CHAP. I.] 



THE PIRST DAT. 



71 



Ashmole. 



carefully and methodically at his house near to Lambeth r 



near London ; 1 as may get some 



belief of some of the other 



wonders I mentioned. I will 



tell you some of the wonders 



that you may now see, and not 



till then believe, unless you 



think fit. 



You may there see the hog- 

 fish, the dog-fish, the dolphin, the 

 coney-fish, the parrot-fish, the 

 shark, the poison-fish, sword- 

 fish, and not only other incre- 

 dible fish ; but you may there 

 see the salamander, several sorts of barnacles, of Solan 

 geese, the bird of Paradise ; such sorts of snakes, and such 

 bird's-nests, and of so various forms, and so wonderfully 

 made, as may beget wonder and amusement in any beholder ; 



The last dy'd in his spring : the other two 



Liv'd till they had travell'd 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. 



1 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 offi.ce of Windsor Herald, and wrote the "History of 

 the Order of the Grarter, " published in 1672, in folio. But addicting him- 

 self 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 : "llth 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 gmtias" H. 



