Our travellers, regaled with this notice,
imagined that they would be entertained with the sight of some
curious medals, or other productions of antiquity; but how were
they disappointed, when they saw nothing but a variety of shells,
disposed in whimsical figures, in each drawer! After he had detained
them full two hours with a tedious commentary upon the shape, size,
and colour of each department, he, with a supercilious simper,
desired that the English gentlemen would frankly and candidly
declare, whether his cabinet, or that of Mynheer Sloane, at London,
was the most valuable. When this request was signified in English
to the company, the painter instantly exclaimed, "By the Lard! they
are not to be named of a day. And as for that matter, I would not
give one corner of Saltero's coffee-house at Chelsea for all the
trash he hath shown." Peregrine, unwilling to mortify any person
who had done his endeavour to please him, observed, that what he
had seen was very curious and entertaining; but that no private
collection in Europe was equal to that of Sir Hans Sloane, which,
exclusive of presents, had cost an hundred thousand pounds.
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