Ashmolean Museum. 271 



and genera for scientific lectures on zoology. A popular 

 course on this science has been given, gratuitously, by the 

 present curator, to the members and ladies of the University ; 

 and the citizens of Oxford have had the benefit, also, of 

 some instruction on this attractive study in the Ashmolean 

 Museum. 



To each class of animals is attached a tablet, describing, 

 1. the organic character of the class; 2. the scientific ar- 

 rangement of the animals in that class ; and, 3. the names 

 of such authors as have written the most useful works on 

 each branch of the science, many of which are in the library 

 of the Museum. Thus he who walks round the rooms may 

 collect much information on zoology in a morning's view, and 

 learn where to collect more. 



The interesting assortment of antiquities, coins, and cu- 

 riosities is now well arranged and exhibited. There has, 

 also, been lately published a catalogue, giving a general his- 

 tory of museums, a particular history of the Ashmolean Mu- 

 seum, and such an account of the specimens exhibited, with 

 a numerical reference to the name and donor of every article, 

 as will convey all the instruction that can be expected or 

 required. The valuable collection of books and MSS. is 

 now in good order; and a very minute catalogue of the 

 latter is in the press, and will, ere long, furnish much in- 

 teresting matter for the researches of the antiquary. 



The excellent collection of books of natural history in the 

 RadclifFe Library is now so accessible, by the liberality of 

 the present librarian, to whom we are indebted for a com- 

 plete catalogue of the same, that every facility for the study 

 of your favourite science is now presented in this University. 

 — W. Kirtland, UnderJceeper of the Museum, Ashmolean 

 Museum, April 5. 1837. 



The above letter was accompanied with a copy of the 

 catalogue, which is drawn up in a manner that will render it 

 extremely useful to those who consult the collection with 

 other objects in view than those of mere curiosity. We 

 extract from it the following short history of the Museum, 

 which may, probably, interest some of our readers : — 



" It is well known that the first collection of the curiosities, natural and 

 artificial, which now form but a small part of the contents of the Ashmo- 

 lean Museum, was made by John Tradescant, by birth a Duchman, who 

 is supposed to have come to England about the end of Queen Elizabeth's 

 or the beginning of James the First's reign. 



" He was a considerable time in the service of Lord Treasurer Salisbury 

 and Lord Wootton. He travelled in various parts of Europe, as far as 

 Russia; was in a fleet sent against the Algerines ; and collected plants in 

 Barbary and the isles of the Mediterranean. He had a garden at Lair.- 



