By Claire Richardson

Raising money for a museum can be a tricky thing to get right. This extraordinary soiree from the 1880s sets the mark incredibly high in terms of attendance and spectacles. Anyone got a bugle?

It’s 1881 in Peterborough and the Natural History and Archaeology Society is growing fast. After a few years of attempting to grow their numbers and find a permanent home for themselves, they’ve got a large number of members and a little museum. The committee found some meeting rooms above a shop on Long Causeway above Mr Holdich’s shop in 1880 and visitor numbers are good.

Donations of money and objects have started to come in, but the society has a problem. In order to store and exhibit their objects they need some fancy glass cases, but at £250 (around £25,000 today) they are not cheap. 

Thankfully, the society’s patron is the rather delightful Dowager Marchioness of Huntly, who lives at Orton Hall. As the Dowager Marchioness she is not in a position to donate such a large sum, but she is able to offer her skills as a spectacular hostess to encourage others to donate.

The society offer winter lectures, and the season starts in great style at an evening soiree at Orton Hall in late November. Messrs Bodger and Dack, the honourable secretaries of the society, make all the arrangements for a fascinating talk on Roman Peterborough and public interest is phenomenal.

Bodger and Dack arrange for transport to take the interested public out of the city (and indeed the county) to Orton Hall, leaving at 8pm from outside Mr Bodger’s Chemist Shop on Cowgate. There are several carriages and the ‘bus from the “Crown” Hotel’ but they underestimate the number of interested parties. The omnibus has to take several trips, the driver makes the journey more enjoyable by ‘occasional bugle performances’ as they trundle through the villages and over Fletton railway crossing.

The evening starts late at 9pm, but it has allowed the early arriving visitors (of which there are 160) to admire Orton Hall, particularly the library and the billiard room where an exhibition of archaeological specimens is being held, and to converse with the wider Gordon family who call the hall their home. The archaeological specimens include many of Lady Huntly’s own collection, items brought up from London, and some lent by Dr Walker.

The key talk is by Professor Taylor FRS and is entitled ‘The Roman Remains of This and Other Neighbourhoods.’ He discusses the great pottery industry at Castor and shares examples of pottery including a prized piece of pottery in Lady Huntly’s collection depicting a chase scene involving hounds and a hare (on display in Peterborough Museum at present). He suggests that Ermine Street, the famous Roman Road, was ‘really a deviation from the main line of work’, suggesting instead that the main road probably went through Peterborough instead. He also compliments Lady Huntly on her ‘beautiful collection of Roman remains.’

The evening does not end there – far from it. The evening changes pace with the introduction of music, beginning with a piano duet between the Dowager Marchioness and Mr Percy Moore. It continues with a variety of songs, both serious and comic, and piano and harmonium performances from several performers, including Lord Granville Gordon, Lady Huntly’s son.

The evening comes to a close with a round of speeches. The first is by Rev Canon Argles who declares he has been to many scientific society meetings ‘but he had never attended one in which there was such a great variety of amusement and delight as he had experienced that evening’ to which the audience applauded in agreement. He thanks Professor Taylor and Lady Huntly for her patronage and ‘her skill in making things popular’ referring to the audience number and increase in society members. He also makes a cheeky request to the audience for £250 for the museum cases to the amusement of all of those watching.

The evening ends at midnight, following refreshments, with those who require it hopping back on the omnibus to Peterborough after ‘a most enjoyable evening’. 

The cases were ultimately bought and were used to their full effect when the museum moved to the Beckett Chapel in 1886 after King’s School vacated the building.