ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
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“ Lewis Evans Collection ” of Hertfordshire books, pamphlets, 
manuscripts, drawings, engravings, and maps, an important 
accumulation of upwards of live thousand items, acquired by- 
purchase from Mr. Lewis Evans in 1901 ; and also the library of 
the St. Albans and Herts Archaeological Society and sundry 
other collections of literature dealing with the county. The 
task of indexing this large mass of literary material was 
undertaken a few years since by the Hon. Librarian, Mr. H. B. 
Wilton Hall, and it is due to his untiring work that the Museum 
Committee was enabled to publish a catalogue (in two parts) 
of the bound volumes contained in the collection. 
The greater portion of the Topographical Art Section is also 
shown here upon covered screens and around the walls. 
A remarkably fine series of drawings by the late Mr. F. G. 
Kitton, a former Hon. Secretary of the institution, is shown 
at the north end of the room, whilst sundry water-colours 
executed by Mr. E. A. Phipson and others give an excellent 
impression of picturesque Hertfordshire, past and present. 
A lack of more suitable quarters has necessitated the 
temporary display of part of the collection of mammals at 
the south end of this room. Several of the specimens have 
been cased with natural surroundings, and it will be seen 
that the series, although far from complete, includes several 
items of interest. 
On the stairway, amongst other framed prints and drawings 
of local interest, there is a fine painting in oils of Sleapshyde 
Farm by the late Mr. H. Gr. Moon. 
On the first landing is the Natural History room. Here may 
be found zoological collections of a rich and varied character. 
The first half of the Bird collection is exhibited in two cases, 
and, comprising as it does the Passeres, Picarise, Striges, 
Accipitres, Herodiones, etc., embraces several examples of much 
interest to the local zoologist. There is a fair sprinkling of 
“ varieties ”, amongst which may be specially mentioned a fine 
cinnamon-coloured blackbird, similarly coloured hedge-sparrow, 
a pied specimen of the same species, and several pale varieties of 
other common birds. Notice should also be given to the locally - 
taken specimens of waxwings, nut-crackers, Boyston crows, 
little owls, and purple heron. 
A representative series of birds’ eggs is shown in a cabinet 
standing in the centre of the room, also a small set of avian skulls. 
The strongest section of the zoological collections, however, 
may be found in the department of Entomology. Few provincial 
museums can show such a well-ordered, well-prepared, and 
exhaustive collection of Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera,- 
Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Diptera, as is here 
displayed in several cabinets. With the exception of the fine 
series of beetles, the gift of Mr. E. George Elliman, and other 
smaller accessions, the whole of this extensive and valuable 
collection is due to the generosity of Mr. A. E. Gibbs, who, 
