Sir John Henry Greville Smyth

By the time he was 27, the estate provided Greville Smyth with £27,087 per year – a lot of money in the mid-19^th century!

Greville Smyth used this sizable income to fund tours across the British Empire and beyond (India, Egypt, Algeria, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, South America, and the United States of America, as well as extensive travel across Europe), where he hunted mammals and birds, and collected a vast number of birds’ eggs.

In 1859, at the age of 21, he went on a tour to the East.

Greville Smyth became a FZS in 1865 and remained a member until his death in 1901.

Greville Smyth had built up such a large collection of specimens that in 1884, after his marriage to his cousin Emily, he commissioned the architect Charles Edward Davis to create a museum in his stately home, Ashton Park in Bristol. The museum, and Ashton Court’s other alterations were completed in 1885.

Collection donated to the Bristol Museum around 1902

The Greville Smyth collection was donated after his death in 1901 to the Bristol Museum.

As a whole it included thousands of birds’ eggs, singly and in clutches, from nearly all parts of the world.

A large series of the eggs were accompanied by the nests in which they were found. These exhibited every form and mode of nest construction, from that of the tiny humming bird to that of the magpie.

There was also an extensive collection of birds’ skins from all parts, and of every size, form, and colour.

Also a magnificent collection of the Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) of India, Ceylon, South America, Southern Europe, etc., and a very complete collection of British species. To these were added a fine collection of Exotic Coleoptera (Beetles), a choice series of shells, a number of stuffed animals, and various miscellaneous specimens.

In order to form some idea of the nature and extent of this gift to the Bristol Museum, its Curator carried out a preliminary arrangement of the specimens, and upon counting them he reported the following to be, approximately:—

Birds’ Eggs in Clutches 2,099

Single Birds’ Eggs – 10,000

Birds’ Nests containing clutches of Eggs 600

Birds’ Skins 1,700

British Lepidoptera 4,154

General Lepidoptera 8,127

Lepidoptera Larvae 534

Coleoptera and Varia 1,000

Marine Mollusca 472

Other Specimens 32

Taken as a whole, the collections were reported to consist of from 28,000 to 30,000 specimens.