04 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Lord Salisbury that he had told the King- of the Virginia 

 squirrels brought into England, which were said to flv. The 

 King very earnestly asked if none were provided for him — 

 whether Salisbury had none for him — and said he was sure 

 Salisbury would get him one. The writer apologizes for 

 troubling Lord Salisbury, "but," he continues, "you know 

 so well how he (the King) is affected to such toys." 



Charles I. appears to have been equally curious in such mat- 

 ters. In 1637 he sent John Tradescant, the younger, to Vir- 

 ginia " to gather all rarities of flowers, plants, and shells." 



In 1625 we find Tradescant writing to one Nicholas that it 

 is the Duke of Buckingham's pleasure that he should deal with 

 all merchants from all places, but especially from Virginia, 

 Bermudas, Newfoundland, Guinea, the Amazons, and the East 

 Indies for all manner of rare beasts, fowls and birds, shells and 

 shining stones, et cetera.* 



In the Domestic Correspondence of Charles I. in another 

 place. t July, 1625, is a " Note of things desired from Guinea, 

 for which letters arc to be written to the merchants of the 

 Guinea company.'' Among other items referred to are " an 

 elephant's head, with the teeth very large; a river-horse's head; 

 strange sorts of fowls : birds' and fishes' skins ; great flying and 

 sucking fishes ; all sorts of serpents ; dried fruits, shining stones, 

 etc." Still further on is a note of one Jeremy Blackmail's 

 charge — in all, £20 — for transporting four deer from Virginia, 

 including corn and a place made of wood for them to lie in. J 



Not only did the kings make collections, but the keepers of 

 public houses made museums then, as they do now, for the pleas- 

 ure of their patrons. 



At the middle of the last century there appear to have been 

 several collections of curiosities. 



* Calendar of Colonial Papers, 1625, p. 75. 



fVol. iv, Nos. 155-6. Cal., p. 77. 



% Calendar of Colonial Papers-, p. 285. 



