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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. DEC. 17, 190*.
razed to make room for the fine row of
mansions which is called Cambridge Gate,
Regent's Park.
If I recollect aright, the lower portion of that popular resort, especially of children, was arranged as a kind of bazaar. Above, in a circular gallery, were the panoramas of ' London by Day ' and ' Lisbon by Night.' And was there not some joke abroad as to a portion of the canvas being utilized for both representations ? From accounts circulated it would seem that London's latest attempt in the way of a Coliseum will, from noon until midnight, offer a unique successive series of shows for the enlightenment of visitors so much so that one is tempted to speculate whether the title selected is altogether appro- priate, or whether some modern name more indicative of uses might not be chosen, or perhaps coined, to meet the occasion. We shall see what happens within.
I wonder how many of your readers remember the Panorama in the centre of Leicester Square some fifty to sixty years ago. I think it was the venture of a Mr. Mox- hay, and met with but moderate patronage. Of late years Coliseums, Panoramas, Dioramas, of the good old-fashioned sort have certainly passed out of vogue. I fear these are times when one scarcely expects to find a revival of such wholesome entertainments.
CECIL CLARKE.
Junior Athenaeum Club, W.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that the answers may be addressed to them
direct.
DR. BURCHELL'S DIARY AND COLLEC- TIONS. May I ask assistance in a somewhat unusual task, and one, I fear, of much diffi- culty 1
The great naturalist William John Bur- chell, D.C.L. (Oxon.), of Churchfield House, Fulham, died by his own hand at the age of eighty, on 23 March, 1863. His vast collections botanical and zoological were left absolutely to his sister, Miss Anna Bur- chell, who offered them all to the University of Oxford. The zoological collections were accepted, and arrived in 1865 ; the botanical collections were refused, and are now at Kew. Iain at the present moment preparing for publication BurchelFs original notes on his collections of insects, arachnids, &c., from South Africa (1810-15) and Brazil (1825-30).
The former notes are complete, but the
latter are missing after the date 18 March,
1829, when Burchell was at Porto Real (now Porto Nacionale), on the Rio Tocantins. He continued to make observations from this date until he sailed from Para on 10 February,
1830. His complete itinerary exists in the Hope Department, where hundreds of his specimens bear numbers referring to the lost Diary.
The last number in the existing Diary is 1345 (for 18 March, 1829). But I find speci- mens with numbers in the neighbourhood of 1500, so that probably at least 150 observa- tions, and perhaps many more, are lost.
After the last entry in the existing note- book is a statement in Burchell's handwriting that the continuation of the record is to be found in an " 8vo (long) red-coloured volume." Beneath these words my predecessor, Prof. Westwood, had written in pencil, " This red vol. has not been found. J. O. W." It may be safely inferred that the red volume never came to Oxford.
But this is not the only loss. There were certainly hundreds of drawings of the scenery and natural history of Brazil. I find refer- ences to many in the existing note-book. A large asterisk evidently refers to a drawing, and "v. J." clearly means "vide Journal." About twelve of Burchell's letters are pre- served at Kew, and in one of these, written to Sir William Hooker, Burchell tells of his Journal, of his drawings, of his panoramas of Para and of Rio, of meteorological ob- servations during the rainy season at Goyaz, of bearings taken during the descent of the Tocantins. Even the notes on the insects tell of missing records. This "settled on my paper while drawing the panorama of Rio; that was "captured while measuring the base-line " ; a third " settled at the foot of my telescope while observing the eclipse at midnight." His notes often speak of a ser- vant "Congo," probably a negro, who was apparently a most competent naturalist's assistant. One is reminded of the Hottentot " Speelman," whose name occurs so frequently in the ' Travels in Southern Africa.' There certainly have existed perhaps there still exist the materials for a fascinating and immensely valuable record of the travels of a naturalist of the highest rank in Brazil three-quarters of a century ago.
And even this is not all. Burchell's classical 'Southern Africa,' published in 1822 (the second volume in 1824), contains an account of less than half of his travels. It ends with the day he left Litakun on 3 August, 1812. It does not even include the most northern point reached in his journey. The excellent
