We step through the doors of the Natural History Museum at Tring housing one of the UK’s finest zoological collections of stuffed mammals, aquatic creatures, birds, reptiles and insects. Established in 1889, it was once the private museum of the second Baron Lord Rothschild and is now visited by more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Taking the stairs, we walk along the balcony of the central atrium and are presented with a vast collection of wooden cabinets filled with specimens. The first cabinet we open houses a huge millipede along with some weird and wonderful moths and butterflies. I stare in wonderment at the exquisite intricacy of the vibrant red and green patterning of their iridescent wings. Never mind natural history, some of these creatures look utterly supernatural!

Hundreds of rare bird species such as hummingbirds, sunbeams and comets native to New Guinea and multi-coloured quetzal birds native to South America, classified in their related groups, are neatly ordered and displayed in Victorian hexagonal cabinets. I’m amazed by how tiny some of them are and marvel at their names such as the purple-throated sun angel. Next, we see some gigantic fishes, from a ferocious looking barracuda to a sleek silver-blue swordfish alongside a crab that takes centre stage; its legs are so long that they span the entire cabinet!

Another flight of stairs leads us to Gallery 6. We step into a dark corridor, our footsteps echoing on the polished wooden floor. It is furnished with huge wall-to-wall glass cabinets filled with mammals. We are delighted by the extensive collection, including historic domestic dogs and a number of extinct and bizarre-looking creatures such as the dodo and the moa. The dimmed lighting, crowds and length of the narrow corridor are all quite disorientating and we both feel as if we have entered into some twilight zone at the beginning of a David Lynch film.

I seem to have turned into a giggling teenager as the unusual ones have us in hysterics. My daughter tries to suppress her laughter as she points out an extinct elephant bird’s foot. We then move onto a saiga with weird bloated nostrils, who looks like a snooty professor peering at us, then onto a giant emu staring menacingly as if he’s about to charge at us, and a chubby walrus with huge tusks!

Later, we go back downstairs and for a moment or two have the Rothschild room to ourselves. We discover more about this eccentric Victorian gentleman who dedicated his entire life to the study of animals. We learn that in the 1800s, observing natural history became a popular hobby and many amateur scientists held vast private collections of specimens from insects to plants. However, this remains the greatest collection ever amassed by one individual.

At the centre of the room resides a life-sized replica of Walter’s favourite giant tortoise. I linger on the fascinating collection of old black and white photos revealing Lord Rothschild in all of his glory riding along in a zebra drawn carriage! Apparently by the age of 21, after studying natural sciences at Cambridge, he had already amassed a significant collection and was making preparations to build a museum. Thousands of visitors flocked to Tring Park eager to get a look at the exotic aviaries, menageries and such a rich diversity of animals from zebras to kangaroos, starfish and gorillas!

We browse around the shop and the end of our tour. I buy some fascinating old black and white postcards of Lord Rothschild on his pet tortoise and of his trained zebras harnessed to a carriage outside the Royal Albert Hall. I flick through a copy of Rothschild’s biography, “The Man, The Museum and the Menagerie” affectionately written by his niece, Dame Miriam Rothschild, who pays tribute to his extraordinary, and somewhat secretive life documented by family letters and photographs, clearly celebrating her uncle as a larger-than-life and enigmatic figure of the Victorian era.

It’s mind-blowing how the biggest private natural history collection ever accumulated comes down to one man’s passion with over 4,500 specimens on display; strange phenomena like “over two million butterflies and moths, 200,000 bird’s eggs and 144 giant tortoises” according to Miriam. Fortunately for us, Rothschild’s generosity undoubtedly remains the biggest bequest of specimens ever received by the Natural History Museum which has now been on display for over 100 years.

  • Marisa Laycock moved to St Albans in 2000. She enjoys sharing her experiences of living in the city. These columns are also available as podcasts from 92.6FM Radio Verulam at www.radioverulam.com/smallcitylife