George Bax Holmes (1803–87) was a wealthy Horsham resident, whose interest in the fossils he found in the surrounding Wealden strata led him to amass a large collection which included many Iguanodon bones and fragments. In the media’s mind, of course, the bones coalesced into a single dinosaur. Holme’s collection is now in the Booth Museum of Natural History, in Dyke Road, Brighton – a fascinating barn of a place.
From Tower Hill and Fletcher’s fields,
From Stammerham and Rusper,
Came bones that George Bax Holmes had found –
A Horsham-centred cluster.
Eventually, he’d such a hoard
That would the Dyke Road barn adorn.
And what d’you think the media called it?
“Horsham’s Great Iguanodon”.