151 



HAN(i TJLL K. SV. VET.-AKAl). IIAN])!,. HANU 13. AFJ). lY. N:0 5. !' 



king table in tlic palace as regulaiiy as in liis owb qviiet liome 

 at l"psala. jjiit sigus are not wanting that the Queeu in lier 

 imperious tiirn of mind oftener than was agreable felt callcd 

 upon to favour him witli licr remarks, and to urge the speedy 

 complction of a task the laboriousness of wliich she Avas far 

 from eom])rehendiug^), and that it is to sucli gracious snr- 

 veilhxuce Linn.eus shrewdly alludcs in the dedication to the 

 Queen of the iMnseum Ludovica^ Ulrica?, when he declares 

 that /^whenever his descriptions had cnjoyed the honour of 

 being drawn up nnder Her Majesty's own most radiant eyes, 

 he had felt that the difference between writing at court and 

 in one's own Museum was fnllv as o-reat as between a hi- 

 bonrer's toilino- in the hottest suushino and his doiny- the same 

 work in the eoolest shade». The entry of a sum paid for 

 the present of some platc'-), and -a l)cautiful golden ring with 

 a ruby», the gift of the Queen in the beginning of 1753'^). 

 perhaps impiy some degree of atoncment for many an annoy- 

 iug word. No doubt, also, some amends h^y in »the charm 

 of conversinp- everv dav with such a o-reat and highminded 

 Queen, a pleasure that wcll nigh luid made Linn^eus a cour- 

 tier, a thiug he had never dreamt of.»*) 



Thanks to the close correspondence LiNNJiUS held with 

 his friend Bäck, we ha^e becn enabled to follow him in his 

 work and movements duriug this period almost from day to 

 day. It appears that the two summer-visits to Drottningholm 

 in 1751 and 17Ö2, making in all about thirteen weeks, and 

 the three visits to Ulriksdal in 17')o and 1754, of niue weeks, 

 wcre the real working periods allotted to both eollections. 

 Wluit foUows will aiford ample cvidence that the Museum 

 Ludoviciii Ulrica: has becn written in all its essential jiarts 

 in 1751 and 1752. 



In the latin preface to the M. L. V . LiNN/EUS says: »Cou- 

 jeci in Schedulas observatiunculas nonnuUas meas, proprio 



') »Let me kiiow if the Queen should press the work», ■ — >It cannot 

 be (tone as speedily as ordered», — »liet her not become impatient>, — 

 >I shudder wheuever Drottningholm is mentioned, when there I feel as 

 if in prison-. — L. to BÄCK, '/k 'Vi, ^^t 52: ^'\'. Ö3. 



^J Nov. 19. 17.51: »A Mr Wittkopf pour argenterie donnée å Mr LlN- 

 N.tius, 913 D. Copper», or Crowns 383,40, = f 21, s. 3. 



^) Egeuh. Ant. p. 52. 



*) Egenh. Ant. p. .50. 



