SIR HANS SLOANE. 65 



stones, and feathers of birds vying with gems. 

 Here the remains of the world, before the Deluge, 

 excited the awful idea of that catastrophe ; and 

 are so many evident testimonies to the truth of 

 Moses's history." 



" Then a noble vista presented itself through 

 several rooms filled with books, and many hundred 

 volumes of dried plants ; a room full of choice and 

 valuable manuscripts ; the noble present sent by 

 the French King to Sir Hans, being prints of his 

 collection of paintings, medals, statues, palaces, &c. 

 in twenty-five large atlas volumes, besides other 

 valuable things, too numerous to mention here." 



" Below stairs, some rooms were filled with 

 curious remains of antiquities, from Egypt, 

 Greece, Etruria, Rome, Britain, and even 

 America ; others with large animals preserved in 

 the skin ; the great saloon lined on every side 

 with bottles filled with spirits, containing various 

 animals. The halls were adorned with the horns 

 of various creatures, as of the double horned 

 rhinoceros of Africa, and deers* horns from Ireland, 

 nine feet wide, and with weapons of different 

 countries ; among which it appears, that the 

 Mangalese, and not our most Christian neigh- 

 oours, the French, had the honour of inventing 

 that butcherly weapon, the bayonet. Fifty 

 volumes in folio would scarcely suffice to contain 

 a detail of this immense museum, consisting of 



ove two hundred thousand articles. 



