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.
“Sir, fifty years since to Chelsea great,
From Rodman, on the Irish main,
I stroll’d, and maggots in my pate,
Where, much impro’d, they still remain.
Through various employes I’ve past,
A scraper, virtuos’, projector,
Tooth drawer, trimmer, and at last
I’m now a gimcrack-whim collector.
Monsters of all sorts here are seen,
Strange things in nature as they grow so,
Some relics of the Sheha queen,
And fragments of the fam’d Bob Crusoe.
Knick-knacks, too, dangle round the wall,
Some in glass cases, some on shelf,
But what’s the rarest right of all,
Your humble servant shows himself.
On this my chiefest hope depends,
Now if you will the cause espouse,
In journals pray direct your friends
To my Museum Coffee-House:
And, in requital for the timely favour,
I’ll gratis bleed, draw teeth, and be your shaver.
Nay, that your pate may with my noddle tarry,
And you shine bright as I do—marry, shall ye
Freely consult your Revelation Molly.
Nor shall one jealous thought create a huff,
For she has taught me manners long enough.”Chelsea Knackatory.
DON SALTERO.
Dr. Franklin, in his Life, mentions coming to Chelsea to see Don Saltero’s collection:—“We one day (says he) made a party to go by water to Chelsea, in order to see the College, and Don Saltero’s curiosities. On our return, at the request of the company, I undressed myself, and leaped into the river. I swam from near Chelsea the whole way to Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my course, a variety of feats of activity and address, both upon the surface of the water as well as under it. The sight occasioned much astonishment and pleasure to those to whom it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exercise.”
This noted coffee-house was for many years, in the present century, conducted in a most respectable manner. There was a subscription room, where gentlemen met and conversed, and which was frequently visited by men of literature and science, many of whom are still living, but of late years it had lost the celebrity of former days. It was rebuilt in 1867, is now a capital private residence.
Henry Redhead Yorke, Esq.—This accomplished scholar died at his residence, at No. 19, Cheyne Walk, in 1813, in the 41st year of his age. He was a great classical scholar. In his youth as he himself expressed it, he was “madly in love with ideal liberty.” He became an officer in the French army, and a member of the National Convention, and personally acquainted with all the leading characters of the French Revolution. He was denounced by Robespierre; and but for a friendly hint from the celebrated Condorcet, must have been guillotined, had he been one hour longer in making his escape.
In the month of March, 1798, he was liberated from Dorchester Castle, after an imprisonment of four years, for a seditious libel. He had paid a fine of £200, and entered into securities for £2,000.
Some years previous to his death his political ideas became moderated, and he manifested a strong sense of the value of the British constitution. He had been called to the bar; a profession for which he was highly qualified, and in which there was every reason to hope he would have risen to high eminence, had his life been prolonged. Indeed, the zeal with which he devoted himself to his various professional pursuits, hastened, if it did not bring on, the disorder which put a period to his existence at the comparative early age of forty-one years. As a classical scholar, and nervous elegant writer, he has left few equals. His letters, under the signature of “Galgacus,” have scarcely been surpassed since the days of Junius. In private life, Mr. Yorke was distinguished for benevolence and liberality of sentiment, openness of character, and his company was courted by men of all parties.