A Cornish 
Celebrity. 
(161) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
A Cornish Celebrity. 
A CURIO SHOP AND ITS OWNER. 
Cornwall is known to business men because of 
its tin mines, to the officers of the King’s 
Revenue as one of the last strongholds of the old- 
time smugglers and wreckers, to seamen because 
it affords them the last glimpse of the dear Home 
Land on their outward voyages across the 
Atlantic and the first on their return; to pleasure 
seekers it is known for the virtue of its health¬ 
giving breezes, the luxuriance of its verdure, the 
beauty of its landscape, and for its old-world 
associations. 
It has been said, and with much truth in the 
remark, that those who have been to Falmouth 
and have not visited Burton’s “ Royal Old 
Curiosity Shop ” have not seen Falmouth at all. 
Mr. Burton himself is a ruddy, stout, hearty, 
bluff Cornishman of the true type who has 
Mr. Thomas Burton, 
Secretary and Founder 
of the 
Falmouth Cage Bird 
Society. 
the reputation of being one of the shrewdest busi¬ 
ness men in the West of England. In addition 
to which he certainly may be said to be one of 
the characters of the county. 
It would be impossible to convey to the readers 
of The Bird World a better representation of 
John Burton than that whidh appeared some time 
since in the “ Court Circular,” which in an article 
singing the praises of Falmouth, has something 
to say anent Falmouth’s great celebrity. Our 
contemporary said: “No article on Falmouth 
would be complete without some reference to the 
Old Curiosity Shop of John Burton, for he con¬ 
stitutes the chief entertainment of the town. His 
stock of curios is without question the most 
heterogeneous ever grouped together in one 
building, and his emporium has been visited by 
a list of Royal and distinguished visitors number¬ 
ing some hundreds, including the Duke and 
Duchess of Edinburgh. When His Majesty, 
then the Prince of Wales, visited Falmouth in 
1887, it was arranged that his Royal Highness 
should make a call upon this ‘ character.’ 
Unfortunately, the narrow streets became so 
crowded that the Prince was prevented, and Mr. 
Cavendish Bentinck wrote to Burton asking if 
he could send a collection of his wares for the 
Prince’s inspection. Upon this he addressed a 
letter to the Prince in person as follows : 
“ ‘ Respected Albert Edward,—I much 
regret to find you are indisposed. If I were 
to fetch to Kerri's Yean a Pickford’s 
waggon-load of samples it would be utterly 
impossible to convey the remotest idea of my 
ponderous conglomeration of curios; but if 
I could possibly prevail upon your Royal 
Highness to go through my shanty I would 
give you “ local wit and humour,” which 
would throw you into a state of laughter, 
and there is every probability it would 
counteract your cold. Yours until we meet 
in the next hotel, “‘John J3URTON.’ 
“ The Prince laughed, and subsequently made 
some purchases by commission. As I have 
said, the man is a character, and such a one as 
Dickens would have revelled in, while his 
conglomeration of curios from all parts of the 
globe is as original as the man himself.” 
It was some forty-five years ago that Mr. 
Burton established this business, and to such an 
extent has it grown that now it not only occu¬ 
pies the original shop, but twelve rooms above 
it, three stores at the rear, a cellar underneath, 
a large auxiliary store at Fish Stroud Hill, and 
a shop in Church Street. In these premises are 
stored thousands upon thousands of curios from 
all parts of the world, brought hither by the ships 
of all nations. One of the leading professors of 
the British Museum after visiting John Burton 
made the remark that he had been all over the 
world in one hour and twenty minutes, for from 
every land and every clime are to be found 
objects of interest and rarity. 
If John Burton had turned his attention to the 
business of a showman and taken to collecting 
bearded women, tattooed men, skeleton mashers, 
and other living oddities, Phineas T. Barnum 
would have suffered the harrowing pangs of 
jealousy and would have had a hard struggle to- 
assume the proprietorship of “ the greatest show 
on earth.” 
In addition to his business as a curio collector 
Mr. Burton has established a big connection 
amongst naturalists, and is in close connection 
with such men as Jamrach, of London; Cross, 
of Liverpool; the superintendents of the English 
and Continental Zoos; and the owners of the 
travelling menageries. In this department of 
his business he has handled such diverse crea¬ 
tures as tigers, lions, panthers, leopards, camels, 
bears, pumas, wolves, hyenas, ocelots, elephants, 
rhinoceri, giraffes, zebras, deer, monkeys, 
gazelles, sloths, armadillos, ostriches, eagles, vul¬ 
tures, pelicans, falcons, parrots, cockatoos, hum¬ 
ming birds, storks, penguins, cranes, crocodiles, 
alligators, serpents, rattlesnakes, boa-constrictors, 
etc. In fact, anything which comes in his way 
from across the ocean will John Burton traffic 
in, and often has he purchased thousands of 
parrots and other birds in one bargain. 
In his business he is assisted by his sons, one 
of whom is Mr. Thomas Burton, the founder and 
secretary of the Falmouth Cage Bird Associa¬ 
tion, a young flourishing institution which is 
doing much for the culture of bird life in the 
district by the holding of exhibitions and instruc¬ 
tive and entertaining meetings. 
