ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 29. 



formed large collections which he brought home and exhibited 

 in the Egyptian Hall, in 1824, in the form of two exhibitions 

 called " Ancient Mexico " and " Modern Mexico." From the 

 guide-books which I possess to all his exhibitions it is clear that 

 Bullock was a man of much enthusiasm for natural history and 

 archaeology. 



Before the days of the large museums of Lever and Bullock, 

 it was the custom to form small collections at houses of refresh- 

 ment as an attraction to the customers. Of these, perhaps, the 

 most famous was that in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, opened in 1695 

 by the eccentric John Salter, known as " Don Saltero." He had 

 been for many years in the service of Sir Hans Sloane, who had 

 given him most of the specimens with which he started the 

 museum that he called the " Chelsea Knackatory." Steele speaks 

 of " ten thousand gimcracks round the room and on the ceiling." 

 The miscellaneous assemblage of things included, however, a 

 large number of natural-history objects. Faulkner, the historian 

 of Chelsea, refers to " a great variety of petrifactions, corals, 

 chrystals, ores, shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed 

 animals from various parts of the world, idols, curious Chinese 

 manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes, butterflies, medals," etc. It 

 is the custom to smile and sneer at these old miscellaneous 

 collections, but Faulkner sympathetically remarks that they 

 " cherished the infancy of science, and should not be depreciated 

 now, as the playthings of a boy are scorned after he has arrived 

 at manhood." 36 



When Don Saltero's collection of curiosities was sold by 

 auction in 1799, the total amount realized was but little over 



£50! 



The days of Salter's " auld knick-knackets " are over, but 

 even at the present day collections of curiosities at public places 

 of refreshment are not altogether unknown ; witness, for example, 

 the museum of the Edinburgh Castle, in Camden Town, which 

 has become quite famous for the eggs of the Great Auk. 



Let us turn now to the county in which our Club is specially 

 interested. Whether any antiquary has ever been able to ascer- 

 tain when the first museum was formed in Essex, I know not. 

 Probably here as elsewhere private collections have always been 



36 An historical and topographical description of Chehea and its Environs. By Thomas 

 Faulkner. London : 18^9, vol. 1, p. 382. 



