The formation, the character, and the protracted dispersal of the collections of the Reverend Dr Cox Macro (1683–1767) could very well form the subject of an extended monograph. Inventories of his house and library show that he accumulated numerous manuscripts and rare books, a valuable ensemble of old master and contemporary paintings, drawings and sculpture, and appreciable quantities of coins, medals, autographs, historical documents and charters, together with orientalia, various archaeological and ethnographic objets, and some ‘curiosities’ of natural history. Items in several of these categories have since been recognised as possessing outstanding historical value and significance. All of them were stored in, or adorned his residence at Little Haugh Hall, Norton, in Suffolk, a few miles east of his native Bury St Edmunds.