ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
29
formed large collections which he brought home and exhibited
in the Egyptian Hall, in 1824, in ths form of two exhibitions
called "Ancient Mexico" and "Modern Mexico." From the
guide-books which I possess to all his exhibitions it is clear that
Bullock was a man of much enthusiasm for natural history and
archaeology.
Before the days of the large museums of Lever and Bullock,
it was the custom to form small collections at houses of refresh-
ment as an attraction to the customers. Of these, perhaps, the
most famous was that in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, opened in 1695
by the eccentric John Salter, known as "Don Saltero." He had
been for many years in the service of Sir Hans Sloane, who had
given him most of the specimens with which he started the
museum that he called the "Chelsea Knackatory." Steele speaks
of "ten thousand gimcracks round the room and on the ceiling."
The miscellaneous assemblage of things included, however, a
large number of natural-history objects. Faulkner, the historian
of Chelsea, refers to "a great variety of petrifactions, corals,
crystals, ores, shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed
animals from various parts of the world, idols, curious Chinese
manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes, butterflies, medals," etc. It
is the custom to smile and sneer at these old miscellaneous
collections, but Faulkner sympathetically remarks that they
"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."36
When Don Saltero's collection of curiosities was sold by
auction in 1799, the total amount realized was but little over
The days of Salter's "auld knick-knackets" are over, but
even at the present day collections of curiosities at public places
of refreshment are not altogether unknown ; witness, for example,
the museum of the Edinburgh Castle, in Camden Town, which
has become quite famous for the eggs of the Great Auk.
Let us turn now to the county in which our Club is specially
interested. Whether any antiquary has ever been able to ascer-
tain when the first museum was formed in Essex, I know not.
Probably here as elsewhere private collections have always been
36 An historical and topographical description of Chelsea and its Environs. By Thomas
Faulkner. London: 1829, vol. 1, p..382.