A VISIT TO ENGLAND 319 



employment at Hartecamp was varied by a journey to 

 England, at Clifford's expense, to see the nursery-grounds 

 of London and Oxford, and the North American plants 

 cultivated in both places. This scheme promised him 

 an interesting comparison of plants growing in the same 

 latitude and the same hard climate as Sweden, as well 

 as the sight of some newly-imported specimens of a 

 vastly richer Flora in the juxta-tropical zone on the 

 other side of the Atlantic. 



Sir Hans Sloane was at the head of natural history 

 in England, and to him Linnaeus carried a warm recom- 

 mendation in a letter of introduction from Boerhaave, 

 couched in flattering terms an unusual thing as coming 

 from Boerhaave. It was written in Latin, in this style : 

 ' Linnasus, who will deliver to you this letter, is alone 

 worthy of seeing you and of being seen by you. They 

 who witness your meeting will behold two men whom 

 the world can scarcely equal.' This elegant letter may 

 still be seen, by anyone who takes a good deal of trouble 

 about it, in the British Museum. 



Carrying the precious letter in his pocket, Linnasus 

 embarked at Rotterdam for Harwich. The run down to 

 Rotterdam shows some ultra-Dutch landscape scenery, 

 with bright gleams of Cuyp-like sunshine upon it. 

 In Holland one always thinks of the painters; yet 

 perhaps as pretty a scene as any, and as truly Dutch, 

 although no old master has translated it, is the view on 

 the Boompjes, looking across the moon-lighted river to 

 the willowy bank on the other side ; the whole seen 



