54 THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



The high opinion of Sloane held by foreign 

 men of science is shown by Kalm's diary. 1 



Edmund Howard, Sloane 's literary care- 

 taker in the empty Beaufort House, said of his 

 master that although he " had been acquainted 

 with men superior to him both in natural 

 talents and acquired accomplishments," he was 

 " easy of access, very affable, and free in 

 conversing with all who had any concerns with 

 him, and a good master to his servants, for they 

 lived many years with him. He was also a 

 good landlord, and never that I know or heard 

 of did one harsh thing by any of his tenants." 



Of Sloane it may fairly be said that he served 

 his generation. a 



Many years after his death, when the 

 descendants of Sloane in Chelsea, and the 

 descendants of Mary Davies in Mayfair, had 

 allowed streets and squares to cover the fields 

 of the Manor of Chelsea, and the damp meadows 

 of the Manor of Ebury when Hans Town and 

 Belgravia had joined hands over the West- 

 bourne a street had been made on the eastern 

 boundary of Chelsea, and given the name of the 

 man who just 200 years ago saved the Physic 

 Garden, and by his will founded the British 

 Museum. It was an inspiration ; for Sloane 

 Street well represents the life of Sir Hans 

 Sloane. Those who walk all the way down it 

 know that it is very long, obviously prosperous 

 and perfectly straight ! 



1 See page 63 infra. 



* The conventional engraving of Sloane probably conveys as 

 little of the real man as the bust of Shakespeare with its wooden 

 expression, does of the poet. 



