| "Thomas Norris, Esq., of Howick House, near Preston, Lancashire, died on the 15th of March 1852, aged eighty-seven. He was born at
Croston in the same county, and having received a good provincial education, entered at the age of twenty, as book-keeper, into the eminent firm of Peel, Yates, and
Co., cotton-spinners and calico-printers. Having by his industry and business habits obtained a confidential position in the house, he subsequently became a partner.
In 1821, Mr. Norris retired from the business, in possession of a large fortune. During the leisure afforded him from business Mr. Norris cultivated, by such means
as were at his command, a liberal and elegant taste for science and the fine arts, and on his retirement into private life he collected, with great discrimination and
zeal, pictures, coins, minerals, shells, insects, and other objects of natural history. He also indulged his taste in astronomical observations, within a few years of
his death; he was in the daily habit of using the transit instrument, equatoreal, &c.; he ground and polished glass and mirrors, and constructed microscopes and
telescopes. His judgment in matters of art is sufficiently attested by the large and valuable collection which he formed of pictures of the old masters, and he possessed
a vivid discrimination of the specific character of objects of natural history. His collections of insects and shells were of considerable value. Mr. Norris was a gentleman
of very retiring habits, but exceedingly hospitable and kind to those of kindred pursuits, who were desirous of profiting by the use of his collections. He was extremely
prompt and liberal in his dealings; hence, when any rarity in coins, shells, insects, found its way into the market, he was generally the first to whom it was submitted
for sale. In his periodical visits to London, he seldom failed to call in Whitehall Gardens to see Sir Robert Peel, the renowned son of his friend and partner in trade,
and the great statesman received his visits with peculiar gratification and interest." |
