AN EVENING AT MR FRANK BUCKLAND'S.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 63, 14 March 1879, Page 4

AN EVENING AT MR FRANK BUCKLAND'S.

Pipes and grog at Mr Frank Buckland's at night meant much more the same entertainment anywhere else. An "at home " at Albany street is always amusing, and this was, if anything, above the usual mark. The interior was dressed up and decorated for the occasion. All the heads and horns of animals, extant or extincf, were dusted and furbished up; the fragance of the casting-room, with its garlands of Gsh entrails, its bottles of shrimps, snakes, and whitebait upon the shelves, was toned down, but not entirely destroyed. The company was of the most heterogeneous description. There were Sir Joaeh Fayrer, learned in (he

thanatopbidia, or poisonous snakes of India ; Sir bsmuel Baker, equally fluent upon Egyptian reptiles; African explorers, piscatorial painters, and members innumerable of {be Linrajsn Society ond of Z)O. Genial and goodnatured Mr Jamrach, with a diamond brooch in his shirt front and a pleasant smile on bis fresli-coloured fuc 5 , dilated in glowing terms upon his Peruvian mummy — that of a young girl who fell, or was maliciously pushed, some tbousnnd years ago, into a nitre pit, nnd who now resembles a few sticks oi very dry tobacco. Mr Peachey produced a plaster cast of tbe face of Henry VTL, the eama which was exhibited with that king's effigy when lying in state nearly 400 years ago. To add to the general liveliness of the eveniog, the monkey-box was drawn near the fire, and its two rather eickly little occupants int?o,iuced to the company. A l>are ran through ont>'ts legs up and down the stairs, in perfect amity with all man; while a white ra', friendly creature, with natural sympathies for the human race, disported itself upoo the silken robea of (be Chinese Amtmssador, whose daik, but not unkindly, fuee was somewhat perturbed at tbe pol.ution. He recovered himself, however, when the green oysters, specially raised by oue of Mr Bucklauii'a friends, roa ie their appearance, and his appreciation was fu'ly indorsed by every one else who tested them The host and hostess busied themselves to keep the fun going; and when Frank was tired of talking, his loyal end indefatigable Rssistaut, Mr Searle, took up his parable, an 1 discoursed upon fish, fresh or dead, or exhibited the toy automaton tbimblerigger, a legncy ot Robert Houdon's. All alike — foreigners, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, sailors — most thoroughly erjjoyed their eveniug.