“It may be thought, perhaps, I have dwelt too long upon the affairs of this operator; but I desire the reader to remember that it is my way to consider men as they stand in merit, and not according to their fortune or figure; and if he is in a coffee-house at the reading hereof, let him look round, and he will find there may be more characters drawn in this account than that of Don Saltero; for half the politicians about him, he may observe, are, by their place in nature, of the class of tooth-drawers.” The curiosities of this collection were deposited in glass-cases, and consisted of a great variety of petrifactions, corals, chrystals, ores, shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed animals from various parts of the world, idols, curious Chinese manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes, butterflies, medals, models, fire-arms, fishes, portraits, prints, &c. A catalogue of the whole was printed, with the names of the donors affixed; and under the management of skilful hands this collection could not have failed to produce ample remuneration and profit. * * * * * Such collections, aided by those of Tradescant, Ashmole, and Thoresby, cherished the infancy of science, and should not be depreciated now, as the playthings of a boy are scorned after he has arrived at manhood. Mr. Pennant’s ancestor, who lived at Chelsea, often took his great nephew, Mr. Pennant’s father, to the coffee-house, where he used to see poor Richard Cromwell, a little and very neat old man, with a most placid countenance, the effect of his innocent and unambitious life. He imagines this was Don Saltero’s coffee-house, to which he was a benefactor, and has the honour of having his name mentioned in the collection. {111} * * * * * Mr. Pennant, when a boy, saw “his uncle’s gift to the great Saltero,” which was “a lignified hog.” What Mr. Pennant thus facetiously denominates, is called, in the edition of Saltero’s catalogue that we have seen, “a piece of a root of a tree that grew in the shape of an hog.” He feared this matchless curiosity was lost; at least, it is omitted in the last, or forty-seventh edition of the catalogue. * * * * * What author, except Mr. Pennant, can flatter himself with delivering his works down to posterity in impressions so numerous as the labours of Don Saltero? The name of Don Saltero made its first appearance in the newspaper, June 22nd, 1723; whence the following account of himself and his rarities is extracted.