12 MEMOIR OF SIR HANS SLOANE, BART. 



natural beds, or state as they are found in the earth. Here the 

 most magnificent vessels of cornelian, onyx, sardonyx, and jasper, 

 delighted the eye. When their royal highnesses had viewed one 

 room, and went into another, the scene was shifted ; for when they 

 returned the same tables were covered, for a second course, with all 

 sorts of jewels, polished and set after the modern fashion, or with 

 engraved gems; for the third course, the tables were spread with 

 gold and silver ores, with the most precious and remarkable orna- 

 ments used in the habits of man, from Siberia to the Cape of Good 

 Hope, from Japan to Peru ;j and with both ancient and mo- 

 dern coins, and medals in gold and silver, the lasting monu- 

 ments of historical facts : as those of a Pope Gregory XIII., re- 

 cording, on a silver medal, his blind zeal for religion, in perpetuat- 

 ing thereon the massacre of the protestants in France ; as did 

 Charles IX., the then reigning king in that country. Here may 

 be seen the coins of a king of England crowned at Paris; a 

 medal, representing France and Spain striving which should first 

 pay their obeisance to Britannia ; the happy deliverance of Britain 

 by the arrival of King William ; the glorious exploits of a Duke of 

 Marlborough, and the happy arrival of the present illustrious royal 

 family amongst us. 



" The gallery, one hundred and ten feet in length, presented a most 

 surprising prospect ; the most beautiful corals, crystals, and figured 

 stones, and feathers of birds vying with gems; here the remains of 

 the antediluvian world excited the awful idea of that great catas- 

 trophe, so many evident testimonies of the truth of Moses's history. 

 Then a noble vista presented itself filled with books ; among these 

 many hundred volumes of dried plants ; a room full of choice and 

 valuable MSS. ; the noble present sent by the French king to Sir 

 Hans of his collection of paintings, medals, statues, palaces, &c, in 

 twenty-five large atlas volumes, besides other things too many to 

 mention here. Below stairs, some rooms are filled with the curious 

 and venerable antiquities of Egypt, Greece, Etruria, Rome, Britain, 

 and even America ; others with large animals preserved in the skin, 

 the great saloon lined, on every side, with bottles filled with spirits, 

 containing various animals. The halls are adorned with the horns 

 of divers creatures, and with weapons of different countries ; among 



•j* This collection formed what is now called an Ethnographical Museum, 

 comprising materials foi the study of the customs and modes of life of the 

 various branches of the human race; such as is to be found at St. Peters- 

 burgh, in Holland, and various other places, and such as we think might 

 form a separate department, with a curator, in our own National Museum. 



