ONE hundred years ago this week, Darlington was given one of the most remarkable gifts in its history: a big game collection, the finest in the north of England, including 182 heads of exotic animals and an enormous stuffed creature that was to become a feature of many Darlingtonians’ childhoods. The Northern Echo in 1921 said the collection comprised “a magnificent Polar bear, the head and hide of a royal black-maned lion, the head and skull of a huge white rhinoceros, and a gigantic buffalo – second largest of its kind in the country – topi, tiang, oryx-bisa, gerenuk, giant and lesser elands, antelopes, hogs, gazelles, hippopotami, dinka, kondoo, cheeta, and a giraffe”.