272 BRITISH BIRDS. 



decayed by time and neglect was ordered to be removed/' 

 Fortunately, however, " a small portion of this last 

 descendant of an ancient race escaped the clutches 

 of the destroyer. The head and one of the feet were 

 saved from the flames, and are still preserved in the 

 Ashmolean Museum " (Strickland, p. 32). 



We have no space to deal with the remainder of 

 Tradescant's book here ; it contains in all one hundred 

 and seventy-eight pages of catalogue, of which by far 

 the larger portion is devoted to his botanical collection, 

 and ends with a list of " Principall Benefactors to the 

 precedent Collection " — beginning with King Charles, 

 and Queen Mary, and enumerating many of the most 

 famous men of the day, including Elias Ashmole, with 

 whom the j'ounger Tradescant became acquainted in 

 1650, through his lodging at Tradescant's house. John 

 Tradescant the younger died in 1662, and bequeathed 

 his collection to his friend, to whom it passed in 1677 

 after the death of Tradescant's widow, and it then 

 became incorporated in the famous Ashmolean Museum. 

 Tradescant's Museum, or " Ark " as it was generally 

 called, " attracted the curiosity of the age, and was 

 much frequented by the great, " and it is therefore not 

 surprising to find that the ever-indefatigable Evelyn 

 knew it well. Under date of September 17th, 1657, 

 he notes : — 



" To see Sir Robert Needham at Lambeth, a relation of 

 mine ; and thence to John Tradescant's musseum, in which 

 the chiefest rarities were, in my opinion, the ancient Roman, 

 Indian, and other nations' armour, shields and weapons ; 

 some habits of curiously-colour'd and wrought feathers, 

 one from y' phoenix wing as tradition goes. Other innumer- 

 able things there were, printed in his Catalogue by Mr. 

 Ashmole, to Avhom after the death of the widow they are 

 bequeath'd and by him design'd as a gift to Oxford." 



And, again, on July 23rd, he records : " Went to see Mr. Elias 

 Ashmole's library and Curiosities at Lambeth. . . . The 

 famous John Tradescant bequeathed his Repository to this 

 gentleman, mIio has given them to the L^niversity of Oxford, 



