Genre:

Regular Feature, Extract, Biography

Publications extracted:

Horsfield 1824–27

Subjects:

Collecting, Amusement, Reading, Illustration, Instruments

    Although Kimber's learning was only superficial, he enjoyed possessing books, especially 'such as were highly embellished'. All his books were packed in boxes, piled upon one another. Of an evening he would spend hours looking at the books in his chimney corner. He also spent large sums on scientific instruments ('he was equally a patron of science'). 'Costly maps decorated the boxes in which they were enclosed; magnificent globes were safely packed in cases, which warned the carrier to be wary of his charge; theodolites and telescopes, protractors and quadrants, planetariums, lunariums, and portable orreries, were sheltered in boxes from the dust of the chambermaid, and ever ready for use as soon as unpacked'. (397) On his death, his books and philosophical apparatus attracted good prices when auctioned in Lewes.