mysterious field of nervous action entitles him to as high a place among the scientific worthies of Leicester Square as John Hunter himself. He died of the same disease as John Hunter, angina pectoris, on the 27th of April, 1842.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SHOWS OF THE SQUARE.

HE most remarkable of these dates back to 1771, in which year Mr.

(afterwards Sir) Ashton Lever, of

Alkrington, near Manchester, removed from his country seat there, to Leicester House, his large and really curious museum, which was exhibited there till its removal, shortly before his death, in 1788. He called his collection the "Holophusikon," as embracing the whole of nature. It included quadrupeds, birds, fishes, shells, corals, fossils, implements, arms and dresses of savage nations, antiquities, and other curiosities of every conceivable kind. Nothing seems to have come amiss to this most indefatigable and miscellaneous of collectors.

His life is a curious illustration of

the collecting mania.

The fullest biography1

of him I have been able to find, tells us that

"He was the eldest son of Sir Darcey Lever, knight, of old family. His father dying when he was twelve, left him to the care of an excellent mother. From his schooldays, his passion for excelling was shown. He always had the greatest quantity of marbles, the largest top, and the highest pair of stilts. As he grew older, his horses were the best managed, his dogs the best taught, and his horsemanship not to be excelled. At Oxford he is still remembered for his horsemanship, as well amongst the gentlemen of the university as the several persons who obtain their livelihood by letting out these animals.

"Leaving Oxford for his paternal seat, the turn for natural history began to show itself by his collecting live birds. At one time he had nearly 4,000; and we are informed he frequently rode from London to Alkrington, with cages full of birds, which he brought safe by holding them with a full-stretched arm, and galloping till the arm was tired, and then stopping to change hands. He had, at the same time, the best trained pack of beagles in his neighbourhood, and pointers in such perfection, that he is known to have had fifteen in the field all making a point at the same instant. He had frequently five or six hunters at the same time, all lying down and rising at the word of command, fetching, carrying, opening and shutting doors, and many other tricks. He was equally successful with the feathered tribe. He has taught a bullfinch to fly from its cage and light upon the hand of its master, sing one of its tunes at the word of command, and fly back to its cage as

1 In the "European Magazine" for August, 1784.

directed; a goose, who has been managed in such a manner as to perform, in part, the office of a servant, and wait behind his chair at table, with a napkin under its wing. He always allowed his grooms to teach his method of managing his horses to any one who desired to see and learn it.

About 1760, Sir Ashton, being at Margate, was in the habit of picking up curious shells, which a gentleman observing, informed him of a quantity of curious foreign shells to be sold at Dunkirk. He immediately hired a boat, and sailed to France, where he purchased the whole cargo, consisting of several hogsheads, which he sent down into the country. With these he commenced his grand pursuits. Fossils, both native and extraneous, together with shells, took up for some time his whole attention. Many of his rare birds he gave to his friends, and made a kind of gaol delivery of the rest. At this period, stuffed birds had not been objects of his notice; but on viewing the collection exhibited in Spring Gardens, he determined to rival and exceed that in as high a degree as he had already obtained the superiority over any other museum [in shells and fossils, presumably].

All these pursuits, thus far, were entirely for his own amusement. But the celebrity of his collection began to draw after it a large expense. Parties from all quarters came to visit it; and such was his natural disposition to give pleasure, that he admitted not only his particular friends, but their acquaintances, both to the sight of his museum and the entertainment of his table. The great crowds which daily flocked to his house obliged him, at last, to fix upon one day in the week only for the entertainment of the public at large; and some thousands, we are told, have been gratified on those days. At length, he found it necessary to contract the number of his visitors

GG

still more, and exclude those who should come on foot. This he notified in the Manchester newspapers. Soon after this regulation, a party came, who, according to the rules laid down, could not be admitted; but one of the gentlemen, in order to obviate the objection, mounted a cow in a neighbouring lane, and rode back to the house, where he soon procured admission for himself and his friends. Among his visitors were many of the first nobility, who frequently recommended him not to bury his collection in an obscure corner of the kingdom, and pressed him to remove it to London, in order that it might be of public utility. Some of them promised him patronage in the strongest terms. (Too credulous Sir Ashton!) He at length acceded to their proposals, contrary to the opinion of his relatives, and particularly of his mother, who, we are informed, never could be brought to approve the plan. Had he been encouraged in the manner he had every reason to expect, it is probable he would have been able to collect every bird and quadruped in the known world, as all gentlemen who came to see him, and had any connection in foreign countries, wished to contribute something to his collection."

So poor Ashton Lever, who seems to have had no other design in his collection than to outstrip all collections on record, hired Leicester House, in 1771, and opened it to the public at 5s. 3d. a head (afterwards reduced to half-a-crown); with annual tickets at two guineas, and family tickets at five. Alas, he soon found, like all exhibitors who attempt to blend instruction with amusement, that the day-visitors were few, and the