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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