OXFORD. ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM. 321 
in nature, both named John Tradescant, a father 
and son. The father was, in 1629, gardener to 
King Charles I. The son travelled in North 
America, and imported new plants to the garden, 
and rarities to the museum, which was called the 
Ark, and duly visited by the dignified and the en- 
lightened. The younger Tradescant bequeathed the 
museum, in 1662, to Ashmole, who was his friend, 
and the inmate of his house. The collection was’ 
certainly begun when natural science was in its in- 
fancy. Conrad Gesner, the illustrious and profoundly 
learned father of modern zoology, died in 1565. 
Aldrovandus had died poor and blind in the hospital 
of his native city, on which his learning conferred 
glory, in the year 1605. His works, however, 
together with those of Gesner, doubtless, gave stimu- 
lus and guidance to the labours of the Tradescants. 
Ray and Willughby were nearly contemporary with 
the son. If we suppose the elder Tradescant to 
have begun his collection in the year 1600, it will 
not be a subject of wonder that most of the skins of 
the animals should be in a state quite unserviceable 
to the purposes of science in the year 1824, when a 
renovation of this department of the museum was 
attempted. Several skins of fishes and _ reptiles, 
horns of African beasts, and bones of the elephant, 
the hippopotamus, and the grampus, still attest the 
well-directed ardour of the Tradescants. The legs 
and beaks of a few birds also are preserved, among 
which two deserve especial notice: one is the beak 
of the helmet hornbill, from the East Indies, which 
has been but lately imported in the entire state, 
having been long suspected to have been a foolish 
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