house. For many years he corresponded 
with the Rev. William Kirby, whom he once visited at Barham. 
Interested in Entomology, Mr. Brightwell purchased with his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Simon Wilkin, a collection of insects from 
Sumatra. These were inspected by Sir James Smith, who was 
greatly pleased with many of them ; indeed, Mr. Brightwell’s 
collection, with this addition, far surpassed that department of 
the Linnean one, both in number and variety of species. 
Eventually Mr. Brightwell presented his collection of insects 
to the Norwich Museum, to whose foundation he had devoted 
much time and attention. In 1821, he was introduced by 
Sir James Smith to the Linnean Society and elected a Fellow. 
He did not contribute to the Transactions of that Society, but 
sent several papers to the Magazine or Annals of Natural 
History. In 1822 he visited Professor W. J. Hooker in 
Glasgow. 42 
The Smiths spent part of each summer at the house of Lady 
Smith’s father at Lowestoft, Sir James going annually for one 
week in August to Yarmouth as guest of Mr. Dawson Turner 
who in 1823 refers to these occasions as “periods on whose 
recurrence, like a schoolboy for his holidays, I used to reckon 
from year to year. ... I used to mark the years by your 
visits.” 6 Sir James regarded the sojourn at Lowestoft as a 
holiday ; the greater part of his botanical works were written 
at Surrey street. The “Flora Britannica ” (1794-1804) and 
the volumes of “English Botany” (1790-1814) were begun 
during his London period, but the principal part of the 
