In Memoriam: Sir Antonio Brady. 99
Gibson, of Stratford, and the kindness of my late friend
Mr. Thomas Curtis, the then owner of the field in which
they were found, the late Dean Buckland and other dis-
tinguished members of the Geological Society were invited
down to Ilford to view the bones in situ, and much interest
was excited by the discovery that they were the remains of
a huge Mammoth (Elephas primigenius).....
"From that time for about ten or fifteen years—I do not
recollect the exact dates—the matter slept, and if any bones
were discovered they were in such a soft and friable state
that they were not noticed, or at any rate were not preserved.
"About this time it so happened that a son of the late
Dr. Buckland, who exhumed and described the bones first
found, was dining at my house ; and while we were at dinner
a note was brought me from my dear friend Mrs. Curtis, the
widow of the former owner of the field, to the effect that the
workmen in digging for brick-earth had again come upon
some more large bones ; and, knowing my geological procli-
vities, placed them at my disposal, and invited me and my
friends to look after them. Thus I had the opportunity of
disinterring the first bone [the femur of a Mammoth] which
formed the nucleus of my now extensive collection.''
Encouraged by this "find," Sir Antonio henceforward was
unremitting in his labours to secure and hand down to
posterity these fragile relics of prehistoric life in Essex, and
devoted a large amount of time and money to the work. It
may be interesting to quote a few lines from the 'Essex
Standard' for March 6th, 1857, giving details of the first
discovery of the great tusk of the Mammoth :—
"A few days ago the workmen employed in digging brick-
earth at Ilford, belonging to Mr. Curtis, came upon the bones
of gigantic animals, some of which proved to be those of a
Mammoth; others were parts of a huge Rhinoceros, probably
R. leptorhinus; together with the head of a large Bos, and
others of minor import, consisting of parts of a horse, and of
a species of deer, &c.....The tusk of the Mammoth
was the most remarkable bone found on the present occasion,
but many curious fossils had previously been discovered in
the same field, where many animals seem to have found their
last abode. The tusk in question is extremely massive, and
has an unusually curved form. It now measures nine feet
two inches in length, and four feet eight inches across the
bow made by the bend; but the extreme ends are more or