AN' OLD SUFFOLK NATURALIST :
NORTON BURROUGHS GARRARD.
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AN OLD SUFFOLK NATURALIST: NORTON BURROUGHS GARRARD. BY
HIMSELF.
FAR back in those almost prehistoric days that were entomologically still Stephensian, I first saw the light in the little High Suffolk village of Brundish during December 1854. A dames-school in Ipswich, the population of which town must have well nigh doubled since that time, had claimed me among its pupils by October 1859 ; and one of the said Dame's two sons, of whom both were a good deal older than I, was already a very keen collector of Moths and Butterflies. He it was who took me by the hand, at the tender age of some nine summers, and was wont to expound the intricacies of Lepidopterous lore, that started my interest in the subject altnough he possessed no particular collection. And, as soon as I was old enough to walk to the woods at Belstead, I was allowed to go and revel in the fascinating denizens (still then retaining Kentish Glories & Four-spotted Footmen) of that wondrous storehouse of all Natural History, now I hear so generously tnrown open to your Members by A. Raydon Wilson Esq. After I finally left school, collecting was unfortunately neglected for some years ; but restarted in earnest as soon as I went to live at Eye, and continued with equal vigour on my removal to Hoxne. These two charming places, so rieh in wooded hills and aquatic plants along the Valley of the Waveney, supplied the greater part of my Insect and Oological collections. T h e most wonderful one of the former that ever I saw is Mr. Claude Morley's at Monks Soham and, of Flies alone, Mr. George Verrall's at Newmarket; but the largest one of Macrolepidoptera I ever sold was at Needham Market mill, that of the late Mr. Henry Lingwood, now in Bury St. Edmunds Museum for which it was acquired at that time by Mr. Platten. Upon retiring to live in Yarmouth, I found the neighbourhood round there just as prolific as about Hoxne, producing Convolvulus Hawk, Cream-spotted Tigers and numerous other interesting Moths ; both Five- and Six-spotted Burnets' colonies were discovered and, on Horsey Warren, two or three species of Fritillary butterflies. I had to evacuate myself to Norwich in 1940 ; but do not consider the vicinity of this city so good for collecting as northern Suffolk, perhaps owing to my own advancing age and curtailed ability to explore very far : in my garden are planted five Buddleia-trees in a row, whose flowers 1 have seen covered with Butterflies this year, 1945, and my friends have counted six sorts on them at once, including both Commas & Painted Ladies. Unfortunately I began early by using English, not Latin, names and have ever since found it a great drawback, as it restricts the ränge of known species excepting in the case of the larger and more obvious ones.
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AN OLD SUFFOLK NATURALIST : NORTON BURROUGHS GARRARD.
I have always been as interested in Birds and Birds' eggs, of which I possess quite a good representative number, as in Lepidoptera ; and, for that reason, never joined any Naturalists' Society for fear I might be regarded as a kind of blackleg marauder. I have read too many letters in such papers as T h e Field, from folk who did not understand the fascination of such collecting, denouncing plunderers of poor Birds' nests ! As a matter of fact, I feel a good deal more in touch with that rough and jolly party of Lowestoft beachmen who in 1877 must needs have a day's frolic at their boyhood's sport of birds-nesting and marched shamelessly through a neighbouring farmer's domain, ransacking hedges and climbing trees, much to their small-clothes' damage : the enraged farmer, at first after them with a gun, later came up with them at Oulton in the ' Boar ' and, after many threats and much grumbling at their flagrant trespass, ended by liquidating the whole party's shot at that inn, as related in ' Suffolk Notes and Queries ' at the time. After living in Suffolk all my active life, it is curious I never saw more than a single Magpie on the wing, which I shot during a Partridge drive at Dennington. But, after 1927 when I retired to Yarmouth, I heard of a pair nesting in Wetheringsett Manor and now they seem to have become quite common over the whole County. This spring I was delighted with the gift of six Magpie's eggs ; about three years ago I was equally pleased to obtain a really cream-coloured Cuckoo and, having had this great rarity nicely set up, I returned it to my friend the donor, because his son is such a born Naturalist as to thoroughly appreciate the specimen. Still I find no difficulty in getting about in comparative comfort, but am able to distinguish neither nests and Birds nor Moths and Butterflies, through failing eye-sight. Yet hope springs eternal, and I am looking forward to capturing that Bath White if he comes my way, as rumours of so many in south-west England have reached my ears during August.