MEMOIR OP SIR HANS SLOANE, BART. 15 



lent physician : after a short illness of three days he tranquilly 

 breathed his last, on January 11th, 1752. He was interred on the 

 18th, at Chelsea, in the same vault with his lady, the solemnity 

 being attended by the greatest concourse of persons of all ranks and 

 conditions that had been witnessed on any similar occasion. Seve- 

 ral members of the Royal Society were present, and the pall was 

 borne by six of that learned body. The funeral sermon was preach- 

 ed by Dr. Zachary Pearce, Bishop of Bangor, who delivered a very 

 affecting discourse from Psalm xc, 12, — "So teach us to number 

 our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" — but no 

 mention was made of the exalted qualities of the deceased, in conse- 

 quence of an express prohibition which he had pronounced a few 

 hours before his death, considering it "a profanation to debase, 

 with the praise of human excellence, the pulpit, which should be 

 devoted to display to man the greatness of the Supreme Being and 

 to instruct him in his laws." 



In the south-east corner of the church yard of the old church at 

 Chelsea, is a magnificent monument erected to the memory of Sir 

 Hans Sloane and his lady, executed by Wilton, the statuary ; it is 

 composed of Portland stone, on the top of which, under a portico, 

 supported by four pillars, is placed a beautiful vase, of the finest 

 white marble, with four serpents entwined round it, inimitably exe- 

 cuted, all out of one piece ; on each side is an entablature, the arms* 

 on one, and the crest on the other, with an inscription in memory 

 of his lady, and the following, dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane. 



In the memory of 



Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., 



President of the Royal Society 



And of the College of Physicians ; 



Who, in the year of our Lord 1753, 



The 92nd year of his age, 



Without the least pain of body, 



And with a conscious serenity of mind, 



Ended a virtuous and beneficial life, 



This monument was erected, 



By his two daughters, 



Eliz. Cadogan and Sarah Stanley.^ 



* Gules, a sword in pale, point downwards, blade and hilt or, between two 

 boars' heads couped at the neck ; on a chief ermine, a lion passant, of the 

 first between two mascles, sable. Crest, a lion's head erased, collared with 

 mascles, interlaced sable. 



$ Faulkner's Chelsea, pp. 67, 68. 



