MEAD. 165 mond-street, he had built a gallery, which only his opulence and taste could have filled. The printed catalogue of his library contains 6592 separate numbers ; the most rare and ancient works were to be found there : Oriental, Greek, and Latin ma- nuscripts formed no inconsiderable part. His col- lection of statues, coins, gems, prints, and drawings will, probably, remain for ever unrivalled amongst private amateurs. His pictures alone were sold, at his death, for 3400/. Ingenious men sought in his house the best aid for their undertakings, and in the owner their most enlightened, as well as most liberal patron. He constantly kept in his pay several scholars and artists, who laboured, at his expense, for the benefit of the pubhc. His correspondence extended to all the prin- cipal literati of Europe. They consulted him, and sent him curious presents, but in such acts he was those physicians who, not satisfied with a life of liberality, have considered, in their last moments, in what manner they might render themselves most beneficial to posterity. The foundation of the British Museum was the immediate result of his will, in which he directs, that, after his disease (which occurred in 1753) the whole of his museum of natural and artificial curiosities, which had cost him fifty thousand pounds, should be offered to Parliament for the moderate sum of twenty thousand pounds, to be paid to his family. The contents of his collection were very various, and con- sisted of a library of 50,000 volumes, of 23,000 medals and coins, of anatomical preparations, specimens of natural history, and a variety of other objects, whose particulars were entered in a catalogue, comprising thirty-eight volumes folio, and eight volumes quarto : such was the origin of the British jMuseum, which was opened in 1759. Thirty years before his death, Sloane had presented to the company of Apothecaries his botanical gardens at Chelsea j and they have erected a statue of the founder in front of the green- house.
