Arthur O'Shaughnessy: a poet among the Lacertidae

This first verse of O'Shaughnessy's Ode, from a collection of poems entitled "Music and Moonlight", not only establishes the mood of its haunting setting by Edward Elgar, in "The Music Makers", but also serves to remind zoologists, literary students and musicians of an imaginative and oddly fascinating character whose achievements in natural science and poetry can today offer grounds for curiosity and re-appraisal. Arthur O'Shaughnessy, born 1844, a nephew1 of Edward Lytton Bulwer, joined the British Museum,2 after nomination by an ex officio trustee at Bulwer's request, as a Transcriber in the Department of Printed Books in 1861. After taking an examination in Systematic Zoology he was in 1862 appointed (Junior) Assistant, Second Class, in the Department of Zoology. He seems to have been by nature retiring and something of a dreamer and was in fact reported on as nearsighted, uncoordinated and lacking in scientific fervour! So in 1864 he was transferred to the Department of Geology, which had recently acquired a new keeper who is said to have been meek as well as inexperienced. This did not last long, however, and he became firstly Professor Richard Owen's clerical assistant in Palaeontology and afterwards clerk in the Spirit Room (Reptiles and Fishes). Then, after five years, he became a Senior Assistant, Second Class and carried out curation duties and research on lizards. However, there continued to be complaints from certain of his superiors that he was not an accurate systematist (it is recorded that there