Memoir Of Elias Ashmole.

1657 , he was admitted a member (? student ) of the Middle Temple , and the year following began collecting the materials for the great work he purposed writing on the Most Noble of the Garter . It was in the course of these labours that he was brought into contact with the Rev . Dr . Christopher Wren , Dean of Windsor and Registrar of the Order , and father of the celebrated Sir Christopher Wrenarchitect of St . Paul ' setc ., etc . Dr . Wren greatly

, , encouraged and assisted Ashmole in his researches , so that though the work was not published till 1672 , Ashmole had well nigh collected all the requisite materials for his history by the time the Restoration of the Stuarts took place in 1660 . Further , it was in 1658 that he formally and publicly took leave , in a friendly spirit , of the Hermetic philosophers , whom he had always respected , but whose grotesque absurdities he had never actively abetted .

This farewell took the shape of a work , entitled " The Way to Bliss ; in Three Books ; made public by Elias Ashmole , Esq . Qui est Mercuriophilus Anglicus . London : 1658 . 4 to . " There is but little to be added to the story of this part of Iris career . On the 21 st August , 1659 , his study was broken open by the soldiers , under pretence of making search for King Charles II . —so , at least it is stated in the memoir introductory to the "Antiquities of Berkshire ; " while on 16 th December of the same year , Mr . John Tradescant , junior , and his wife , made over , by deed of gift to Elias Ashmole the rare collection which his father and

himself , who had successively and successfully followed the profession of " Physic-gardeners , " had made in a long course of years ; this collection being subsequently the greater part of what , years later , Ashmole , in turn , presented to the University of Oxford , and still forms part of the present collection in the Ashmolean Museum With reference to this deed of gift , which appears to have been made in consequence , of Ashmole ' s frequent residence at the house of the Tradescants ' in South Lambethand the strong friendshiwhich

, , p followed , it is mentioned in the account of Ashmole ' s life , in Knight ' s " English Cyclopeedia , " that on her husband ' s death Mrs . Tradescant , in whose hands the deed remained , disputed its validity , ancl it was not till long after , by a suit in the Court of Chancery , and when judgment had been given in Ashmole ' s favour by Lord Clarendon , that Mrs . Tradescant would hand over her husband ' s collection to its lawful owner . However , no mention of this interruption to

the friendship of Ashmole and Mrs . Tradescant is made in the other accounts I have read , and probably the reader will agree with me that the more peaceful version is also the preferable one . At all events , the narration of what is undoubtedly a fact , no matter how it was brought about , namely , that Ashmole became the fortunate possessor of the famous Tradescant collection , brings us to the commencement of the year , 1660 , when the Stuarts , in the person of

Charles II ., were restored to the Throne , and Ashmole , as I hope I shall be able show in the second portion of this paper , became a far more important person , and enjoyed a far larger share of public attention than he had done hitherto . ( To be continued . )