FAILING HEALTH, BUT UNFLAGGING ZEAL 283 



being so notorious deter people from regarding him as 

 the first and last authority in the scientific world. All 

 were so habituated to seek his patronage, or assistance, 

 or advice, that they could not forbear going to "the 

 fountain head," as they had done for thirty years or more. 

 And this is true, not only of the numberless obscure, 

 with their gleams of fortune if only Sir Joseph could be 

 induced to give them a lift. It was just the same with 

 those of his own rank, of his own fellow- workers in science. 

 His influence had become solid and overwhelming. There 

 was, for one example, an attempt to form a garden in the 

 new Regent's Park, for Botanical and Horticultural study. 

 Dr. John Latham, a distinguished physician and botanist ; 

 John Gait ; and some other well-known gentlemen were 

 in the project. It actually fell through because Banks's 

 countenance was considered indispensable, and this was 

 not forthcoming. And Regent's Park waited for its 

 Garden until 1839, wnen ^ was begun under the auspices 

 of the Royal Botanic Society. 



The episode of Mr. Salt and the Egyptian antiquities 

 is one of the latest semi-public affairs in which Sir Joseph 

 was concerned. 



The dramatis persona are Lord Valentia, a renowned 

 traveller of the time ; Henry Salt, his secretary and 

 draughtsman ; Nathaniel Pearce, their servant ; and 

 Mr. W. Hamilton, orientalist, and a prominent member 

 of the cultured world. Valentia and Banks were on terms 

 of intimacy, so that an acquaintance with Salt followed 

 in due course. Salt made another important journey, on 

 embassy from the British Government to the King of 

 Abyssinia ; and six years afterward was made Consul- 

 General for Egypt. 



Sir Joseph Banks, who was now giving up to Archae- 

 ology a full share of the energies he had hitherto lent to 

 Natural History, was now an assiduous student of relics, 

 antique gems, " tombstones," and such-like. He sug- 



