BIOGKAPHICAL NOTES 
BY EDWARD BARTLETT. 
Abraham dee Bartlett was born on October 27, 1812. 
He died on May 7, 1897, in his eighty-fifth year, after 
a long and painful illness, and was laid to rest in the 
family grave in Highgate Cemetery. 
I have succeeded in collecting from among some scraps of 
paper the following notes made by my father, and which I 
reproduce as nearly as possible in the original words: — 
“My origin is a very bumble one. My father (John Bartlett) 
was apprenticed to and, after serving his apprenticeship, em- 
ployed by the father of one of the greatest of English painters, 
whose name was Turner. But my father, as a tonsorial artist, 
used the brush upon living portraits which are no more, while 
young Turner’s brusli was wielded in oil-colour on canvas to 
represent living portraits, and consequently the wonderful pro- 
ductions of his brush are to this day preserved. ' 
“I ]iad, however, one opportunity which laid the foundation 
of, and the stepping-stone to, my insatiable love for animals. 
Mr. Turner lived in Exeter Street, Strand, and the wonderful 
collection of wild beasts was then at Exeter ’Cliange. It was 
here that I was, during my infancy, introduced to wild animals. 
Mr. Cross, the proprietor, being a great friend of my father, 
allowed me a free entree, to that very remarkable and interesting 
menagerie. In consequence of my early introduction to wild 
animals, almost before I could walk, I being allowed to crawl 
about in the beast-room of that menagerie, playing with young 
lions and other animals that were not likely to harm me, I have 
not the remotest recollection of seeing for the first time lions, 
B 
