Former Suffolk Naturalists

FORMER SUFFOLK NATURALISTS III 4.

Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury, Bart.

SIR Charles Bunbury belongs to a Suffolk family and was b o n r at Messina in 1809 and died on 19th June, 1886.

H e had ahvays been interested in every aspect of natural history, for his enthusiasm had been aroused by his mother, and in his extensive travels he went about with his eyes open and wrote h o m e many accounts of the interesting things he had seen. H e became a m e m b e r of the Geological, Zoological, and Linnean Societies and so he was in contact with the scientists of his own day.

In 1837 he accompanied his friend Sir George Napier, then Governor of Cape Colony, on his voyage to Africa and remained there for fourteen m o n t h s during which time he busied himself with botanical research and travelled over a considerable part of South Africa. In the course of his journeys he had ample o p p o r tunity of observing the political State of the country and refers to the necessity of a firm and consistent policy which was sometimes lacking. In 1838 he accompanied Sir George Napier on his tour of the Eastern Provinces and described Port Elizabeth as an ugly ill-built place, but he considered Uitenhage one of the most agreeable places in the Colony.

T h e Great T r e k of the Boers was proceeding at this t i m e : he enters into t h e reasons for this step, remarking on the dislike of the Cape D u t c h of the English and on their individuality and u n willingness to accept a rule of law laid down by the British A d ministration. H e was of the opinion that their residence at the Cape had entirely modified their original D u t c h characteristics, especially with regard to cleanliness and industry, while their prejudices were fostered by such newspapers as the Zuid Africaan.

He described " t h e great covered wagons as being the only vehicles that can traverse the horrible roads of the country a n d are the most striking objects to the eye of a stranger. T h e generality of them, especially those which come f r o m distant parts of t h e interior, are drawn by oxen, of which an e n o r m o u s n u m b e r are yoked to each: it is a curious sight to see, as one may, any day at the Cape, a team of twelve, fourteen or even as many as t w e n t y bullocks drawing one of these wagons, appearing f r o m a distance, as they wind slowly over the sand, like some stränge centipede, the crack of the drivers' huge whip resounding like a musket s h o t " .

T h e w o n d e r s of the Cape flowers delighted h i m : he wrote " N o w h e r e on earth could Vegetation of a country be more attractive and yet so easily accessible to the botanist as at the Cape. H e r e nature spreads her gifts in inexhaustible b o u n t y and richness before

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his eyes as well as beneath his hands . . . everything within his reach: reeds, rushes, bulbous herbs and flowers, shrublets, and shrubs are there to delight him".

After his marriage in 1844 he came to live at the Manor House at Mildenhall, one of the houses on his father's estate, which he administered. It was at this time that he took a special interest in local flora and he reported " I am very busy with recent ferns and mosses. My love for the latter having been revived while Leonora was here in consequence of my looking over my collection and picking out duplicates for her". In a personal letter to the Secretary of the Linnean Society of 19th November, 1860, he sent a moss Cinchidium stygiurn as a specimen new to Suffolk. It had been brought to him by Edmund Skepper, who had found it on T u d d e n h a m Heath.

When his father died in 1860 he moved to Great Barton and took a great interest in the local flora and in the trees and flowers, and wrote a small book privately printed "Botanical Notes at Barton and Mildenhall'. He reported the very severe winter of 1860/ 61 and commented on the tender plants killed in the garden but noted how well the trees had withstood the cold. He recorded how they had flowered and set seed. Many of these had been introduced from abroad as had also been many ferns which he does not describe in detail but made a note of their countries of origin.

Of the 4,030 acres of the estate, much was agricultural land so that he noted the paucity of the wild flowers making the comment that "drainage and high farming are deadly enemies to Botany".

He recorded seeing 385 varieties but says that "twenty-flve have disappeared—they were mostly plants which grew in damp ground". There were also growing wild in the Park two species of crocus (Crocus flavus and C. biĂ&#x;orus). A special search was made for these in the spring of 1969 and 1970 and though many clues were followed up, none were found among the remains of the old Hall or in the building sites. Colchicum autumnale was formerly found fairly widespread and also oxlip (Primula elatior) but these too have disappeared because of the drainage of the fields.

He said "the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds was formerly (in the latter part of the last Century [i.e., 18th] and in the early part of this) rather celebrated for its botanical riches and many interesting plants found in the neighbouring parishes by Sir Thomas Cullum and others are recorded in the books of that time . . . it is true that the botanical wealth is not to be judged by Barton".

A smaller list of the flowers of Mildenhall was added in 1889.

These are mostly listed without comment.

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After his death in 1886 his collection of fossils and his h e r b a r i u m were, in accordance with his wishes, presented by Lady B u n b u r y to the Botanical D e p a r t m e n t of the University of Cambridge, and a paper referring to these was later published in the Proceedings of the C a m b r i d g e Philosophical Society.

D. J. Martin,

F.R.C.S.,

Button's Close, Ixworth,

Suffolk.