76 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



The last cly'd in his spring ; the other two 



Liv'd till they had travelled art and nature thro' ; 



As by their choice collections may appear, 



Of what is rare in land, in seas, in air ; 



Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut) 



A world of wonders in one closet shut. 



These famous antiquarians that had been 



Both gardeners to the Rose and Lily queen 



Transplanted now themselves, sleep here. And when 



Angels shall with their trumpets waken men, 



And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise, 



And change their gardens for a Paradise. 



The Tradescants were the first collectors of natural curiosities 

 in this kingdom ; Ashmole and Sir Hans Sloane were the next. 

 H. 



k Ashmole was, at first, a solicitor in Chancery ; but marrying a 

 lady with a large fortune, and being well skilled in history and 

 antiquities, he was promoted to the office of Windsor Herald, and 

 wrote the " History of the Order of the Garter," published in 1672, 

 in folio. But addicting himself to the then fashionable studies of 

 chemistry and judicial astrology, and associating himself with that 

 enthusiast, John Aubrey, Esq., of Surrey, and Lilly the astrologer, 

 he became a dupe to the knavery of the one and the follies of 

 both, and lost in a great measure the reputation he had acquired 

 by this and other of his writings. Of his weakness and superstition 

 he has left on record this memorable instance : "nth April, 1681, 

 I took, early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three 

 spiders about my neck; and they drove my ague away. Deo 



1 Conrad Gesner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was born 

 at Zurich in 1 5 1 6. His skill in botany and natural history procured 

 him the appellation of the Pliny of Germany, and Beza, who kneM 

 him, scrupled not to assert that he concentred in himself the 

 learning of Pliny and Varro. Nor was he more distinguished for 



