THE COMPLETE ANGLER 43 



added by my friend Elias Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps 

 them carefully and methodically at his house near to 

 Lambeth near London, as may get some belief of some 

 of the other wonders I mentioned. I will tell you some 

 of the wonders that you may now see, and not till then 

 believe, unless you think fit. 



You may see the hog-fish, the dog-fish, the dolphin, the 

 coney-fish, the parrot-fish, the shark, the poison-fish, 

 sword-fish, and not only other incredible fish, but you 

 may there see the salamander, several sorts of barnacles, 

 and Solan geese, the bird of Paradise, such sorts of 

 snakes, and such bird's-nests, and of so various forms, 

 and so wonderfully made, as may beget wonder and 

 amusement in any beholder : and so many hundred of 

 other rarities in that collection, as will make the other 

 wonders I spake of, the less incredible ; for you may note, 

 that the waters are nature's store-house, in which she 

 locks up her wonders. 



But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem tedious, I shall 

 give it a sweet conclusion out of that holy poet Mr. 

 George Herbert his divine " Contemplation on God's 

 Providence." 



Lord, who hath praise enough ; nay, who hath any ? 



None can express Thy works, but he that knows them ; 

 And none can know Thy works, they are so many, 



And so complete, but only he that owes them. 



tracted an acquaintance with the last of them, and together with his 

 wife boarded at his house for a summer, during which Ashmole 

 agreed for the purchase of Tradescant's collection, and the same 

 was conveyed to him by a deed of gift from Tradescant and his wife. 

 Tradescant soon after died, and Ashmole was obliged to file a bill in 

 the Court of Chancery for the delivery of the curiosities, and suc- 

 ceeded in his suit. Mrs. Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing 

 the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with 

 what additions he afterwards made to it, Mr. Ashmole gave to the 

 University of Oxford, and so became the founder of the Ashmolean 

 Museum. A monument for all the three Tradescants, very curiously 

 ornamented with sculptures, is to be seen in Lambeth churchyard. 

 The Tradescants were the first collectors of natural curiosities in this 

 kingdom, and Ashmole and Sir Hans Sloane were the second. H. 



