THE GREAT MUSEUMS OF BRITAIN. 67 



eminence, but he acquired also a high scientific reputa- 

 tion. For nearly twenty years (1693 to 1712) he held the 

 secretaryship of the Royal Society ; and for thirteen years 

 (1727-40) he was the president of that learned body. 

 His works on botany and natural history had rendered 

 him well known among naturalists generally; and the 

 wealth which he had acquired in the practice of his 

 profession enabled him not only to keep open house for 

 the benefit of scientific workers from all countries, but 

 also to promote scientific research in various ways. His 

 later life was wholly free from perturbation, or, indeed, 

 eventful occurrences of any kind. When close upon 

 eighty years of age, he retired from active practice, and 

 from public life generally, and resided peacefully in a 

 house which he possessed at Chelsea, where he lived 

 about fourteen years. His friend George Edwards, natu- 

 ralist and artist, used often to visit him at this period of his 

 life, * to divert him for an hour or two with the common 

 news of the town, and with anything particular that 

 should happen amongst his acquaintances of the Royal 

 Society;' and to him we owe an interesting picture of 

 Sir Hans Sloane's latest years. He died on the loth 

 of January 1753, at the age of ninety-three years. 



From a scientific point of view, Sir Hans Sloane is 

 best known as the founder of the noble national collection 

 of natural history which is familiar to every one as the 

 British Museum. Two centuries ago, museums had hardly 

 any existence, and there was no public collection of natural 

 objects in Great Britain. The first collection of which 

 there is any record in this country was the property of 

 John Tradescant, a native of Holland, who had travelled 



